Heisenberg-limited metrology enabled by a quantum quench of the ground-state squeezing of a magnon mode

The emerging field of quantum magnonics seeks to understand and harness the quantum properties of magnons---quantized collective spin excitations in magnets. Squeezed magnon states arise naturally as the equilibrium ground states of anisotropic ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, representing an important class of nonclassical magnon states. In this work, we show how a qubit-conditioned quantum quench of the magnon system can be used for Heisenberg-limited parameter estimation based on measurements of the qubit. In the presence of ground-state squeezing, the protocol yields information about an unknown frequency of the coupled magnon-qubit system, whereas no information is gained in the absence of such squeezing. The protocol therefore leverages genuine quantum correlations in the form of magnonic squeezing while simultaneously relying on the equilibrium character of this squeezing---a feature distinctive to magnetic systems.