Quantum-enhanced (i.e., higher performance by quantum effects than any classical methods) mean value estimation of observables is a fundamental task in various quantum technologies; in particular, it is an essential subroutine in quantum computing algorithms. Notably, the quantum estimation theory identifies the ultimate precision of such an estimator, which is referred to as the quantum Cramér-Rao (QCR) lower bound or equivalently the inverse of the quantum Fisher information. Because the estimation precision directly determines the performance of those quantum technological systems, it is highly demanded to develop a generic and practically implementable estimation method that achieves the QCR bound. Under imperfect conditions, however, such an ultimate and implementable estimator for quantum mean values has not been developed. In this paper, we propose a quantum-enhanced mean value estimation method in a depolarizing noisy environment that asymptotically achieves the QCR bound in the limit of a large number of qubits. To approach the QCR bound in a practical setting, the method adaptively optimizes the amplitude amplification and a specific measurement that can be implemented without any knowledge of state preparation. We provide a rigorous analysis for the statistical properties of the proposed adaptive estimator such as consistency and asymptotic normality. Furthermore, several numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, particularly showing that the estimator needs only a modest number of measurements to almost saturate the QCR bound.
Quantum-enhanced (i.e., higher performance by quantum effects than any classical methods) mean value estimation of observables is a fundamental task in various quantum technologies; in particular, it is an essential subroutine in quantum computing algorithms. Notably, the quantum estimation theory identifies the ultimate precision of such an estimator, which is referred to as the quantum Cramér-Rao (QCR) lower bound or equivalently the inverse of the quantum Fisher information. Because the estimation precision directly determines the performance of those quantum technological systems, it is highly demanded to develop a generic and practically implementable estimation method that achieves the QCR bound. Under imperfect conditions, however, such an ultimate and implementable estimator for quantum mean values has not been developed. In this paper, we propose a quantum-enhanced mean value estimation method in a depolarizing noisy environment that asymptotically achieves the QCR bound in the limit of a large number of qubits. To approach the QCR bound in a practical setting, the method adaptively optimizes the amplitude amplification and a specific measurement that can be implemented without any knowledge of state preparation. We provide a rigorous analysis for the statistical properties of the proposed adaptive estimator such as consistency and asymptotic normality. Furthermore, several numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, particularly showing that the estimator needs only a modest number of measurements to almost saturate the QCR bound.
In quantum computation, amplitude estimation is a fundamental subroutine that is utilized in various quantum algorithms. A general important task of such estimation problems is to characterize the estimation lower bound, which is referred to as quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound (QCRB), and to construct an optimal estimator that achieves QCRB. This paper studies the amplitude estimation in the presence of depolarizing noise with unknown intensity. The main difficulty in this problem is that the optimal measurement depends on both the unknown quantum state and the amplitude we aim to estimate. To deal with these issues, we utilize the variational quantum circuits to approximate the (unknown) optimal measurement basis combined with the two-step adaptive estimation strategy which was proposed in the quantum estimation theory. We numerically show that the proposed method can nearly attain the QCRB.
Quantum computers have great potential to uncover new and unexpected physical phenomena.They can simulate classically intractable many-particle quantum systems and probe them in a programmable, computational manner.They can also process experimental quantum data directly, enabling us to probe unseen aspects of physical systems that cannot be reached by any classical means.In both roles, refining quantum algorithms toward their fundamental limits expands and sharpens the reach of quantum computers.Among quantum algorithms, quantum estimation is of central importance because it elicits the physical properties of interest from quantum systems.Even in an ideal, noiseless setting, however, obtaining precise estimates of such properties is significantly resource-intensive, unless one leverages coherent quantum operations.While many quantum-enhanced (i.e., higher performance than any classical means enabled by quantum effects) estimation algorithms have been proposed under reasonable access assumptions, it is still an ongoing quest to design quantum algorithms achieving ultimate estimation efficiency allowed by quantum mechanics.In addition, rapid experimental progress makes us envision an early fault-tolerant regime with large-scale yet not fully error-corrected quantum computers.Toward this regime, it is also crucial to develop quantum estimation algorithms that elicit as much information of interest as possible from a quantum system subject to noise.In these contexts, this thesis advances quantum-enhanced algorithms for estimating physical properties in two respects: Heisenberg-limited multi-observable estimation and single-observable estimation for the early faulttolerant quantum computing (FTQC) regime.First, we provide an adaptive quantum algorithm for estimating