Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2408.00626 · Quantum

Estimating quantum Markov chains using coherent absorber post-processing and pattern counting estimator

Federico Girotti, Alfred Godley, Mădălin Guţǎ

Published Aug 27, 2025• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a two step strategy for estimating one-dimensional dynamical parameters of a quantum Markov chain, which involves quantum post-processing the output using a coherent quantum absorber and a "pattern counting'' estimator computed as a simple additive functional of the outcomes trajectory produced by sequential, identical measurements on the output units. We provide strong theoretical and numerical evidence that the estimator achieves the quantum Cramer-Rao bound in the limit of large output size. Our estimation method is underpinned by an asymptotic theory of translationally invariant modes (TIMs) built as averages of shifted tensor products of output operators, labelled by binary patterns. For large times, the TIMs form a bosonic algebra and the output state approaches a joint coherent state of the TIMs whose amplitude depends linearly on the mismatch between system and absorber parameters. Moreover, in the asymptotic regime the TIMs capture the full quantum Fisher information of the output state. While directly probing the TIMs' quadratures seems impractical, we show that the standard sequential measurement is an effective joint measurement of all the TIMs number operators; indeed, we show that counts of different binary patterns extracted from the measurement trajectory have the expected joint Poisson distribution. Together with the displaced-null methodology of \cite{GiGoGu} this provides a computationally efficient estimator which only depends on the total number of patterns. This opens the way for similar estimation strategies in continuous-time dynamics, expanding the results of \cite{DayouCounting}.

DOI
10.22331/q-2025-08-27-1835

Related papers

Adaptive measurement filter: efficient strategy for optimal estimation of quantum Markov chains

Alfred Godley, Mădălin Guţǎ

Continuous-time measurements are instrumental for a multitude of tasks in quantum engineering and quantum control, including the estimation of dynamical parameters of open quantum systems monitored through the environment. However, such measurements do not extract the maximum amount of information available in the output state, so finding alternative optimal measurement strategies is a major open problem. In this paper we solve this problem in the setting of discrete-time input-output quantum Markov chains. We present an efficient algorithm for optimal estimation of one-dimensional dynamical parameters which consists of an iterative procedure for updating a `measurement filter' operator and determining successive measurement bases for the output units. A key ingredient of the scheme is the use of a coherent quantum absorber as a way to post-process the output after the interaction with the system. This is designed adaptively such that the joint system and absorber stationary state is pure at a reference parameter value. The scheme offers an exciting prospect for optimal continuous-time adaptive measurements, but more work is needed to find realistic practical implementations.

arXiv:2204.08964•Quantum•Apr 6, 2023•17 citations

Absorption-based qubit estimation in discrete-time quantum walks

Edgard P. M. Amorim, Lorena R. Cerutti, O. P. de Sá Neto +1 more

We investigate state estimation in discrete-time quantum walks with a single absorbing boundary. Using a spectral approach, we obtain closed expressions for the escape probability as a function of the initial coin state and the boundary position, together with the corresponding classical Fisher information for a binary absorption readout. Comparison with the single-copy quantum Fisher information reveals a clear complementarity: near boundaries carry broad information about the polar (Bloch-sphere) angle of the coin state, whereas moderate or distant boundaries reveal phase-sensitive regions. Because a single boundary probes only one information direction, combining two boundary placements yields, generically, a full-rank Fisher matrix and tight joint Cramér-Rao bounds while retaining a binary measurement without mode-resolved tomography. We also discuss a restricted-readout photonic implementation in which an on-chip sink realizes the absorber, and we frame the resulting advantage as a potential reduction in measurement-setting and reconfiguration overhead for low-dimensional parameter estimation tasks in architectures where direct projective access to the coin is unavailable. Our results show that absorption in quantum walks defines an analytically tractable restricted-access primitive for coin-state estimation.

quant-pharXiv:2512.02186•APS Open Science•Dec 3, 2025•0 citations

Limits on Parameter Estimation of Quantum Channels

Vishal Katariya

The aim of this thesis is to develop a theoretical framework to study parameter estimation of quantum channels. We begin by describing the classical task of parameter estimation that we build upon. In its most basic form, parameter estimation is the task of obtaining an estimate of an unknown parameter from some experimental data. This experimental data can be seen as a number of samples of a parameterized probability distribution. In general, the goal of such a task is to obtain an estimate of the unknown parameter while minimizing its error. We study the task of estimating unknown parameters which are encoded in a quantum channel. A quantum channel is a map that describes the evolution of the state of a quantum system. We study this task in the sequential setting. This means that the channel in question is used multiple times, and each channel use happens subsequent to the previous one. A sequential strategy is the most general way to use, or process, a channel multiple times. Our goal is to establish lower bounds on the estimation error in such a task. These bounds are called Cramer--Rao bounds. Quantum channels encompass all possible dynamics allowed by quantum mechanics, and sequential estimation strategies capture the most general way to process multiple uses of a channel. Therefore, the bounds we develop are universally applicable. We consider the use of catalysts to enhance the power of a channel estimation strategy. This is termed amortization. The reason we do so is to investigate if an n-round sequential estimation strategy does better than a simpler parallel strategy. Quantitatively, the power of a channel for a particular estimation task is determined by the channel's Fisher information. Thus, we study how much a catalyst quantum state can enhance the Fisher information of a quantum channel by defining the amortized Fisher information. In the quantum setting, there are many Fisher information quantities that can be defined. We limit our study to two particular ones: the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) Fisher information and the right logarithmic derivative (RLD) Fisher information. We establish our Cramer--Rao bounds by proving that for certain Fisher information quantities, catalyst states do not improve the performance of a sequential estimation protocol. The technical term for this is an amortization collapse. We show how such a collapse leads directly to a corresponding Cramer--Rao bound. We establish bounds both when estimating a single parameter and when

