The formalism of quantum estimation theory with a specific focus on classical data postprocessing is applied to a two-level system driven by an external gyrating magnetic field. We employed both Bayesian and frequentist approaches to estimate the unknown transition frequency. In the frequentist approach, we have shown that only reducing the distance between the classical and the quantum Fisher information does not necessarily mean that the estimators as functions of the data deliver an estimate with desirable accuracy, as the classical Fisher information takes small values. We have proposed and investigated a cost function to account for the maximization of the classical Fisher information and the minimization of the aforementioned distance. Due to the nonlinearity of the probability mass function of the data on the transition frequency, the minimum variance unbiased estimator may not exist. The maximum likelihood and the maximum estimators often result in ambiguous estimates, which in certain cases can be made unambiguous upon changing the parameters of the external field. It is demonstrated that the minimum mean-square error estimator of the Bayesian statistics provides unambiguous estimates. In the Bayesian approach, we have also investigated the effects of noninformative and informative priors on the Bayesian estimates, including a uniform prior, Jeffrey's prior, and a Gaussian prior.
The formalism of quantum estimation theory with a specific focus on classical data postprocessing is applied to a two-level system driven by an external gyrating magnetic field. We employed both Bayesian and frequentist approaches to estimate the unknown transition frequency. In the frequentist approach, we have shown that only reducing the distance between the classical and the quantum Fisher information does not necessarily mean that the estimators as functions of the data deliver an estimate with desirable accuracy, as the classical Fisher information takes small values. We have proposed and investigated a cost function to account for the maximization of the classical Fisher information and the minimization of the aforementioned distance. Due to the nonlinearity of the probability mass function of the data on the transition frequency, the minimum variance unbiased estimator may not exist. The maximum likelihood and the maximum estimators often result in ambiguous estimates, which in certain cases can be made unambiguous upon changing the parameters of the external field. It is demonstrated that the minimum mean-square error estimator of the Bayesian statistics provides unambiguous estimates. In the Bayesian approach, we have also investigated the effects of noninformative and informative priors on the Bayesian estimates, including a uniform prior, Jeffrey's prior, and a Gaussian prior.
The frequentist (local) quantum parameter estimation based on the Cramer-Rao bound is an asymptotic theory and therefore requires an infinite number of samples for the measurements. On the other hand, by introducing the prior probability distribution, Bayesian parameter estimation approach relaxes this requirement and can be successfully applied under realistic assumption of possessing a limited prior information about the parameter value under investigation. Meanwhile, recent advances in PT-symmetric quantum mechanics, both theoretically and experimentally, provide an opportunity to significantly enhance the parameter estimation precision by manipulating the Hilbert space of the system. Taking advantage of these, we develop the Bayesian parameter estimation approach for the two-level system possessing PT symmetry. We consider both options available in PT-symmetric quantum mechanics, namely the CPT and Hermitian measurements, for encoding the probe state and manipulation of the quantum Fisher information of the system and take into account possible decoherence effects inherent for the practical implementations. Our approach should be particularly relevant for applications where the accuracy of quantum parameter estimation is crucial, such as quantum randomness sources and the quantum key distribution. Finally, to bridge the gap with the practical implementations, we consider the relation of our scheme with the current implementation of PT symmetry on the IBM quantum processor and formulate our approach as Bayesian parameter estimation employing an ancilla qubit.