expectation values of multiple observables simultaneously in an ideal (noiseless) setting.Given common access to block-encoded observables, a state-preparation unitary, and its inverse, this algorithm achieves a double quantum enhancement in query complexity to the state preparation and its inverse: the mean-squared-error (MSE) scaling at the Heisenberg limit and sublinear scaling in the number of observables.It also essentially matches the query lower bound in the small-additive-error regime (not in MSE), previously derived in quantum complexity theory.In addition, the proposed algorithm significantly reduces the number of ancilla qubits and the classical computation for circuit synthesis, compared to prior art for this task.The double enhancement and the circuit simplification come from a novel algorithm design that integrates key ideas from adaptive phase estimation, quantum amplification, and quantum gradient estimation.Next, we focus on expectation value estimation for a single observable in the early FTQC regime.In this regime, available coherent resources are mostly consumed for a state preparation unitary, and the dominant noise stems from that costly unitary and its inverse.Under a specific model reflecting these aspects, we derive the quantum-enhanced precision limit, that is, the minimal quantum Cramér-Rao bound over all possible estimation strategies in the model.Then, by designing an adaptive optimization based on Fisher information, we propose a quantum-enhanced estimation algorithm, with rigorous estimation guarantees, that asymptotically achieves the quantum Cramér-Rao bound, when the target system size is sufficiently large.Finally, we numerically demonstrate that the asymptotic behavior holds with only a few hundred measurements per step and a few tens of qubits.
We consider estimation of a single unknown parameter embedded in a quantum state. Quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) is the ultimate limit of the mean squared error for any unbiased estimator. While it can be achieved asymptotically for a large number of quantum state copies, the measurement required often depends on the true value of the parameter of interest. Prior work addresses this paradox using a two-stage approach: in the first stage, a preliminary estimate is obtained by applying, on a vanishing fraction of quantum state copies, a sub-optimal measurement that does not depend on the parameter of interest. In the second stage, the preliminary estimate is used to construct the QCRB-achieving measurement that is applied to the remaining quantum state copies. This is akin to two-step estimators for classical problems with nuisance parameters. Unfortunately, the original analysis imposes conditions that severely restrict the class of classical estimators applied to the quantum measurement outcomes, hindering applications of this method. We relax these conditions to substantially broaden the class of usable estimators for single-parameter problems at the cost of slightly weakening the asymptotic properties of the two-stage method. We also account for nuisance parameters. We apply our results to obtain the asymptotics of quantum-enhanced transmittance sensing.
As we enter the era of quantum technologies, quantum estimation theory provides an operationally motivating framework for determining high precision devices in modern technological applications. The aim of any estimation process is to extract information from an unknown parameter embedded in a physical system such as the estimation converges to the true value of the parameter. According to the Cramér-Rao inequality in mathematical statistics, the Fisher information in the case of single-parameter estimation procedures, and the Fisher information matrix in the case of multi-parameter estimation, are the key quantities representing the ultimate precision of the parameters specifying a given statistical model. In quantum estimation strategies, it is usually difficult to derive the analytical expressions of such quantities in a given quantum state. This review provides comprehensive techniques on the analytical calculation of the quantum Fisher information as well as the quantum Fisher information matrix in various scenarios and via several methods. Furthermore, it provides a mathematical transition from classical to quantum estimation theory applied to many freedom quantum systems. To clarify these results, we examine these developments using some examples. Other challenges, including their links to quantum correlations and saturating the quantum Cramér-Rao bound, are also addressed.
The widely used quantum Cramér–Rao bound (QCRB) sets a lower bound for the mean square error of unbiased estimators in quantum parameter estimation, however, in general QCRB is only tight in the asymptotical limit. With a limited number of measurements biased estimators can have a far better performance for which QCRB cannot calibrate. Here we introduce a valid lower bound for all estimators, either biased or unbiased, which can serve as standard of merit for all quantum parameter estimations.
The quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) stands as a cornerstone of quantum metrology. Yet, akin to its classical counterpart, it provides only local information and overlooks higher-order details. We leverage the theory of higher-order asymptotics to circumvent these issues, providing corrections to the performance of estimators beyond the QCRB. While the QCRB often yields a whole family of optimal states and several optimal measurements, our approach allows us to identify optimal states and measurements within the family that are otherwise equivalent according to the QCRB alone; these are requisite for optimal metrology before reaching the asymptotic limit. These results are especially pertinent when dealing with unitary processes.