© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

Terms Privacy Legal Notice

arXiv:1309.1472 · Physical Review Letters

Quantum Discord Determines the Interferometric Power of Quantum States

Davide Girolami, Alexandre M. Souza, Vittorio Giovannetti, Tommaso Tufarelli, Jefferson Gonçalves Filgueiras, Roberto S. Sarthour, Diogo O. Soares-Pinto, Ivan S. Oliveira, Gerardo Adesso

Published May 27, 2014• 278 citations

Abstract

Quantum metrology exploits quantum mechanical laws to improve the precision in estimating technologically relevant parameters such as phase, frequency, or magnetic fields.Probe states are usually tailored to the particular dynamics whose parameters are being estimated.Here we consider a novel framework where quantum estimation is performed in an interferometric configuration, using bipartite probe states prepared when only the spectrum of the generating Hamiltonian is known.We introduce a figure of merit for the scheme, given by the worst-case precision over all suitable Hamiltonians, and prove that it amounts exactly to a computable measure of discord-type quantum correlations for the input probe.We complement our theoretical results with a metrology experiment, realized in a highly controllable room-temperature nuclear magnetic resonance setup, which provides a proof-of-concept demonstration for the usefulness of discord in sensing applications.Discordant probes are shown to guarantee a nonzero phase sensitivity for all the chosen generating Hamiltonians, while classically correlated probes are unable to accomplish the estimation in a worst-case setting.This work establishes a rigorous and direct operational interpretation for general quantum correlations, shedding light on their potential for quantum technology.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.112.210401

Related papers

Quantum interferometric power and the role of nonclassical correlations in quantum metrology for a special class of two-qubit states

Hanane El Hadfi, Y. Ait Taleb, Mohammed Daoud A

We analyze the effects of quantum correlations on the parameter precision in an interferometric configuration. As probe states, we consider a class of two-qubit states for which the analytical expression of the quantum interferometric power, quantifying the quantum correlations, is explicitly derived. Also, we give and analyze the local quantum Fisher information, which evaluates the sensitivity of the probe state to the phase shift, for some relevant local Hamiltonians. The discord-like quantum correlations based on the notion of quantum interferometric power are compared with the original quantum discord based on von Neumann entropy. We also examine the significance of quantum correlations in enhancing the precision of the phase estimation. Our study corroborates the recent series of investigations focusing on the role of quantum correlations other than entanglement on the efficiency of quantum metrology protocols.

International Journal of Modern Physics B•Dec 13, 2016•4 citations

Interpreting quantum discord in quantum metrology

Davide Girolami

Multipartite quantum systems show properties which do not admit a classical explanation. In particular, even nonentangled states can enjoy a kind of quantum correlations called quantum discord. I discuss some recent results on the role of quantum discord in metrology. Given an interferometric phase estimation protocol where the Hamiltonian is initially unknown to the experimentalist, the quantum discord of the probe state quantifies the minimum precision of the estimation. This provides a physical interpretation to a widely investigated information-theoretic quantity.

arXiv:1502.04549•Journal of Physics Conference Series•Jul 3, 2015•6 citations

There is more to quantum interferometry than entanglement

Thomas R. Bromley, Isabela A. Silva, Charlie Oncebay Segura +4 more

Entanglement has long stood as one of the characteristic features of quantum mechanics, yet recent developments have emphasized the importance of quantumness beyond entanglement for quantum foundations and technologies. We demonstrate that entanglement cannot entirely capture the worst-case sensitivity in quantum interferometry when quantum probes are used to estimate the phase imprinted by a Hamiltonian, with fixed energy levels but variable eigenbasis, acting on one arm of an interferometer. This is shown by defining a bipartite entanglement monotone tailored to this interferometric setting and proving that it never exceeds the so-called interferometric power, a quantity which relies on more general quantum correlations beyond entanglement and captures the relevant resource. We then prove that the interferometric power can never increase when local commutativity-preserving operations are applied to qubit probes, an important step to validate such a quantity as a genuine quantum correlations monotone. These findings are accompanied by a room-temperature nuclear magnetic resonance experimental investigation, in which two-qubit states with extremal (maximal and minimal) interferometric power at fixed entanglement are produced and characterized.

