Abstract Finding the optimal attainable precisions in quantum multiparameter metrology is a non-trivial problem. One approach to tackling this problem involves the computation of bounds which impose limits on how accurately we can estimate certain physical quantities. One such bound is the Holevo Cramér–Rao bound on the trace of the mean squared error matrix. The Holevo bound is an asymptotically achievable bound when one allows for any measurement strategy, including collective measurements on many copies of the probe. In this work, we introduce a tighter bound for estimating multiple parameters simultaneously when performing separable measurements on a finite number of copies of the probe. This makes it more relevant in terms of experimental accessibility. We show that this bound can be efficiently computed by casting it as a semidefinite programme. We illustrate our bound with several examples of collective measurements on finite copies of the probe. These results have implications for the necessary requirements to saturate the Holevo bound.
Abstract Finding the optimal attainable precisions in quantum multiparameter metrology is a non-trivial problem. One approach to tackling this problem involves the computation of bounds which impose limits on how accurately we can estimate certain physical quantities. One such bound is the Holevo Cramér–Rao bound on the trace of the mean squared error matrix. The Holevo bound is an asymptotically achievable bound when one allows for any measurement strategy, including collective measurements on many copies of the probe. In this work, we introduce a tighter bound for estimating multiple parameters simultaneously when performing separable measurements on a finite number of copies of the probe. This makes it more relevant in terms of experimental accessibility. We show that this bound can be efficiently computed by casting it as a semidefinite programme. We illustrate our bound with several examples of collective measurements on finite copies of the probe. These results have implications for the necessary requirements to saturate the Holevo bound.
The Holevo Cramér-Rao bound sets the asymptotically attainable precision of quantum multiparameter estimation, but its attainability with finite quantum state copies remains unresolved in general. While a gap between the single-copy optimum and the Holevo bound persists at any finite copy number for two-parameter estimation models, the higher-parameter case has remained open. Here we disprove universal finite-copy gap persistence beyond two parameters by constructing a three-parameter rank-two model whose Holevo bound is unattainable with one copy but attained exactly with two. We further prove finite-copy persistence for full-rank models with any number of parameters. We then experimentally implement the two-copy collective measurement for the constructed model using superconducting qubits. We observe a two-copy estimation error below the single-copy and separate-measurement bounds determined from state tomography. By introducing controlled depolarization, we show that this precision advantage persists over a finite noise range. Our results connect the attainability of ultimate quantum precision to the structure of the multiparameter estimation model and the resources available for collective measurements.
One key aspect of quantum metrology, measurement incompatibility, is evident only through the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters. The symmetric logarithmic derivative Cramér-Rao bound (SLDCRB), gives the attainable precision, if the optimal measurements for estimating each individual parameter commute. When the optimal measurements do not commute, the SLDCRB is not necessarily attainable. In this regard, the Holevo Cramér-Rao bound (HCRB) plays a fundamental role, providing the ultimate attainable precisions when one allows simultaneous measurements on infinitely many copies of a quantum state. For practical purposes, the Nagaoka Cramér-Rao bound (NCRB) is more relevant, applying when restricted to measuring quantum states individually. The interplay between these three bounds dictates how rapidly the ultimate metrological precisions can be approached through collective measurements on finite copies of the probe state. We first consider two parameter estimation and prove that if the HCRB cannot be saturated with a single copy of the probe state, then it cannot be saturated for any finite number of copies of the probe state. With this, we show that it is impossible to saturate the HCRB for several physically motivated problems. For estimating any number of parameters, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the attainability of the SLDCRB with separable measurements. We further prove that if the SLDCRB cannot be reached with a single copy of the probe state, it cannot be reached with collective measurements on any finite number of copies of the probe state. These results together provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the attainability of the SLDCRB for any finite number of copies of the probe state. This solves a significant generalisation of one of the five problems recently highlighted by [P.Horodecki et al, Phys. Rev. X Quantum 3, 010101 (2022)].
