The sensitivity of quantum sensors is fundamentally constrained by the standard quantum limit (SQL) arising from intrinsic quantum fluctuations. While non-classical resources like squeezing or entanglement can surpass this limit, their utility is often restricted by the extreme fragility of entangled states and the complexity of their preparation. Quantum criticality offers a compelling alternative by harnessing divergent susceptibility to amplify signals without requiring fragile non-classical resources. However, the practical benefit of this approach has remained controversial due to the potential for the simultaneous amplification of quantum noise. Here, we demonstrate a universal protocol for noiseless critical sensing by engineering a light-driven atomic ensemble near a dynamical critical point. Analogous to a Kapitza pendulum near its inverted orientation, the spin system enters a non-equilibrium regime where the signal susceptibility diverges while the quantum noise periodically recedes to its coherent baseline. We exploit this ``noise ebbing''to create a built-in noiseless amplifier, demonstrating a 3.3 dB metrological gain over the SQL in an atomic magnetometer. Our implementation exhibits intrinsic robustness against common experimental imperfections such as detection losses, establishing non-equilibrium critical dynamics as a practical and versatile paradigm for surpassing the fundamental limits of quantum sensing.
Quantum metrology promises sensitivity beyond classical strategies, yet it remains unsettled how quantum-enabled precision should scale with physical resources and how to interpret quantum advantage. We provide a physically grounded resource accounting that clarifies the true Heisenberg limit and resolves apparent super-Heisenberg paradoxes. We demonstrate that the Heisenberg limit is best viewed as an information-theoretic manifestation of the quantum speed limit. We illustrate these ideas with a simple, super-resolving phase estimation protocol based on Rabi oscillations in two-level atoms driven on an m-photon resonance. In this setting, the phase error scales as n−m/2, where n is the average photon number. Recasting metrological sensitivity through quantum dynamical speed limits yields operational bounds that reconcile such super-resolution strategies with the standard Heisenberg interpretation and identify the relevant resources in the norm of the generator. We also revisit the common attribution of the NOON state’s 1/n scaling to quantum entanglement. We show that such an attribution is not generic and the Heisenberg 1/n scaling does not, by itself, certify entanglement as the enabling resource.
Optical atomic magnetometry is a powerful tool for continuous sensing applications, yet, in the absence of quantum correlations, its sensitivity is limited by the standard quantum limit (SQL) stemming from a trade-off between optical probe imprecision and quantum measurement backaction. Beyond-SQL sensitivity requires quantum correlations that modify these measurement noise sources. Here we demonstrate such sensitivity by using entangled state of the probe light and by engineering correlations between measurement imprecision and backaction. Having first explored SQL in a broad range of frequencies, we demonstrate overcoming the limit by combining variational readout with coupling the magnetometer to one mode of a bipartite entangled light state and conditioning the results on the other entangled mode. Tuning the detected light quadratures and combining the signals from the two measurement channels, we achieve sensitivity beyond the SQL in a broad range of acoustic frequencies which has so far remained inaccessible to quantum-noise-limited optical magnetometry.
J. Jia, T. B. Brasil, M. Bocoum et al.· 0 citations
For testing quantum mechanics in the macroscopic domain, a major challenge is to devise effective means for enhancing the observable nonclassical signatures despite the ubiquitous presence of environmental decoherence. Toward this goal, we invoke the Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE) for achieving a tunable amplification of an inherently nonclassical quantum disturbance induced by any measurement. Such an enhancement of otherwise small and decoherence-suppressed nonclassicality can arise from the cumulative quantum disturbances generated by repetitive measurements, with the tunability of amplification controlled by the number of measurements. To evidence this, we formulate a testable loophole-free scheme using a massive oscillator, where the system preparation requires trapping and ground-state cooling of a massive object. The required measurements can be realized through a beam-splitter-type interaction between the mechanical oscillator and an optical field, followed by photon detection. Our analysis shows that such amplification, suitably quantified in terms of a testable witness, remains appreciably observable even in the realistic regimes of optomechanical damping, and for sufficiently large masses, thus enabling the demonstration of QZE in the macroscopic domain.
