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arXiv:0705.0931 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Analysis of a convenient information bound for general quantum channels

C J O'Loan

Published Nov 14, 2007• 3 citations
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Abstract

Open questions from Sarovar and Milburn (2006 J.Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 8487) are answered. Sarovar and Milburn derived a convenient upper bound for the Fisher information of a one-parameter quantum channel. They showed that for quasi-classical models their bound is achievable and they gave a necessary and sufficient condition for positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) attaining this bound. They asked (i) whether their bound is attainable more generally, (ii) whether explicit expressions for optimal POVMs can be derived from the attainability condition. We show that the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) quantum information is less than or equal to the SM bound, i.e.\ $H(θ) \leq C_Υ(θ)$ and we find conditions for equality. As the Fisher information is less than or equal to the SLD quantum information, i.e. $F_M(θ) \leq H(θ)$, we can deduce when equality holds in $F_M(θ) \leq C_Υ(θ)$. Equality does not hold for all channels. As a consequence, the attainability condition cannot be used to test for optimal POVMs for all channels. These results are extended to multi-parameter channels.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/40/48/013

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Morozova and Chentsov (Morozova and Chentsov 90) studied Riemannian metrics on the set of probability measures. They showed that, up to a constant factor, the Fisher information is the only Riemannian metric which is monotone under stochastic transformation. Sarovar and Milburn (Sarovar and Milburn 06) computed an upper bound on the Fisher information for one-parameter channels. In (O'Loan 07) we extended their bound to an upper bound on the Fisher information of multi-parameter families of states; we call this the SM quantum information. Petz and Sudár (Petz 95) characterized fully the set of monotone metrics on the space of all density matrices. We analyse the SM quantum information in light of their work. We show that the SM quantum information is not a well-defined metric on the space of density matrices: different choices of phase of the eigenvectors lead to different metrics. We define a new metric C_L as a lower bound among the SM quantum informations. We look at properties of C_L and show that it is invariant but not monotone.
We deal with the maximization of classical Fisher information in a quantum system depending on an unknown parameter. This problem has been raised by physicists, who defined [Helstrom (1967) Phys. Lett. A 25 101–102] a quantum counterpart of classical Fisher information, which has been found to constitute an upper bound for classical information itself [Braunstein and Caves (1994) Phys. Rev. Lett. 72 3439–3443]. It has then become of relevant interest among statisticians, who investigated the relations between classical and quantum information and derived a condition for equality in the particular case of two-dimensional pure state systems [Barndorff-Nielsen and Gill (2000) J. Phys. A 33 4481–4490]. In this paper we show that this condition holds even in the more general setting of two-dimensional mixed state systems. We also derive the expression of the maximum Fisher information achievable and its relation with that attainable in pure states.
A quantum channel is a mapping which sends density matrices to density matrices. The estimation of quantum channels is of great importance to the field of quantum information. In this thesis two topics related to estimation of quantum channels are investigated. The first of these is the upper bound of Sarovar and Milburn (2006) on the Fisher information obtainable by measuring the output of a channel. Two questions raised by Sarovar and Milburn about their bound are answered. A Riemannian metric on the space of quantum states is introduced, related to the construction of the Sarovar and Milburn bound. Its properties are characterized. The second topic investigated is the estimation of unitary channels. The situation is considered in which an experimenter has several non-identical unitary channels that have the same parameter. It is shown that it is possible to improve estimation using the channels together, analogous to the case of identical unitary channels. Also, a new method of phase estimation is given based on a method sketched by Kitaev (1996). Unlike other phase estimation procedures which perform similarly, this procedure requires only very basic experimental resources.
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We deal with the maximization of classical Fisher information in a quantum system depending on an unknown parameter. This problem has been raised by physicists, who defined [Helstrom (1967) Phys. Lett. A 25 101–102] a quantum counterpart of classical Fisher information, which has been found to constitute an upper bound for classical information itself [Braunstein and Caves (1994) Phys. Rev. Lett. 72 3439–3443]. It has then become of relevant interest among statisticians, who investigated the relations between classical and quantum information and derived a condition for equality in the particular case of two-dimensional pure state systems [Barndorff-Nielsen and Gill (2000) J. Phys. A 33 4481–4490]. In this paper we show that this condition holds even in the more general setting of two-dimensional mixed state systems. We also derive the expression of the maximum Fisher information achievable and its relation with that attainable in pure states. 1. Introduction. Quantum
Information metrics give lower bounds for the estimation of parameters. The Cencov-Morozova-Petz Theorem classifies the monotone quantum Fisher metrics. The optimum bound for the quantum estimation problem is offered by the metric which is obtained from the symmetric logarithmic derivative. To get a better bound, it means to go outside this family of metrics, and thus inevitably, to relax some general conditions. In the paper we defined logarithmic derivatives through a phase-space correspondence. This introduces a function which quantifies the deviation from the symmetric derivative. Using this function we have proved that there exist POVMs for which the new metric gives a higher bound from that of the symmetric derivative. The analysis was performed for the one qubit case.