Only with the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters are the quantum aspects of metrology fully revealed. This is due to the incompatibility of observables. The fundamental bound for multiparameter quantum estimation is the Holevo Cramér-Rao bound (HCRB) whose evaluation has so far remained elusive. For finite-dimensional systems we recast its evaluation as a semidefinite program, with reduced size for rank-deficient states. We show that it also satisfies strong duality. We use this result to study phase and loss estimation in optical interferometry and three-dimensional magnetometry with noisy multiqubit systems. For the former, we show that, in some regimes, it is possible to attain the HCRB with the optimal (single-copy) measurement for phase estimation. For the latter, we show a nontrivial interplay between the HCRB and incompatibility and provide numerical evidence that projective single-copy measurements attain the HCRB in the noiseless 2-qubit case.
Estimating multiple unknown parameters simultaneously is essential for practical quantum sensing. However, it faces a fundamental challenge: the optimal strategy for estimating one parameter is often incompatible with that for another, making it impossible to simultaneously achieve the ultimate precision limits for all parameters. Here we develop a general and efficient computational framework that jointly optimizes probe states, control operations, and measurements across different strategy families, including parallel, sequential, and those with indefinite causal order. Our approach provides exact semidefinite-program formulations for several precision bounds, including the Holevo, Nagaoka-Hayashi, and quantum Cramér-Rao bounds. We demonstrate the capabilities of the framework in multiparameter magnetometry and frequency estimation, identifying optimal protocols within each class and revealing a strict hierarchy among the achievable performances of different classes in the multiparameter regime. The framework also directly incorporates resource constraints, such as energy budgets, enabling systematic investigation of experimentally realistic sensing scenarios. Furthermore, we develop a finite-memory optimization method for sequential strategies with restricted ancillary-memory dimension. By decomposing the protocol into initial probe preparation and intermediate control operations, this method provides a practical route to designing resource-constrained sequential sensing schemes. Our work establishes a versatile computational tool for determining fundamental precision limits and designing optimal quantum-sensing protocols in complex multiparameter settings.
The most general strategy for estimating parameters of a quantum channel is to probe the channel many times sequentially with the help of coherent ancillary systems. However, finding the strategy that minimizes the mean-squared error (MSE) is a notoriously hard problem, requiring optimization over the initial probe state, intermediate evolutions, final measurement, and classical postprocessing. In this work, we study how the minimum attainable MSE can be bounded from below in this setting. We propose a lower bound for the MSE of any physically implementable sequential sensing strategy that applies to estimating parameters of any physical quantum evolution, including quantum channels probed over multiple time steps under temporally correlated noise and general temporally correlated quantum processes. We show that this lower bound can be formulated as a semidefinite program (SDP). Our bound generalizes the Nagaoka-Hayashi lower bound (that applies to parameter estimation tasks with separable measurements) to the regime where the quantum channel can be accessed sequentially multiple times. For regular finite-dimensional single-parameter sequential estimation tasks admitting an optimal strategy, we show that our SDP bound is tight and provide a procedure to obtain a locally optimal strategy from the SDP optimizer. Using our optimization bound, we compute the MSE lower bound and derive new protocols for several other physically motivated problems including error-corrected quantum sensing under an unknown correlated noise model, multiparameter estimation, and estimation with qudit systems.
This work compares the performance of single- and two-qubit probes for estimating several phase rotations simultaneously under the action of different noisy channels. We compute the quantum limits for this simultaneous estimation using collective and individual measurements by evaluating the Holevo and Nagaoka-Hayashi Cramér-Rao bounds, respectively. Several quantum noise channels are considered, namely the decohering channel, the amplitude damping channel, and the phase damping channel. For each channel, we find the optimal single- and two-qubit probes. Where possible we demonstrate an explicit measurement strategy that saturates the appropriate bound and we investigate how closely the Holevo bound can be approached through collective measurements on multiple copies of the same probe. We find that under the action of the considered channels, two-qubit probes show enhanced parameter estimation capabilities over single-qubit probes for almost all non-identity channels, i.e., the achievable precision with a single-qubit probe degrades faster with increasing exposure to the noisy environment than that of the two-qubit probe. However, in sufficiently noisy channels, we show that it is possible for single-qubit probes to outperform maximally entangled two-qubit probes. This work shows that, in order to reach the ultimate precision limits allowed by quantum mechanics, entanglement is required in both the state preparation and state measurement stages. It is hoped the tutorial-esque nature of this paper will make it easily accessible.