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arXiv:1404.3225 · Physical Review A

Data-processing inequalities for quantum metrology

Christopher Ferrie

Published Jul 21, 2014• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We apply the classical data-processing inequality to quantum metrology to show that manipulating the classical information from a quantum measurement cannot aid in the estimation of parameters encoded in quantum states. We further derive a quantum data-processing inequality to show that coherent manipulation of quantum data also cannot improve the precision in estimation. In addition, we comment on the assumptions necessary to arrive at these inequalities and how they might be avoided, providing insights into enhancement procedures which are not provably wrong.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.90.014101

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We apply the classical data-processing inequality to quantum metrology to show that manipulating the classical information from a quantum measurement cannot aid in the estimation of parameters encoded in quantum states. We further derive a quantum data-processing inequality to show that coherent manipulation of quantum data also cannot improve the precision in estimation. In addition, we comment on the assumptions necessary to arrive at these inequalities and how they might be avoided, providing insights into enhancement procedures which are not provably wrong.
We introduce quantum parameter estimation with the encoding being via a quantum measurement. We quantify the precision for estimating parameters characterizing a general two-outcome qubit measurement, considering two cases: when the outcomes of the encoding measurement are recorded and when the same are ignored. We find that in a large variety of such estimation scenarios, forgetting the outcomes yields higher precision. We derive a necessary criterion under which remembering the measurement outcomes provides better precision in comparison to the outcome-forgotten strategy. Furthermore, we establish a necessary and sufficient criterion for the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters encoded by an arbitrary quantum process, including those involving measurements, using qubit probes, and find when the quantum Cramér−-−Rao bound is valid and achievable. For simultaneous estimation of two parameters characterizing the measurement, we find that the achievable quantum Cramér−-−Rao bound can be a valid precision bound only when the measurement direction depends on the parameters of interest.
Quantum metrology is a general term for methods to precisely estimate the value of an unknown parameter by actively using quantum resources. In particular, some classes of entangled states can be used to significantly suppress the estimation error. Here we derive a formula for rigorously evaluating an upper bound for the estimation error in a general setting of quantum metrology with arbitrary finite data sets. Unlike in the standard approach, where lower bounds for the error are evaluated in an ideal setting with almost infinite data, our method rigorously guarantees the estimation precision in realistic settings with finite data. We also prove that our upper bound shows the Heisenberg limit scaling whenever the linearized uncertainty, which is a popular benchmark in the standard approach, shows it. As an example, we apply our result to a Ramsey interferometer, and numerically show that the upper bound can exhibit the quantum enhancement of precision for finite data.
We address the framework of analysing quantum metrology in the information-theoretic picture. Firstly we show how to extract the maximum amount of information in general via suitable state initialization of the probes at the beginning and a quantum measurement at the end. Our analysis can apply to both the single-parameter and the multi-parameter estimation procedures as well as to any other quantum information processing procedures. We then establish a direct connection between the information-theoretic picture of quantum metrology and its conventional variance-covariance picture, by showing that any estimation procedure achieves Heisenberg limit in variance-covariance picture can also reach the information-theoretic Heisenberg limit in the asymptotic sense. As a direct consequence, we argue that the entangled measurement is not necessary for achieving Heisenberg limit in the information-theoretic pictures, which is explicitly illustrated for the Quantum-Classical parallel strategy of quantum metrology with a separable measurement employed and the Heisenberg limit saturated in both pictures.
Abstract Quantum computing has made remarkable strides in recent years, as demonstrated by quantum supremacy experiments and the realization of high-fidelity, fault-tolerant gates. However, a major obstacle persists: practical real-world applications remain scarce, largely due to the inefficiency of loading classical data into quantum processors. Here, we propose an alternative strategy that shifts the focus from classical data encoding to directly processing quantum data. We target quantum metrology, a practical quantum technology whose precision is often constrained by realistic noise. We develop an experimentally feasible scheme in which a quantum computer optimizes information acquired from quantum metrology, thereby enhancing performance in noisy quantum metrology tasks and overcoming the classical-data-loading bottleneck. We demonstrate this approach through experimental implementation with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and numerical simulations using models of distributed superconducting quantum processors. Our results show that this method improves the accuracy of sensing estimates and significantly boosts sensitivity, as quantified by the quantum Fisher information, thus offering a new pathway to harness near-term quantum computers for realistic quantum metrology.
Entanglement is generally considered necessary for achieving the Heisenberg limit in quantum metrology. We construct analogues of Dicke and GHZ states on a single N+1N+1N+1 dimensional qudit that achieve precision equivalent to symmetrically entangled states on NNN qubits, showing that entanglement is not necessary for going beyond the standard quantum limit. We define a measure of non-classicality based on quantum Fisher information and estimate the achievable precision, suggesting a close relationship between non-classical states and metrological power of qudits. Our work offers an exponential reduction in the physical resources required for quantum-enhanced parameter estimation, making it accessible on any quantum system with a high-dimensional Hilbert space.
A usual assumption in quantum estimation is that the unknown parameter labels the possible states of the system, while it influences neither the sample space of outcomes nor the measurement aimed at extracting information on the parameter itself. This assumption is crucial to prove the quantum Cram\'er-Rao theorem and to introduce the quantum Fisher information as an upper bound to the Fisher information of any possible measurement. However, there are relevant estimation problems where this assumption does not hold and an alternative approach should be developed to find the genuine ultimate bound to precision of quantum measurements. We investigate physical situations where there is an intrinsic dependence of the measurement strategy on the parameter and find that quantum-enhanced measurements may be more precise than previously thought.