In this article we derive a measure of quantumness in quantum multi-parameter estimation problems. We can show that the ratio between the mean Uhlmann Curvature and the Fisher Information provides a figure of merit which estimates the amount of incompatibility arising from the quantum nature of the underlying physical system. This ratio accounts for the discrepancy between the attainable precision in the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters and the precision predicted by the Cramer-Rao bound. As a testbed for this concept, we consider a quantum many-body system in thermal equilibrium, and explore the quantum compatibility of the model across its phase diagram.
When collective measurements on an infinite number of copies of identical quantum states can be performed, the precision limit of multi-parameter quantum estimation is quantified by the Holevo bound. In practice, however, the collective measurements are always restricted to a finite number of quantum states, under which the precision limit is still poorly understood. Here we provide an approach to study the multi-parameter quantum estimation with general $p$-local measurement where the collective measurements are restricted to at most $p$ copies of quantum states. We demonstrate the power of the approach by providing a hierarchy of nontrivial tradeoff relations for multi-parameter quantum estimation which quantify the incompatibilities of general $p$-local measurement. These tradeoff relations also provide a necessary condition for the saturation of the quantum Cramer-Rao bound under $p$-local measurement, which is shown reducing to the weak commutative condition when $prightarrow infty$. To further demonstrate the versatility of the approach, we also derive another set of tradeoff relations in terms of the right logarithmic operators(RLD).
The quantum Fisher information constrains the achievable precision in parameter estimation via the quantum Cramer-Rao bound, which has attracted much attention in Hermitian systems since the 60s of the last century. However, less attention has been paid to non-Hermitian systems. In this Letter, working with different logarithmic operators, we derive two previously unknown expressions for quantum Fisher information, and two Cramer-Rao bounds lower than the well-known one are found for non-Hermitian systems. These lower bounds are due to the merit of non-Hermitian observable and it can be understood as a result of extended regimes of optimization. Two experimentally feasible examples are presented to illustrate the theory, saturation of these bounds and estimation precisions beyond the Heisenberg limit are predicted and discussed. A setup to measure non-Hermitian observable is also proposed.
This review aims at gathering the most relevant quantum multi-parameter estimation methods that go beyond the direct use of the Quantum Fisher Information concept. We discuss in detail the Holevo Cramer-Rao bound, the Quantum Local Asymptotic Normality approach as well as Bayesian methods. Even though the fundamental concepts in the field have been laid out more than forty years ago, a number of important results have appeared much more recently. Moreover, the field drew increased attention recently thanks to advances in practical quantum metrology proposals and implementations that often involve estimation of multiple parameters simultaneously. Since these topics are spread in the literature and often served in a very formal mathematical language, one of the main goals of this review is to provide a largely self-contained work that allows the reader to follow most of the derivations and get an intuitive understanding of the interrelations between different concepts using a set of simple yet representative examples involving qubit and Gaussian shift models.
Quantum metrology holds the promise of an early practical application of quantum technologies, in which measurements of physical quantities can be made with much greater precision than what is achievable with classical technologies. In this review, we collect some of the key theoretical results in quantum parameter estimation by presenting the theory for the quantum estimation of a single parameter, multiple parameters, and optical estimation using Gaussian states. We give an overview of results in areas of current research interest, such as Bayesian quantum estimation, noisy quantum metrology, and distributed quantum sensing. We address the question how minimum measurement errors can be achieved using entanglement as well as more general quantum states. This review is presented from a geometric perspective. This has the advantage that it unifies a wide variety of estimation procedures and strategies, thus providing a more intuitive big picture of quantum parameter estimation.
With an ever-expanding ecosystem of noisy and intermediate-scale quantum devices, exploring their possible applications is a rapidly growing field of quantum information science. In this work, we demonstrate that variational quantum algorithms feasible on such devices address a challenge central to the field of quantum metrology: The identification of near-optimal probes and measurement operators for noisy multi-parameter estimation problems. We first introduce a general framework which allows for sequential updates of variational parameters to improve probe states and measurements and is widely applicable to both discrete and continuous-variable settings. We then demonstrate the practical functioning of the approach through numerical simulations, showcasing how tailored probes and measurements improve over standard methods in the noisy regime. Along the way, we prove the validity of a general parameter-shift rule for noisy evolutions, expected to be of general interest in variational quantum algorithms. In our approach, we advocate the mindset of quantum-aided design, exploiting quantum technology to learn close to optimal, experimentally feasible quantum metrology protocols.