Time uncertainty and fundamental sensitivity limits in quantum sensing: application to optomechanical gravimetry
Summarize this article with:
Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.18524 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 20 Feb 2026] Title:Time uncertainty and fundamental sensitivity limits in quantum sensing: application to optomechanical gravimetry Authors:Salman Sajad Wani, Saif Al-Kuwari, Arshid Shabir, Paolo Vezio, Francesco Marino, Mir Faizal View a PDF of the paper titled Time uncertainty and fundamental sensitivity limits in quantum sensing: application to optomechanical gravimetry, by Salman Sajad Wani and Saif Al-Kuwari and Arshid Shabir and Paolo Vezio and Francesco Marino and Mir Faizal View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:High-sensitivity accelerometers and gravimeters, achieving the ultimate limits of measurement sensitivity are key tools for advancing both fundamental and applied physics. While numerous platforms have been proposed to achieve this goal, from atom interferometers to optomechanical systems, all of these studies neglect the effects of intrinsic quantum uncertainty in time estimation. Starting from the Hamiltonian of a generic linear quantum sensor, we derive the two-parameter quantum Fisher information matrix and establish the corresponding Cram'er-Rao bound, treating time as an uncertain (nuisance) parameter. Our analysis reveals a fundamental coupling between time and signal estimation that inherently degrades measurement sensitivity, with the standard single-parameter quantum limit recovered only at specific interrogation times or under special decoupling conditions. We then apply these results to an optomechanical gravimeter and explicitly derive an optimal decoupling condition under which the effects of time uncertainty are averaged out in a continuous measurement scheme. Our approach is general and can be readily extended to a broad class of quantum sensors. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2602.18524 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.18524v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.18524 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Related DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/nn67-9tph Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Salman Wani Mr [view email] [v1] Fri, 20 Feb 2026 01:19:25 UTC (177 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Time uncertainty and fundamental sensitivity limits in quantum sensing: application to optomechanical gravimetry, by Salman Sajad Wani and Saif Al-Kuwari and Arshid Shabir and Paolo Vezio and Francesco Marino and Mir FaizalView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 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?)