Fundamental Limits of Continuous Gaussian Quantum Metrology

Abstract: Continuous quantum metrology holds promise for realizing high-precision sensing by harnessing information progressively carried away by the radiation quanta emitted into the environment. Despite recent progress, a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental precision limits of continuous metrology with bosonic systems is currently lacking. We develop a general theoretical framework for quantum metrology with multimode free bosons under continuous Gaussian measurements. We derive analytical expressions for the asymptotic growth rates of the global quantum Fisher information (QFI) and the environmental QFI, which quantify the total information encoded in the joint system-environment state and the information accessible from the emitted radiation, respectively. We derive fundamental bounds on these quantities, showing that while Heisenberg-type scaling with the number of modes is attainable, the precision scales at most linearly with time and a meaningful energy resource. To illustrate our findings, we analyze several concrete setups, including coupled cavity arrays and trapped particle arrays. While a local setup yields a standard linear scaling with resources, a globally coupled setup can achieve the optimal quadratic scaling in terms of the mode number. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a nonreciprocal setup can leverage the non-Hermitian skin effect to realize an exponentially enhanced global QFI. Notably, however, this enhancement cannot be reflected in the environmental QFI, highlighting a fundamental distinction between the information stored within the joint state and the information radiated into the environment. These findings establish an understanding of the resource trade-offs and scaling behaviors in continuous bosonic sensing.