Optimizing quantum sensing networks via genetic algorithms and deep learning

TL;DR

This paper uses genetic algorithms and deep learning to optimize quantum sensing network topologies, revealing size-dependent limits on estimation precision and emphasizing the importance of topology over size.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid evolutionary and neural network approach to optimize quantum sensor networks, demonstrating size-related effects on sensing performance.

Findings

QFI initially increases with system size but saturates and declines beyond a critical size.

Optimal network size balances quantum enhancement and classical scaling.

Quantum interference causes oscillations in spectral sensitivity and QFI.

Abstract

We investigate the optimization of graph topologies for quantum sensing networks designed to estimate weak magnetic fields. The sensors are modeled as spin systems governed by a transverse-field Ising Hamiltonian in thermal equilibrium at low temperatures. Using a genetic algorithm (GA), we evolve network topologies to maximize a perturbative spectral sensitivity measure, which serves as the fitness function for the GA. For the best-performing graphs, we compute the corresponding quantum Fisher information (QFI) to assess the ultimate bounds on estimation precision. To enable efficient scaling, we use the GA-generated data to train a deep neural network, allowing extrapolation to larger graph sizes where direct computation becomes prohibitive. Our results show that while both the fitness function and QFI initially increase with system size, the QFI exhibits a clear non-monotonic behavior - saturating and eventually declining beyond a critical graph size. This reflects the loss of superlinear scaling of the QFI, as the narrowing of the energy gap signals a crossover to classical scaling of the QFI with system size. The effect is reminiscent of the microeconomic law of diminishing returns: beyond an optimal graph size, further increases yield reduced sensing performance. This saturation and decline in precision are particularly pronounced under Kac scaling, where both the QFI and spin squeezing plateau or degrade with increasing system size. We also attribute observed even-odd oscillations in the spectral sensitivity measure and QFI to quantum interference effects in spin phase space, as confirmed by our phase-space analysis. These findings highlight the critical role of optimizing interaction topology - rather than simply increasing network size - and demonstrate the potential of hybrid evolutionary and learning-based approaches for designing high-performance quantum sensors.