Fundamental limits for reciprocal and non-reciprocal non-Hermitian quantum sensing

Abstract: Non-Hermitian dynamics has been widely studied to enhance the precision of quantum sensing; and non-reciprocity can be a powerful resource for non-Hermitian quantum sensing, as non-reciprocity allows to arbitrarily exceed the fundamental bound on the measurement rate of any reciprocal sensors. Here we establish fundamental limits on signal-to-noise ratio for reciprocal and non-reciprocal non-Hermitian quantum sensing. In particular, for two-mode linear systems with two coherent drives, an approximately attainable uniform bound on the best possible measurement rate per photon is derived for both reciprocal and non-reciprocal sensors. This bound is only related to the coupling coefficients and, in principle, can be made arbitrarily large. Our results thus demonstrate that a conventional reciprocal sensor with two drives can simulate any non-reciprocal sensor. This work also demonstrates a clear signature on how the excitation signals affect the signal-to-noise ratio in non-Hermitian quantum sensing.