Quantum-enhanced metrology surpasses classical metrology by improving estimation precision scaling with a resource $N$ (e.g., particle number or energy) from $1/\sqrt{N}$ to $1/N$. Through the use of nonlinear effects, Roy and Braunstein [Exponentially enhanced quantum metrology, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 220501 (2008)] derived a $1/2^N$ scaling. However, later works argued this exponential improvement is unphysical and that even modest gains, like $1/N^2$, may vanish under noise. We show that, in the presence of small errors, the nonlinear interactions enabling metrological enhancement induce emergent errors. The errors propagate through the sensing protocol and are magnified proportional to any intended nonlinear enhancement. We identify a critical value of the parameter to be estimated, for a fixed error, below which the emergent errors can be avoided.

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• Quantum Fisher information
• Quantum communication, protocols & technology
• Quantum error correction
• Quantum measurements
• Quantum metrology
• Quantum optics
• Quantum parameter estimation
• Quantum sensing