Do Quantum Measurement Advantages Survive to Astrophysical Inference? Seven Benchmarks in Optical Interferometry and Imaging

Abstract

Quantum techniques matter to optical astronomy when they preserve information in the parameter-bearing measurement channel after realistic loss, calibration, covariance, and inference are propagated to the final astrophysical observable. We compare 7 approaches by the quantity they change: internal optical-path delay, sub-Rayleigh source separation, coronagraphic planet throughput & stellar leakage, coherent field quadratures, nonlocal complex visibility, null depth, active phase sensing. In an Earth-analog astrometry case, 6-dB squeezed internal metrology improves the measured phase quadrature by 1.58 and the complete readout by ~1.20, but fixed-time planet-mass precision by only 1.010 (95 % interval 1.005-1.045); mission duration, useful baseline, cadence, calibration have greater modeled leverage. For a close young binary, signed spatial-mode demultiplexing preserves sub-Rayleigh orbital information that is substantially degraded in the tested direct-imaging comparator. A representative matched-model calculation gives a dynamical-mass RMSE gain 1.77 1.47-2.15). For illustrative equal-prior pre-main-sequence predictions at 0.10 and \(0.12M_\odot\), mass precisions of 15%, 10%, 7% correspond to correct-selection probabilities of ~73%, 82%, 90%. The numerical gain remains provisional because the event-level continuous-image comparator, strict tail convergence, externally measured broadband transfer matrix, and finite-photon calibration are not yet closed. Modal coronagraphy and quantum-enhanced heterodyne reception define conditional receiver opportunities, while the nonlocal, nuller, and prepared-NOON cases identify physical bottlenecks that prevent an astrophysical advantage in the stated configurations. The common result is that quantum technology is most valuable when it changes an information-bearing observable and that channel remains consequential in the final science measurement.