Debarshi Das, Pritam Roy, M. Toroš et al.· 0 citations
Localization-delocalization transitions have recently been proposed for building a class of efficient quantum many-body critical sensors. This work scrutinizes metrological performances of such devices by focusing on the Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper model that supports a localization-delocalization transition at finite strength of the onsite potential. We identify a metrological quantum-to-classical crossover driven by the interplay between noise and system size, whereby quantum-enhanced scaling of the quantum Fisher information persists only up to a finite, noise-dependent characteristic system-size. We first consider thermal noise and show that, at and near the localization-delocalization transition, the quantum Fisher information exhibits quantum-enhanced scaling for small systems but the system is stripped of this advantage beyond the characteristic crossover length. The crossover length decreases with increasing temperature. We then consider imperfections in the lattice hopping strengths and find a qualitatively similar crossover. There, the quantum-enhanced regime, identified with super-extensive scaling, gives way to an extensive scaling-a classical-limited weaker form-at sufficiently large system sizes. Thus, distinct noise mechanisms lead to a common limitation on the scalability of quantum-enhanced sensing: increasing the probe size beyond a noise-dependent limit can destroy the metrological quantum advantage.
Priya Ghosh, Debarupa Saha, Ujjwal Sen et al.· 0 citations
Quantum-enhanced sensing with atomic ensembles has predominantly focused on qubit-based protocols, despite the growing ability of many experimental platforms to coherently control and entangle multi-level systems. Here, we investigate quantum-enhanced sensing with qutrit ensembles by introducing three experimentally feasible qutrit generalisations of the one-axis twisting (OAT) model that involve entangling operations only between two levels, while the third level primarily acts as a spectator. We characterize the metrological utility of the dynamically generated states using the quantum Fisher information toolbox. We find numerically that all three models offer considerable freedom in encoding direction for quantum-enhanced sensing, with up to 6 out of 8 possible directions exhibit near-Heisenberg scaling after a short evolution time. We discuss experimental access to this enhanced metrological precision via effective time-reversal protocols. Furthermore, we examine the practical issues of estimation ambiguity and local dissipation, and show that they can be largely overcome by optimizing the sensor operating point. Finally, we show that the measurement incompatibility in estimating multiple parameters simultaneously encoded in different directions with near-Heisenberg scaling of precision is suppressed at the zero operating point as the system size increases. In the process, we find that one of the models enables near-Heisenberg scaling metrology with a pair of commuting generators, a possibility that arises from the $su(3)$ algebra and is thus absent in qubit-ensemble based sensors of collective $SU(2)$ rotations.
Deepshikha Datta, Sayam Chakraborty, J. D. Wilson et al.· 0 citations
Non-Hermitian dynamics can sharply amplify the response of a quantum sensor near eigenstate coalescence, but whether this amplification yields a genuine metrological gain depends on how the non-unitary evolution is physically realised and how its resources are counted. We address this question experimentally by implementing the pseudo-Hermitian qubit sensing protocol of Chu
et al
. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 020501 (2020)] on a two-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance processor via Naimark dilation. Because both the postselected signal and the full two-qubit probability are obtained from a single set of population measurements, the enhanced response and its postselection cost are accessed within the same experiment. We observe the characteristic steep response of the postselected branch, whereas the sensitivity extracted from the absolute two-qubit probability does not surpass the Ramsey benchmark for the same sensor encoding, consistent with the theoretical resource bound derived by Ding
et al
. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 160801 (2023)] for the corresponding dilation scheme. The experiment complements the recent photonic implementation of the direct non-unitary route and provides an experimental benchmark of the Hermitian-dilation route with explicit resource accounting.
Y. Zhai, Chao Wei, Junda Song et al.· Chinese Physics B· 0 citations
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