Active optical media leading to interaction Hamiltonians of the form $ H = tilde{lambda}, (a + a^{dagger})^{zeta}$ represent a crucial resource for quantum optical technology. In this paper, we address the characterization of those nonlinear media using quantum probes, as opposed to semiclassical ones. In particular, we investigate how squeezed probes may improve individual and joint estimation of the nonlinear coupling $tilde{lambda}$ and of the nonlinearity order $zeta$. Upon using tools from quantum estimation, we show that: i) the two parameters are compatible, i.e. the may be jointly estimated without additional quantum noise; ii) the use of squeezed probes improves precision at fixed overall energy of the probe; iii) for low energy probes, squeezed vacuum represent the most convenient choice, whereas for increasing energy an optimal squeezing fraction may be determined; iv) using optimized quantum probes, the scaling of the corresponding precision with energy improves, both for individual and joint estimation of the two parameters, compared to semiclassical coherent probes. We conclude that quantum probes represent a resource to enhance precision in the characterization of nonlinear media, and foresee potential applications with current technology.
The estimation of more than one parameter in quantum mechanics is a fundamental problem with relevant practical applications. In fact, the ultimate limits in the achievable estimation precision are ultimately linked with the non-commutativity of different observables, a peculiar property of quantum mechanics. We here consider several estimation problems for qubit systems and evaluate the corresponding quantumness R, a measure that has been recently introduced in order to quantify how much incompatible are the parameters to be estimated. In particular, R is an upper bound for the renormalized difference between the (asymptotically achievable) Holevo bound and the SLD Cramer-Rao bound (i.e. the matrix generalization of the single-parameter quantum Cramer-Rao bound). For all the estimation problems considered, we evaluate the quantumness R and, in order to better understand its usefulness in characterizing a multiparameter quantum statistical model, we compare it with the renormalized difference between the Holevo and the SLD-bound. Our results give evidence that R is a useful quantity to characterize multiparameter estimation problems, as for several quantum statistical model it is equal to the difference between the bounds and, in general, their behaviour qualitatively coincide. On the other hand, we also find evidence that for certain quantum statistical models the bound is not in tight, and thus R may overestimate the degree of quantum incompatibility between parameters.
We address the dephasing dynamics of a qubit as an effective process to estimate the temperature of its environment. Our scheme is inherently quantum, since it exploits the sensitivity of the qubit to decoherence, and does not require thermalization with the system under investigation. We optimize the quantum Fisher information with respect to the interaction time and the temperature in the case of Ohmic-like environments. We also find explicitly the qubit measurement achieving the quantum Cramer- Rao bound to precision. Our results show that the conditions for optimal estimation originate from a non-trivial interplay between the dephasing dynamics and the Ohmic structure of the environment. In general, optimal estimation is achieved neither when the qubit approaches the stationary state, nor for full dephasing.
