Scaling Enhancement in Distributed Quantum Sensing via Causal Order Switching
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.14708 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 21 Jan 2026] Title:Scaling Enhancement in Distributed Quantum Sensing via Causal Order Switching Authors:Binke Xia, Zhaotong Cui, Jingzheng Huang, Yuxiang Yang, Guihua Zeng View a PDF of the paper titled Scaling Enhancement in Distributed Quantum Sensing via Causal Order Switching, by Binke Xia and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Sensing networks underpin applications from fundamental physics to real-world engineering. Recently, distributed quantum sensing (DQS) has been investigated to boost the sensing performance, yet current schemes typically rely on entangled probes that are fragile to noise and difficult to scale. Here, we propose a DQS protocol that incorporates a causal-order switch into a cyclic network, enabling a single probe to sequentially query N independent sensors in a coherent superposition or a probabilistic mixture of opposite causal orders. By exploiting the noncommutativity between propagation and sensing processes, our scheme achieves a 1/N^2-scaling precision limit without involving entangled probes. Importantly, our approach utilizes a classical mixture of causal orders rather than a quantum switch, making it more feasible for practical realization. We experimentally implement this scheme for distributed beam tilts sensing in a free-space quantum optical network comprising up to 9 sensors, achieving picoradian-scale precision in estimating tilt angle. Our results demonstrate a robust and scalable DQS protocol that surpasses the conventional 1/N Heisenberg scaling in precision, advancing the practical deployment of quantum sensing networks. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Optics (physics.optics) Cite as: arXiv:2601.14708 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.14708v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.14708 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Binke Xia [view email] [v1] Wed, 21 Jan 2026 06:54:08 UTC (6,382 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Scaling Enhancement in Distributed Quantum Sensing via Causal Order Switching, by Binke Xia and 4 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 Change to browse by: physics physics.optics References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)