Improving precision scaling via backaction-evading continuous measurement in a driven-dissipative Kerr parametric oscillator

Abstract

Dissipative phase transitions in the driven-dissipative Kerr parametric oscillator offer a promising route for realizing criticality-enhanced quantum sensing based on continuous measurements. However, achieving such enhancement through realistic measurement schemes remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we extend the backaction-evasion strategy introduced in our earlier work for the Gaussian linear case [arXiv:2511.22248 (2025)] to analyze how the quantum and classical Fisher information scale with the Kerr nonlinearity at dissipative critical points. Our results show that backaction-evading homodyne monitoring achieves enhanced photon-number scaling that surpasses the standard quantum limit, and significantly outperforms alternative protocols such as continuous photon counting. As an additional methodological contribution, we also implement and benchmark time-discrete approximation schemes with improved statistical convergence properties. We use these methods to compute the classical Fisher information for continuous homodyne detection, and demonstrate that they provide efficient access to this quantity near dissipative critical points, thereby extending the reach of existing methods.