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arXiv:2607.23573 · Entropy

Quantum Speed Limits and the Ultimate Scaling of the Quantum Sensors

Yusef Maleki

quant-phSubmitted Jul 26, 2026• Announced Jul 28, 2026• 1 citation
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Abstract

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.

Journal reference
Entropy, 28(8), 836 2026
DOI
10.3390/e28080836
Comments
9 pages, 1 figure

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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 mmm-photon resonance. In this setting, the phase error scales as n−m/2n^{-m/2}n−m/2, where nnn 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/n1/n1/n scaling to quantum entanglement. We show that such an attribution is not generic and the Heisenberg 1/n1/n1/n scaling does not, by itself, certify entanglement as the enabling resource.
Quantum metrology promises improved sensitivity in parameter estimation over classical procedures. However, there is a debate over the question of how the sensitivity scales with the resources and the number of queries that are used in estimation procedures. Here, we reconcile the physical definition of the relevant resources used in parameter estimation with the information-theoretical scaling in terms of the query complexity of a quantum network. This leads to a completely general optimality proof of the Heisenberg limit for quantum metrology. We give an example of how our proof resolves paradoxes that suggest sensitivities beyond the Heisenberg limit, and we show that the Heisenberg limit is an information-theoretic interpretation of the Margolus-Levitin bound, rather than Heisenberg's uncertainty relation.
Questions about quantum limits on measurement precision were once viewed from the perspective of how to reduce or avoid the effects of quantum noise. With the advent of quantum information science came a paradigm shift to proving rigorous bounds on measurement precision. These bounds have been interpreted as saying, first, that the best achievable sensitivity scales as 1/n, where n is the number of particles one has available for a measurement and, second, that the only way to achieve this Heisenberg-limited sensitivity is to use quantum entanglement. We review these results and show that using quadratic couplings of n particles to a parameter to be estimated, one can achieve sensitivities that scale as 1/n^2 if one uses entanglement, but even in the absence of any entanglement at any time during the measurement protocol, one can achieve a super-Heisenberg scaling of 1/n^(3/2)
Surpassing the standard quantum limit and even reaching the Heisenberg limit using quantum entanglement, represents the Holy Grail of quantum metrology. However, quantum entanglement is a valuable resource that does not come without a price. The exceptional time overhead for the preparation of large-scale entangled states raises disconcerting concerns about whether the Heisenberg limit is fundamentally achievable. Here, we find a universal speed limit set by the Lieb-Robinson light cone for the quantum Fisher information growth to characterize the metrological potential of quantum resource states during their preparation. Our main result establishes a strong precision limit of quantum metrology accounting for the complexity of many-body quantum resource state preparation and reveals a fundamental constraint for reaching the Heisenberg limit in a generic many-body lattice system with bounded one-site energy. It enables us to identify the essential features of quantum many-body systems that are crucial for achieving the quantum advantage of quantum metrology, and brings an interesting connection between many-body quantum dynamics and quantum metrology.
There has been much interest in developing phase estimation schemes which beat the so-called Heisenberg limit, i.e., for which the phase resolution scales better than 1/n, where n is a measure of resources such as the average photon number or the number of atomic qubits. In particular, a number of nonlinear schemes have been proposed for which the resolution appears to scale as 1/n^k or even exp(-n), based on optimising the quantum Cramer-Rao bound. Such schemes include the use of entangled coherent states. However, it may be shown that the average root mean square errors of the proposed schemes (averaged over any prior distribution of phase shifts), cannot beat the Heisenberg limit, and that simple estimation schemes based on entangled coherent states cannot scale better than 1/n^{1/4}. This paradox is related to the role of 'bias' in Cramer-Rao bounds, and is only partially ameliorated via iterative implementations of the proposed schemes. The results are based on new information-theoretic bounds for the average information gain and error of any phase estimation scheme, and generalise to estimates of shifts generated by any operator having discrete eigenvalues.
Quantum metrology studies the use of entanglement and other quantum resources to improve precision measurement. An interferometer using N independent particles to measure a parameter χ can achieve at best the "standard quantum limit" (SQL) of sensitivity δχ ∝ N-1/2. The same interferometer using N entangled particles can achieve in principle the "Heisenberg limit" δχ ∝ N-1, using exotic states, e.g., NooN states. Recent theoretical work argues that interactions among particles may be a valuable resource for quantum metrology, allowing scaling beyond the Heisenberg limit. Specifically, a k-particle interaction will produce sensitivity δχ ∝ N-kwith appropriate entangled states and δχ ∝ N-(k-1/2)even without entanglement. Here we demonstrate this "super-Heisenberg" scaling in a nonlinear, non-destructive measurement of the magnetisation of an atomic ensemble.
The Heisenberg limit provides a fundamental bound on the achievable estimation precision with a limited number of NNN resources used (e.g., atoms, photons, etc.). Using entangled quantum states makes it possible to scale the precision with NNN better than when resources would be used independently. Consequently, the optimal use of all resources involves accumulating them in a single execution of the experiment. Unfortunately, that implies that the most common theoretical tool used to analyze metrological protocols - quantum Fisher information (QFI) - does not allow for a reliable description of this problem, as it becomes operationally meaningful only with multiple repetitions of the experiment. In this thesis, using the formalism of Bayesian estimation and the minimax estimator, I derive asymptotically saturable bounds on the precision of the estimation for the case of noiseless unitary evolution. For the case where the number of resources NNN is strictly constrained, I show that the final measurement uncertainty is πππ times larger than would be implied by a naive use of QFI. I also analyze the case where a constraint is imposed only on the average amount of resources, the exact value of which may fluctuate (in which case QFI does not provide any universal bound for precision). In both cases, I study the asymptotic saturability and the rate of convergence of these bounds. In the following part, I analyze the problem of the Heisenberg limit when multiple parameters are measured simultaneously on the same physical system. In particular, I investigate the existence of a gain from measuring all parameters simultaneously compared to distributing the same amount of resources to measure them independently. I focus on two examples - the measurement of multiple phase shifts in a multi-arm interferometer and the measurement of three magnetic field components.