arXiv:2201.01738•Civil War Book Review•Dec 15, 2021•0 citations

Asymptotic statistical theory of irreducible quantum Markov chains

Federico Girotti, Jukka Kiukas, Mădălin Guţă

In this paper we investigate the asymptotic statistical theory of irreducible quantum Markov chains, focusing on identifiability properties and asymptotic convergence of associated quantum statistical models. We show that the space of identifiable parameters for the stationary output is a stratified space called an orbifold, which is obtained as the quotient of the manifold of irreducible dynamics by a compact group of state preserving symmetries. We analyse the orbifold's geometric properties, the connection between periodicity and strata, and provide orbifold charts as the starting point for the local asymptotic theory. The quantum Fisher information rate of the system and output state is expressed in terms of a canonical inner product on the identifiable tangent space. We then show that the joint system and output model satisfies quantum local asymptotic normality while the stationary output model converges to a product between a quantum Gaussian shift model and a mixture of quantum Gaussian shift models, reflecting the underlying periodicity. These strong convergence results provide the basis for constructing asymptotically optimal estimators of dynamical parameters. We provide an in-depth analysis of the model with smallest dimensions, consisting of two-dimensional system and environment units.

math.STCross-listedarXiv:2603.20761•Mar 24, 2026•0 citations

Encoding parameters by measurement: Forgetting can be better in quantum metrology

Shuva Mondal, Priya Ghosh, Ujjwal Sen

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.

quant-pharXiv:2512.10541•Dec 12, 2025•0 citations

Cost-effective estimation of single-mode thermal states by probabilistic quantum metrology

Massimo Frigerio, Stefano Olivares, Matteo G. A. Paris

Abstract In probabilistic quantum metrology, one aims at finding measurements that concentrate the Fisher information on the resulting conditional quantum states, i.e. those states post-selected according to the outcome of the measurement. The quantum Cramér–Rao (QCR) bound itself cannot be surpassed this way, but it could be possible to improve the information-cost ratio (where cost refers to the experimental implementation), or even the total Fisher information. In this paper, we propose a post-selection protocol achieving this goal using single-photon subtraction and thermal states of radiation. In particular, we achieve a larger information-cost ratio for the estimation of temperature than the strategy attaining the QCR bound. Our scheme involves only classical states of radiation and this contrasts with (but does not contradict) recent results proving that for unitary quantum statistical models, post-selection strategies can outperform direct protocols only exploiting nonclassical states.

