Quantum Gyroscope

The quantum gyroscope is an idea invented by Jon Dowling in our group. If two particles, entangled in a special way, are fed into a two-port Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the phase sensitivity scales as the Heisenberg limited DELTA phi = O(1/N) where N is the number of particles incident per unit time. In a one-port device the phase sensitivity scales, at best, as DELTA phi = O(1/Sqrt[N]). Calculations suggest that the two-input port optical quantum gyroscope ought to be about 10^8 (one hundred million) times more sensitive to rotations than a one-input port optical gyroscope. Such an increase in sensitivity will be vital in future missions that must navigate dense asteroid fields or debris thrown off from comets. Moreover, quantum gyroscopes might also enable new classes of Earth-observing missions based on detecting minute gravitational deviations and may help in pointing the arms of massive space-borne interferometers that are planned to obtain high resolution images of planets orbiting stars in other solar systems. Quantum gyroscopes will also facilitate new tests of general relativity. Thus, for NASA, the confluence of quantum computing techniques and optical gyroscopy has the potential to be "mission-enabling", i.e., to allow entirely new types of mission to be conducted.

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