Fundamental Limits of Quantum Sensors for Gravitational Wave Detection

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the fundamental physical limits of quantum sensors for gravitational wave detection, identifying the most promising coupling mechanism and quantifying potential quantum enhancements for different detector types.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical framework for understanding how quantum sensors can detect gravitational waves, highlighting the dominant light propagation coupling mechanism and its impact on sensitivity.

Findings

Light propagation coupling provides the largest transducer gain.

Quantum enhancement is limited by the detector's noise architecture.

Ground-based detectors can achieve up to 2.4 times sensitivity improvement.

Abstract

Recent advances in quantum sensing -- optical clocks at $5.5\times 10^{-19}$ systematic uncertainty, frequency-dependent squeezing below the standard quantum limit, quantum magnetometers approaching fundamental sensitivity limits -- raise a natural question: can these technologies detect gravitational waves directly, or enhance existing detectors beyond current capabilities? We show that the answer is primarily determined by the \emph{coupling mechanism} between the gravitational wave and the sensor. Starting from the tidal Hamiltonian in Fermi normal coordinates, we identify three physically distinct coupling mechanisms and derive their transducer gains within linearized general relativity and non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Internal atomic coupling (tidal distortion of electronic wavefunctions) yields a transducer gain $G_A = 2.4\times 10^{-20}$, with vanishing first-order energy shifts for all $J=0$ clock states -- a $\sim\!10^{35}$ deficit relative to laser interferometry that exceeds any projected quantum enhancement. Center-of-mass coupling (Doppler shifts from geodesic motion) reaches strain sensitivities of $\sim\!10^{-18}$, still $10^4$ above LISA requirements. Light propagation coupling (phase accumulation over macroscopic baselines) provides the enormous transducer gain that makes laser interferometry -- and atom interferometry -- viable. For detectors exploiting this third mechanism, we quantify how much improvement quantum sensors can provide through the detector's noise architecture: LISA's noise budget is $\sim\!91\%$ classical, limiting combined quantum enhancement to $\mathcal{E} \approx 1.04$, while ground-based detectors in the shot-noise-dominated regime achieve $\mathcal{E} = 1.8$--$2.4$. Atom interferometers exploit the same light-propagation mechanism to uniquely access the 0.01--10~Hz band.