arXiv:2111.05285•Quantum Science and Technology•May 19, 2022•3 citations
We propose a two step strategy for estimating one-dimensional dynamical parameters of a quantum Markov chain, which involves quantum post-processing the output using a coherent quantum absorber and a "pattern counting'' estimator computed as a simple additive functional of the outcomes trajectory produced by sequential, identical measurements on the output units. We provide strong theoretical and numerical evidence that the estimator achieves the quantum Cramer-Rao bound in the limit of large output size. Our estimation method is underpinned by an asymptotic theory of translationally invariant modes (TIMs) built as averages of shifted tensor products of output operators, labelled by binary patterns. For large times, the TIMs form a bosonic algebra and the output state approaches a joint coherent state of the TIMs whose amplitude depends linearly on the mismatch between system and absorber parameters. Moreover, in the asymptotic regime the TIMs capture the full quantum Fisher information of the output state. While directly probing the TIMs' quadratures seems impractical, we show that the standard sequential measurement is an effective joint measurement of all the TIMs number operators; indeed, we show that counts of different binary patterns extracted from the measurement trajectory have the expected joint Poisson distribution. Together with the displaced-null methodology of \cite{GiGoGu} this provides a computationally efficient estimator which only depends on the total number of patterns. This opens the way for similar estimation strategies in continuous-time dynamics, expanding the results of \cite{DayouCounting}.
Continuous-time measurements are instrumental for a multitude of tasks in quantum engineering and quantum control, including the estimation of dynamical parameters of open quantum systems monitored through the environment. However, such measurements do not extract the maximum amount of information available in the output state, so finding alternative optimal measurement strategies is a major open problem. In this paper we solve this problem in the setting of discrete-time input-output quantum Markov chains. We present an efficient algorithm for optimal estimation of one-dimensional dynamical parameters which consists of an iterative procedure for updating a `measurement filter' operator and determining successive measurement bases for the output units. A key ingredient of the scheme is the use of a coherent quantum absorber as a way to post-process the output after the interaction with the system. This is designed adaptively such that the joint system and absorber stationary state is pure at a reference parameter value. The scheme offers an exciting prospect for optimal continuous-time adaptive measurements, but more work is needed to find realistic practical implementations.
We investigate state estimation in discrete-time quantum walks with a single absorbing boundary. Using a spectral approach, we obtain closed expressions for the escape probability as a function of the initial coin state and the boundary position, together with the corresponding classical Fisher information for a binary absorption readout. Comparison with the single-copy quantum Fisher information reveals a clear complementarity: near boundaries carry broad information about the polar (Bloch-sphere) angle of the coin state, whereas moderate or distant boundaries reveal phase-sensitive regions. Because a single boundary probes only one information direction, combining two boundary placements yields, generically, a full-rank Fisher matrix and tight joint Cramér-Rao bounds while retaining a binary measurement without mode-resolved tomography. We also discuss a restricted-readout photonic implementation in which an on-chip sink realizes the absorber, and we frame the resulting advantage as a potential reduction in measurement-setting and reconfiguration overhead for low-dimensional parameter estimation tasks in architectures where direct projective access to the coin is unavailable. Our results show that absorption in quantum walks defines an analytically tractable restricted-access primitive for coin-state estimation.
The aim of this thesis is to develop a theoretical framework to study parameter estimation of quantum channels. We begin by describing the classical task of parameter estimation that we build upon. In its most basic form, parameter estimation is the task of obtaining an estimate of an unknown parameter from some experimental data. This experimental data can be seen as a number of samples of a parameterized probability distribution. In general, the goal of such a task is to obtain an estimate of the unknown parameter while minimizing its error. We study the task of estimating unknown parameters which are encoded in a quantum channel. A quantum channel is a map that describes the evolution of the state of a quantum system. We study this task in the sequential setting. This means that the channel in question is used multiple times, and each channel use happens subsequent to the previous one. A sequential strategy is the most general way to use, or process, a channel multiple times. Our goal is to establish lower bounds on the estimation error in such a task. These bounds are called Cramer--Rao bounds. Quantum channels encompass all possible dynamics allowed by quantum mechanics, and sequential estimation strategies capture the most general way to process multiple uses of a channel. Therefore, the bounds we develop are universally applicable. We consider the use of catalysts to enhance the power of a channel estimation strategy. This is termed amortization. The reason we do so is to investigate if an n-round sequential estimation strategy does better than a simpler parallel strategy. Quantitatively, the power of a channel for a particular estimation task is determined by the channel's Fisher information. Thus, we study how much a catalyst quantum state can enhance the Fisher information of a quantum channel by defining the amortized Fisher information. In the quantum setting, there are many Fisher information quantities that can be defined. We limit our study to two particular ones: the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) Fisher information and the right logarithmic derivative (RLD) Fisher information. We establish our Cramer--Rao bounds by proving that for certain Fisher information quantities, catalyst states do not improve the performance of a sequential estimation protocol. The technical term for this is an amortization collapse. We show how such a collapse leads directly to a corresponding Cramer--Rao bound. We establish bounds both when estimating a single parameter and when
In this paper we investigate the asymptotic statistical theory of irreducible quantum Markov chains, focusing on identifiability properties and asymptotic convergence of associated quantum statistical models. We show that the space of identifiable parameters for the stationary output is a stratified space called an orbifold, which is obtained as the quotient of the manifold of irreducible dynamics by a compact group of state preserving symmetries. We analyse the orbifold's geometric properties, the connection between periodicity and strata, and provide orbifold charts as the starting point for the local asymptotic theory. The quantum Fisher information rate of the system and output state is expressed in terms of a canonical inner product on the identifiable tangent space. We then show that the joint system and output model satisfies quantum local asymptotic normality while the stationary output model converges to a product between a quantum Gaussian shift model and a mixture of quantum Gaussian shift models, reflecting the underlying periodicity. These strong convergence results provide the basis for constructing asymptotically optimal estimators of dynamical parameters. We provide an in-depth analysis of the model with smallest dimensions, consisting of two-dimensional system and environment units.
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.
Abstract In probabilistic quantum metrology, one aims at finding measurements that concentrate the Fisher information on the resulting conditional quantum states, i.e. those states post-selected according to the outcome of the measurement. The quantum Cramér–Rao (QCR) bound itself cannot be surpassed this way, but it could be possible to improve the information-cost ratio (where cost refers to the experimental implementation), or even the total Fisher information. In this paper, we propose a post-selection protocol achieving this goal using single-photon subtraction and thermal states of radiation. In particular, we achieve a larger information-cost ratio for the estimation of temperature than the strategy attaining the QCR bound. Our scheme involves only classical states of radiation and this contrasts with (but does not contradict) recent results proving that for unitary quantum statistical models, post-selection strategies can outperform direct protocols only exploiting nonclassical states.