Quantum Ranging with Gaussian Entanglement

Abstract

It is well known that entanglement can benefit quantum information processing tasks. Quantum illumination, when first proposed, was surprising as the entanglement's benefit survived entanglement-breaking noise. Since then, many efforts have been devoted to study quantum sensing in noisy scenarios. The applicability of such schemes, however, is limited to a binary quantum hypothesis testing scenario. In terms of target detection, such schemes interrogate a single spatiotemporal resolution bin at a time, limiting the impact to radar detection. We resolve this binary-hypothesis limitation by proposing an entanglement-assisted quantum ranging protocol. By formulating a ranging task as a multiary hypothesis testing problem, we show that entanglement enables a 6-dB advantage in the error exponent against the optimal classical scheme. Moreover, the proposed ranging protocol can also be used to implement a pulse-position modulated entanglement-assisted communication protocol. Our ranging protocol reveals entanglement's potential in general quantum hypothesis testing tasks and paves the way toward a quantum-ranging radar with a provable quantum advantage. © 2021 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.