Quantum-enhanced atomic gyroscope with tunable precision

We model a gyroscope that exploits quantum effects in an atomic Bose–Einstein condensate to gain a tunable enhancement in precision. Current inertial navigation systems rely on the Sagnac effect using unentangled photons in fibre-optic systems and there are proposals for improving how the precision scales with the number of particles by using entanglement. Here we exploit a different route based on sharp resonances associated with quantum phase transitions. By adjusting the interaction between the particles and/or the shape of their trapping potential we are able to tune the width of the resonance and hence the precision of the measurement. Here we show how we can use this method to increase the overall sensitivity of a gyroscope by adjusting the system parameters as the measurement proceeds and our knowledge of the rotation improves. We illustrate this with an example where the precision is enhanced by a factor of more than 20 over the case without tuning, after 100 repetitions. Metrology schemes with tunable precision based on quantum phase transitions could offer an important complementary method to other quantum-enhanced measurement and sensing schemes.