arXiv:1610.07504•Physical Review A•May 8, 2017•17 citations

Discord in noisy quantum metrology

Kaonan Micadei, Kavan Kishore Modi, Lucas C. Céleri +1 more

Quantum mechanical systems can be used to out perform classical ones in several tasks. For instance, quantum correlations can be employed to beat the shot-noise limit in metrology protocols. Such parameter estimation methods are crucial for both advances in science and the development of technologies. Almost all quantum technologies operate with some level of noise and how quantum-enhancement fares in the presence of noise is still unclear. Here we show that, when a system in mixed multipartite quantum state is used to estimate a parameter, the information must be decoded by coherent interactions between the parts of the probe. On the other hand, noiseless quantum metrology protocols are adaptively additive for any pure entangled states, that is, no coherent processing is necessary in this case. This leads to an operational interpretation for the ability of performing coherent interactions in noisy parameter estimation and highlights a cornerstone difference between mixed and pure states. This result has fundamental importance in the search for the source of quantum advantage and it also has practical relevance for the designing of new high-precision-measurement devices.

•Sep 12, 2012•0 citations

Characterizing Nonclassical Correlations via Local Quantum Uncertainty

Davide Girolami, Tommaso Tufarelli, Gerardo Adesso

Quantum mechanics predicts that measurements of incompatible observables carry a minimum uncertainty which is independent of technical deficiencies of the measurement apparatus or incomplete knowledge of the state of the system. Nothing yet seems to prevent a single physical quantity, such as one spin component, from being measured with arbitrary precision. Here, we show that an intrinsic quantum uncertainty on a single observable is ineludible in a number of physical situations. When revealed on local observables of a bipartite system, such uncertainty defines an entire class of bona fide measures of nonclassical correlations. For the case of 2 × d systems, we find that a unique measure is defined, which we evaluate in closed form. We then discuss the role that these correlations, which are of the "discord" type, can play in the context of quantum metrology. We show in particular that the amount of discord present in a bipartite mixed probe state guarantees a minimum precision, as quantified by the quantum Fisher information, in the optimal phase estimation protocol.

arXiv:1212.2214•Physical Review Letters•Jun 13, 2013•515 citations

Nonclassical correlations for quantum metrology in thermal equilibrium

Akira Sone, Quntao Zhuang, Changhao Li +2 more

Nonclassical correlations beyond entanglement might provide a resource in quantum information tasks, such as quantum computation or quantum metrology. Quantum discord is a measure of nonclassical correlations to which entanglement belongs as a subset. Exploring the operational meaning of quantum discord as a resource in quantum information processing tasks, such as quantum metrology, is of essential importance to our understanding of nonclassical correlations. In our recent work [Phys. Rev. A 98, 012115 (2018)], we considered a protocol---which we call the greedy local thermometry protocol---for estimating the temperature of thermal equilibrium states from local measurements, elucidating the role of diagonal discord in enhancing the protocol sensitivity in the high-temperature limit. In this paper, we extend our results to a general greedy local parameter estimation scenario. In particular, we introduce a quantum discord---which we call discord for local metrology---to quantify the nonclassical correlations induced by the local optimal measurement on the subsystem. We demonstrate explicitly that discord for local metrology plays a role in sensitivity enhancement in the high-temperature limit by showing its relation to loss in quantum Fisher information. In particular, it coincides with diagonal discord for estimating a linear coupling parameter.

arXiv:1810.02378•Physical Review A•May 13, 2019•21 citations

Quantum metrology exploits quantum mechanical laws to improve the precision in estimating technologically relevant parameters such as phase, frequency, or magnetic fields.Probe states are usually tailored to the particular dynamics whose parameters are being estimated.Here we consider a novel framework where quantum estimation is performed in an interferometric configuration, using bipartite probe states prepared when only the spectrum of the generating Hamiltonian is known.We introduce a figure of merit for the scheme, given by the worst-case precision over all suitable Hamiltonians, and prove that it amounts exactly to a computable measure of discord-type quantum correlations for the input probe.We complement our theoretical results with a metrology experiment, realized in a highly controllable room-temperature nuclear magnetic resonance setup, which provides a proof-of-concept demonstration for the usefulness of discord in sensing applications.Discordant probes are shown to guarantee a nonzero phase sensitivity for all the chosen generating Hamiltonians, while classically correlated probes are unable to accomplish the estimation in a worst-case setting.This work establishes a rigorous and direct operational interpretation for general quantum correlations, shedding light on their potential for quantum technology.

