The quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) sets a fundamental limit for the measurement of classical signals with detectors operating in the quantum regime. Using linear-response theory and the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, we derive a general condition for achieving such a fundamental limit. When applied to classical displacement measurements with a test mass, this condition leads to an explicit connection between the QCRB and the standard quantum limit that arises from a tradeoff between the measurement imprecision and quantum backaction; the QCRB can be viewed as an outcome of a quantum nondemolition measurement with the backaction evaded. Additionally, we show that the test mass is more a resource for improving measurement sensitivity than a victim of the quantum backaction, which suggests a new approach to enhancing the sensitivity of a broad class of sensors. We illustrate these points with laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors.
The quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) sets a fundamental limit for the measurement of classical signals with detectors operating in the quantum regime. Using linear-response theory and the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, we derive a general condition for achieving such a fundamental limit. When applied to classical displacement measurements with a test mass, this condition leads to an explicit connection between the QCRB and the standard quantum limit that arises from a tradeoff between the measurement imprecision and quantum backaction; the QCRB can be viewed as an outcome of a quantum nondemolition measurement with the backaction evaded. Additionally, we show that the test mass is more a resource for improving measurement sensitivity than a victim of the quantum backaction, which suggests a new approach to enhancing the sensitivity of a broad class of sensors. We illustrate these points with laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors.
Sensing a classical signal using a linear quantum device is a pervasive application of quantum-enhanced measurement. The fundamental precision limits of linear waveform estimation, however, are not fully understood. In certain cases, there is an unexplained gap between the known waveform-estimation quantum Cramér-Rao bound and the optimal sensitivity from quadrature measurement of the outgoing mode from the device. We resolve this gap by establishing the fundamental precision limit, the waveform-estimation Holevo Cramér-Rao bound, and how to achieve it using a nonstationary measurement. We apply our results to detuned gravitational-wave interferometry to accelerate the search for postmerger remnants from binary neutron-star mergers. If we have an unequal weighting between estimating the signal's power and phase, then we propose how to further improve the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of sqrt[2] using this nonstationary measurement.
State-of-the-art linear sensors of force, motion, and magnetic fields have reached the sensitivity where the quantum noise of the meter is significant or even dominant. In particular, the sensitivity of the best optomechanical devices has reached the standard quantum limit (SQL), which directly follows from the Heisenberg uncertainty relation and corresponds to balancing the measurement imprecision and the perturbation of the probe by the quantum back-action of the meter. The SQL is not truly fundamental and several methods for its overcoming have been proposed and demonstrated. At the same time, two quantum sensitivity constraints which are more fundamental are known. The first limit arises from the finiteness of the probing strength (in the case of optical interferometers---of the circulating optical power) and is known as the energetic quantum limit or, in a more general context, as the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound (QCRB). The second limit arises from the dissipative dynamics of the probe, which prevents full efficacy of the quantum back-action evasion techniques developed for overcoming the SQL. No particular name has been assigned to this limit; we propose the term dissipative quantum limit (DQL) for it. Here we develop a unified theory of these two fundamental limits by deriving the general sensitivity constraint for stationary, linear systems from which they follow as particular cases. Our analysis reveals a phase transition occurring at the boundary between the QCRB-dominated and the DQL regimes, manifested by the discontinuous derivatives of the optimal spectral densities of the meter quantum noise. This leads to the counterintuitive (but favorable) finding that quantum-limited sensitivity can be achieved with meter noise cross-correlations having a nonzero imaginary component, a feature arising in lossy meter systems. Finally, we show that the DQL originates from the nonautocommutativity of the internal thermal noise of the probe and that it can be overcome in nonstationary measurements.
As laser interferometer gravitational wave (GW) detectors become quantum noise dominated, understanding the fundamental limit on measurement sensitivity imposed by quantum uncertainty is crucial to guide the search for further noise reduction. Recent efforts have included applying ideas from quantum information theory to GW detection---specifically the quantum Cramer-Rao bound, which is a minimum bound on error in parameter estimation using a quantum state and is determined by the state's quantum Fisher information (QFI) with respect to the parameter [Helstrom, J. Stat. Phys. 1, 231 (1969)]. Identifying the QFI requires knowing the interaction between the quantum probe and the signal, which was rigorously derived for GW interferometer detectors in Pang and Chen [Phys. Rev. D 98, 124006 (2018)]. In this paper, we calculate the QFI and fundamental quantum limit (FQL) for GW detection, and furthermore we derive explicit reciprocity relations involving the QFI that summarize information exchange between the detector and a surrounding weak quantum GW field. Specifically, we show that the GW power radiation by the detector's quantum fluctuations are proportional to the QFI, and therefore are inversely proportional to its FQL. Similarly, the detector's decoherence rate in a white noise GW bath can be explicitly related to the QFI/FQL. These relations are fundamental and appear generalizable to a broader class of quantum measurement systems.
High-sensitivity accelerometers and gravimeters, achieving the ultimate limits of measurement sensitivity are key tools for advancing both fundamental and applied physics. While numerous platforms have been proposed to achieve this goal, from atom interferometers to optomechanical systems, all of these studies neglect the effects of intrinsic quantum uncertainty in time estimation. Starting from the Hamiltonian of a generic linear quantum sensor, we derive the two-parameter quantum Fisher information matrix and establish the corresponding Cram'er-Rao bound, treating time as an uncertain (nuisance) parameter. Our analysis reveals a fundamental coupling between time and signal estimation that inherently degrades measurement sensitivity, with the standard single-parameter quantum limit recovered only at specific interrogation times or under special decoupling conditions. We then apply these results to an optomechanical gravimeter and explicitly derive an optimal decoupling condition under which the effects of time uncertainty are averaged out in a continuous measurement scheme. Our approach is general and can be readily extended to a broad class of quantum sensors.
The fundamental quantum limit, or the quantum Cramér-Rao bound, defines the sensitivity limit for quantum measurements. For linear measurement systems, such as gravitational-wave detectors, it is inversely proportional to the noise spectrum of the dynamical variable that couples to the measured signal. Defining a physically meaningful spectrum, however, requires that the system is stable and a steady state exists. We relax such a stability requirement and prove that the fundamental quantum limit can be derived simply by considering the open-loop dynamics in the Fourier domain.
The power of quantum sensing rests on its ultimate precision limit, quantified by the quantum Cramer-Rao bound (QCRB), which can surpass classical bounds. In multi-parameter estimation, the QCRB is not always saturated as the quantum nature of associated observables may lead to their incompatibility. Here we explore the precision limits of multi-parameter estimation through the lens of quantum geometry, enabling us to experimentally evaluate the QCRB via quantum geometry measurements. Focusing on two- and three-parameter estimation, we elucidate how fundamental quantum uncertainty principles prevent the saturation of the bound. By linking a metric of "quantumness" to the system geometric properties, we investigate and experimentally extract the attainable QCRB for three-parameter estimations.