Experimental quantum-computing-enhanced sensing using Grover's algorithm
Abstract
The combination of quantum sensing with quantum computing to provide an enhancement over conventional quantum sensing has recently emerged as a promising potential application of quantum computing that could give advantages without needing large-scale or fault-tolerant hardware. In this work, we report an experimental demonstration of a recent theoretical proposal to repurpose Grover's search algorithm to improve the ability to detect signals with unknown frequency within a large detection bandwidth. Our experiments were based on a system comprising a single superconducting qubit coupled to a single superconducting cavity, highlighting the modest hardware requirements for realizing the protocol. We found that Grover-based sensing was able to outperform the natural non-Grover baseline for our experimental platform for detection bandwidths >10~MHz, with an advantage that empirically grew superlinearly with the bandwidth beyond that break-even point. The use of the Grover-based protocol reduced the amount of signal that needed to be sensed to make an accurate detection decision by more than 10× for choices of larger detection bandwidth and higher desired detection accuracy. Our results provide a proof-of-principle validation that Grover-based quantum computational sensing can be realized in near-term hardware and provide a metrological advantage well beyond break-even in spite of the additional protocol complexity.
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BibTeX
@misc{ouellet2026experimental,
title = {{Experimental quantum-computing-enhanced sensing using Grover's algorithm}},
author = {Mathieu Ouellet and Purnendu Sen and Xiangqin Wang and Saswata Roy and Xingrui Song and Vladimir Kremenetski and Sridhar Prabhu and Valla Fatemi and Peter L. McMahon},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.35016},
eprint = {2609.35016},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35016},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Experimental quantum-computing-enhanced sensing using Grover's algorithm
AU - Mathieu Ouellet
AU - Purnendu Sen
AU - Xiangqin Wang
AU - Saswata Roy
AU - Xingrui Song
AU - Vladimir Kremenetski
AU - Sridhar Prabhu
AU - Valla Fatemi
AU - Peter L. McMahon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.35016
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35016
AB - The combination of quantum sensing with quantum computing to provide an enhancement over conventional quantum sensing has recently emerged as a promising potential application of quantum computing that could give advantages without needing large-scale or fault-tolerant hardware. In this work, we report an experimental demonstration of a recent theoretical proposal to repurpose Grover's search algorithm to improve the ability to detect signals with unknown frequency within a large detection bandwidth. Our experiments were based on a system comprising a single superconducting qubit coupled to a single superconducting cavity, highlighting the modest hardware requirements for realizing the protocol. We found that Grover-based sensing was able to outperform the natural non-Grover baseline for our experimental platform for detection bandwidths >10~MHz, with an advantage that empirically grew superlinearly with the bandwidth beyond that break-even point. The use of the Grover-based protocol reduced the amount of signal that needed to be sensed to make an accurate detection decision by more than 10× for choices of larger detection bandwidth and higher desired detection accuracy. Our results provide a proof-of-principle validation that Grover-based quantum computational sensing can be realized in near-term hardware and provide a metrological advantage well beyond break-even in spite of the additional protocol complexity.
ER -