Improving the precision and efficiency of an optical telescope array by the piecemeal method
Abstract
Angular localization of remote optical objects is a fundamental challenge in fields such as remote sensing and astrometry. We propose the piecemeal method for telescope array, with explicit formulas showing strictly its key advantages: higher precision, efficiency and robustness, which are further confirmed by numerical simulations. Specifically, our method achieves a 10⁴ precision improvement with 10⁵ photon number reduction compared to existing telescope arrays, and achieves precision improvements of 10³ and 10² over the Gaia telescope and the ultimate quantum limit for incoherent imaging, respectively, under comparable photon numbers. We have also presented a reference-object-based implementation framework for our method that seamlessly integrates with existing optical interferometric systems.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Figshare
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026