Parameter Estimation from Amplitude Collapse in Correlated Matter-Wave Interference

Abstract

Operating matter-wave interferometers as quantum detectors for fundamental physics or inertial sensors with unprecedented accuracies relies on noise rejection, often implemented by correlating multiple sensors. They can be spatially separated (gradiometry or gravitational-wave detection) or consist of different internal states (magnetometry or quantum clock interferometry), with a signal-amplitude modulation serving as a signature of a differential phase. In this work, we introduce Parameter Estimation from Amplitude Collapse (PEAC) by applying statistical inference techniques for different magnetically sensitive substates of an atom interferometer. We demonstrate that PEAC provides higher trueness, resulting in a substantially reduced bias compared to standard methods for perfectly correlated signals, while achieving competitive precision near, but not at, vanishing amplitudes. This indicates that vanishing signals do not constitute the most favourable working point for high-accuracy sensing, relevant to quantum clock interferometry. PEAC presents a generally applicable complementary evaluation method for correlated interferometers without phase stability, increasing the overall accuracy and enabling applications beyond atom-based interferometry.