Quantum states for Heisenberg-limited interferometry

Abstract

The phase resolution of interferometers is limited by the so-called Heisenberg limit, which states that the optimum phase sensitivity is inversely proportional to the number of interfering particles N, a 1/sqrt{N} improvement over the standard quantum limit. We have used simulated annealing, a global optimization strategy, to systematically search for quantum interferometer input states that approach the Heisenberg limited uncertainty in estimates of the interferometer phase shift. We compare the performance of these states to that of other non-classical states already known to yield Heisenberg limited uncertainty.