Enhanced avionic sensing based on Wigner's cusp anomalies

Abstract

Typical sensors detect small perturbations by measuring their effects on a physical observable, using a linear response principle (LRP). It turns out that once LRP is abandoned, new opportunities emerge. A prominent example is resonant systems operating near Nth-order exceptional point degeneracies (EPDs) where a small perturbation ϵ ≪ 1 activates an inherent sublinear response ∼ N√ - ϵ ≫ ϵ in resonant splitting. Here, we propose an alternative sublinear optomechanical sensing scheme that is rooted in Wigner's cusp anomalies (WCAs), first discussed in the framework of nuclear reactions: A frequency-dependent square-root singularity of the differential scattering cross section around the energy threshold of a newly opened channel, which we use to amplify small perturbations. WCA hypersensitivity can be applied in a variety of sensing applications, besides optomechanical accelerometry discussed in this paper. Our WCA platforms are compact, do not require a judicious arrangement of active elements (unlike EPD platforms), and, if chosen, can be cavity free.