The membrane system will start as a single sensor and be upgraded to a four-sensor network, with entangled light serving as the communication channel between sensors.

The Rydberg platform relies on blockade interactions to create entangled states and seek quadratic gains in sensitivity, while the membrane platform uses ultracold, low-noise conditions and entangled light to surpass classical limits.

Two experimental testbeds will validate the approaches: a 25-qubit Rydberg-atom array led by Princeton’s Jeff Thompson (scalable to hundreds of qubits) and a membrane-based sensor system led by UMich’s Zheshen Zhang, cooled to about 0.1 Kelvin and connected with entangled light.

A major project aims to push quantum entanglement into distributed sensor networks to boost sensitivity and data acquisition beyond classical limits, with potential use in atomic clocks, GPS-denied navigation, and magnetic/RF field sensing, and it could lay groundwork for a quantum internet.

The effort will advance quantum networking techniques, including error suppression and correction, and will explore both discrete and continuous-variable entangled sensing.

If successful, the work could enable quadratic scaling of precision with the number of sensors, accelerating progress toward a quantum internet and transforming metrology and quantum information science.

The Rydberg-atom platform will use pairs of entangled atoms, while the optomechanical membrane platform will explore continuous-variable entangled light fields to link sensors.

Co-principal investigators span the partner universities, coordinating across disciplines to build the foundation, building blocks, and testbeds for discrete and continuous-variable sensing networks.

This is a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative uniting U-M with several collaborating universities to develop entangled sensor networks.

If realized, the program could enable quadratic improvements in measurement precision with sensor count, catalyze quantum networking via entanglement distribution, and drive advances in metrology and quantum information science for decades.

Researchers from multiple institutions, including the University of Michigan, Princeton, the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland, the University of Arizona, and USC, are collaborating under the project title focused on distributed entangled quantum sensing.

The goal is to improve sensor-network resolution and speed by leveraging entanglement, aiming for improvements that scale with the square of the sensor count rather than the square root.