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arXiv:2407.05762

Achieving Heisenberg scaling in low-temperature quantum thermometry

Ning Zhang, Chong Chen

Published Jul 8, 2024• 0 citations
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Abstract

We investigate correlation-enhanced low temperature quantum thermometry. Recent studies have revealed that bath-induced correlations can enhance the low-temperature estimation precision even starting from an uncorrelated state. However, a comprehensive understanding of this enhancement remains elusive. Using the Ramsey interferometry protocol, we illustrate that the estimation precision of $N$ thermometers sparsely coupled to a common low-temperature bath can achieve the Heisenberg scaling in the low-temperature regime with only a $π/2$ rotation of the measurement axis, in contrast to the standard Ramsey scheme. This result is based on the assumption that interthermometer correlations are induced exclusively by low-frequency noise in the common bath, a condition achievable in practical experimental scenarios. The underlying physical mechanism is clarified, revealing that the Heisenberg scaling arises from the intrinsic nature of the temperature, which is associated solely with the fluctuation of thermal noise. In contrast to the paradigm of independent thermometers, our proposed scheme demonstrates a significant enhancement in precision for low-temperature measurement, making it suitable for precisely measuring the temperature of ultracold systems.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2407.05762

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We propose a sequential measurement protocol for accurate low-temperature estimation based on Ramsey interferometry. The resulting correlated outputs significantly enhance the low-temperature precision compared to that of the independent measurement scheme. This enhancement manifests a Heisenberg scaling of the signal-to-noise ratio for small measurement numbers NNN. Detailed analysis reveals that the final precision is determined by the pair correlation of the sequential outputs induced by the low-frequency noise of the thermal sample, which produces a dependence N2{N}^{2}N2 on the signal-to-noise ratio. Remarkably, we find that quantum thermometry within the sequential protocol functions as a high-resolution quantum spectroscopy of the thermal noise, underscoring the pivotal role of the sequential measurements in enhancing the spectral resolution and the temperature-estimation precision. Our methodology signifies the role of the temporal correlation induced by the thermal sample in low-temperature quantum thermometry, which represents an advancement in low-temperature measurement.
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Accurate temperature estimation in the quantum and cryogenic regimes remains a fundamental challenge. Here, we investigate nonequilibrium quantum thermometry using a single-qubit probe coupled to a bosonic bath through noncommuting interaction operators, which unify pure dephasing and dissipative dynamics within a spin-boson model. We show that the interference between these two coupling channels induces strong non-Markovian feedback between populations and coherences, leading to coherence trapping and enhanced thermal sensitivity. Remarkably, by tuning the coupling structure, the probe's temperature sensitivity exhibits a quadratic low-temperature scaling, even under weak coupling. Moreover, while coherence-based measurements are formally suboptimal, they become the most informative in the early nonequilibrium regime, where memory effects dominate. Our findings identify noncommutative system-bath couplings as a practical and tunable resource for achieving high-precision quantum thermometry in realistic open-system architectures.
We consider the problem of estimating the temperature TTT of a very cold equilibrium sample. The temperature estimates are drawn from measurements performed on a quantum Brownian probe strongly coupled to it. We model this scenario by resorting to the canonical Caldeira-Leggett Hamiltonian and find analytically the exact stationary state of the probe for arbitrary coupling strength. In general, the probe does not reach thermal equilibrium with the sample, due to their nonperturbative interaction. We argue that this is advantageous for low-temperature thermometry, as we show in our model that (i) the thermometric precision at low TTT can be significantly enhanced by strengthening the probe-sampling coupling, (ii) the variance of a suitable quadrature of our Brownian thermometer can yield temperature estimates with nearly minimal statistical uncertainty, and (iii) the spectral density of the probe-sample coupling may be engineered to further improve thermometric performance. These observations may find applications in practical nanoscale thermometry at low temperatures---a regime which is particularly relevant to quantum technologies.