We analyze the effects of quantum correlations on the parameter precision in an interferometric configuration. As probe states, we consider a class of two-qubit states for which the analytical expression of the quantum interferometric power, quantifying the quantum correlations, is explicitly derived. Also, we give and analyze the local quantum Fisher information, which evaluates the sensitivity of the probe state to the phase shift, for some relevant local Hamiltonians. The discord-like quantum correlations based on the notion of quantum interferometric power are compared with the original quantum discord based on von Neumann entropy. We also examine the significance of quantum correlations in enhancing the precision of the phase estimation. Our study corroborates the recent series of investigations focusing on the role of quantum correlations other than entanglement on the efficiency of quantum metrology protocols.

Multipartite quantum systems show properties which do not admit a classical explanation. In particular, even nonentangled states can enjoy a kind of quantum correlations called quantum discord. I discuss some recent results on the role of quantum discord in metrology. Given an interferometric phase estimation protocol where the Hamiltonian is initially unknown to the experimentalist, the quantum discord of the probe state quantifies the minimum precision of the estimation. This provides a physical interpretation to a widely investigated information-theoretic quantity.

Entanglement has long stood as one of the characteristic features of quantum mechanics, yet recent developments have emphasized the importance of quantumness beyond entanglement for quantum foundations and technologies. We demonstrate that entanglement cannot entirely capture the worst-case sensitivity in quantum interferometry when quantum probes are used to estimate the phase imprinted by a Hamiltonian, with fixed energy levels but variable eigenbasis, acting on one arm of an interferometer. This is shown by defining a bipartite entanglement monotone tailored to this interferometric setting and proving that it never exceeds the so-called interferometric power, a quantity which relies on more general quantum correlations beyond entanglement and captures the relevant resource. We then prove that the interferometric power can never increase when local commutativity-preserving operations are applied to qubit probes, an important step to validate such a quantity as a genuine quantum correlations monotone. These findings are accompanied by a room-temperature nuclear magnetic resonance experimental investigation, in which two-qubit states with extremal (maximal and minimal) interferometric power at fixed entanglement are produced and characterized.

Quantum mechanical systems can be used to out perform classical ones in several tasks. For instance, quantum correlations can be employed to beat the shot-noise limit in metrology protocols. Such parameter estimation methods are crucial for both advances in science and the development of technologies. Almost all quantum technologies operate with some level of noise and how quantum-enhancement fares in the presence of noise is still unclear. Here we show that, when a system in mixed multipartite quantum state is used to estimate a parameter, the information must be decoded by coherent interactions between the parts of the probe. On the other hand, noiseless quantum metrology protocols are adaptively additive for any pure entangled states, that is, no coherent processing is necessary in this case. This leads to an operational interpretation for the ability of performing coherent interactions in noisy parameter estimation and highlights a cornerstone difference between mixed and pure states. This result has fundamental importance in the search for the source of quantum advantage and it also has practical relevance for the designing of new high-precision-measurement devices.

Quantum mechanics predicts that measurements of incompatible observables carry a minimum uncertainty which is independent of technical deficiencies of the measurement apparatus or incomplete knowledge of the state of the system. Nothing yet seems to prevent a single physical quantity, such as one spin component, from being measured with arbitrary precision. Here, we show that an intrinsic quantum uncertainty on a single observable is ineludible in a number of physical situations. When revealed on local observables of a bipartite system, such uncertainty defines an entire class of bona fide measures of nonclassical correlations. For the case of 2 × d systems, we find that a unique measure is defined, which we evaluate in closed form. We then discuss the role that these correlations, which are of the "discord" type, can play in the context of quantum metrology. We show in particular that the amount of discord present in a bipartite mixed probe state guarantees a minimum precision, as quantified by the quantum Fisher information, in the optimal phase estimation protocol.

Nonclassical correlations beyond entanglement might provide a resource in quantum information tasks, such as quantum computation or quantum metrology. Quantum discord is a measure of nonclassical correlations to which entanglement belongs as a subset. Exploring the operational meaning of quantum discord as a resource in quantum information processing tasks, such as quantum metrology, is of essential importance to our understanding of nonclassical correlations. In our recent work [Phys. Rev. A 98, 012115 (2018)], we considered a protocol---which we call the greedy local thermometry protocol---for estimating the temperature of thermal equilibrium states from local measurements, elucidating the role of diagonal discord in enhancing the protocol sensitivity in the high-temperature limit. In this paper, we extend our results to a general greedy local parameter estimation scenario. In particular, we introduce a quantum discord---which we call discord for local metrology---to quantify the nonclassical correlations induced by the local optimal measurement on the subsystem. We demonstrate explicitly that discord for local metrology plays a role in sensitivity enhancement in the high-temperature limit by showing its relation to loss in quantum Fisher information. In particular, it coincides with diagonal discord for estimating a linear coupling parameter.