Parameter estimation, which undertakes one of the vital missions in quantum metrology, has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. A large number of investigations on the frequency estimation have been carried out. Most of them are based on Cramér-Rao bound estimation approach in which almost perfect knowledge of the parameter to be estimated is given. In reality, however, one has inadequate prior knowledge about the parameter to be estimated. Then the Bayesian estimation approach in which we can perform the estimation even if we only have partial prior information about the parameter would be an ideal choice. Prior information about the parameter can play a significant role in Bayesian statistical inference. So it is interesting to know how the prior knowledge affects the estimation accuracy in the estimation process. In the solid-state realization of probe system, material-specific fluctuations typically lead to the major contribution to the intrinsic noise. Then it is interesting to study the effects of colored noise on the quantum parameter estimation. In this work, we study the inhibitory effects of prior probability distribution of the parameter to be estimated on the effects of colored noise under the framework of Bayesian parameter estimation theory. In particular, we estimate the intensity of a magnetic field by adopting a spin-1/2 system which is influenced by the colored noise with 1/fα spectrum. To evaluate the accuracy of estimation, we obtain the Bayes cost analytically which can be applied to the noisy channels. We mainly focus on the inhibitory effect of prior probability distribution of measured parameter on the non-Gaussianity of noise. We find that for the case of broad prior frequency distribution, the influence of non-Gaussianity on the estimation is very weak. While for the case of narrow prior frequency distribution, the influence of non-Gaussianity on the estimation is strong. That means that in the Bayesian approach, when we have enough prior information about the frequency, the non-Gaussianity can conduce to the improvement of the accuracy of the estimation of the frequency. When we lose the prior information, we also lose the improvement of the accuracy from the non-Gaussianity. The uncertainty of the prior information tends to eliminate the effects of the non-Gaussianity of the noise.
In the Bayesian theory of statistical inference, as first suggested by Harold Jeffreys in highly influential work, one can employ the square root of the determinant of an n×n Fisher information matrix as a reparametrization-invariant prior (generally unnormalized) measure over an n-dimensional family (Riemannian manifold) of probability distributions. Jeffreys’ ansatz is adopted here to the quantum context, that is, with regard to density matrices rather than probability distributions, by computing the quantum Fisher information matrices (associated with Helstrom and Holevo) for the three-, five-, and eight-dimensional convex sets of two-level complex, two-level quaternionic, and three-level complex systems, respectively. In both the two-level cases, the priors have been normalized to probability distributions over the 2×2 density matrices, while, in the much more computationally demanding three-level situation, no such normalization has been accomplished. An argument is made for the general form, in terms of eigenvalues, that the (unnormalized) prior should assume over the (n2−1)-dimensional convex set of n×n density matrices.
This paper is devoted to the study of the Bayesian-inference approach in the context of estimating the dipole coupling strength in matter-field interactions. In particular, we consider the simplest model of a two-level system interacting with a single mode of the radiation field. Our estimation strategy is based on the emerging state of the two-level system, whereas we determine both the minimum mean-square error and maximum likelihood estimators for uniform and Gaussian prior probability density functions. In the case of the maximum likelihood estimator, we develop a mathematical method which extends the already existing approaches to the variational problem of the average cost function. We demonstrate that long interaction times, large initial mean photon numbers, and nonzero detuning between two-level system transition and the frequency of the electromagnetic field mode have a deleterious effect on the optimality of the estimation scenario. We also present several cases where the estimation process is inconclusive, despite many ideal conditions being met.
Frequentist and Bayesian phase estimation strategies lead to conceptually different results on the state of knowledge about the true value of an unknown parameter. We compare the two frameworks and their sensitivity bounds to the estimation of an interferometric phase shift limited by quantum noise, considering both the cases of a fixed and a fluctuating parameter. We point out that frequentist precision bounds, such as the Cramér-Rao bound, for instance, do not apply to Bayesian strategies and vice versa. In particular, we show that the Bayesian variance can overcome the frequentist Cramér-Rao bound, which appears to be a paradoxical result if the conceptual difference between the two approaches are overlooked. Similarly, bounds for fluctuating parameters make no statement about the estimation of a fixed parameter.
Motivated by the noisy and fluctuating behavior of current quantum computing devices, this paper presents a data-driven characterization approach for estimating transition frequencies and decay times in a Lindbladian dynamical model of a superconducting quantum device. The data includes parity events in the transition frequency between the first and second excited states. A simple but effective mathematical model, based upon averaging solutions of two Lindbladian models, is demonstrated to accurately capture the experimental observations. A deterministic point estimate of the device parameters is first performed to minimize the misfit between data and Lindbladian simulations. These estimates are used to make an informed choice of prior distributions for the subsequent Bayesian inference. An additive Gaussian noise model is developed for the likelihood function, which includes two hyper-parameters to capture the noise structure of the data. The outcome of the Bayesian inference are posterior probability distributions of the transition frequencies, which for example can be utilized to design risk neutral optimal control pulses. The applicability of our approach is demonstrated on experimental data from the Quantum Device and Integration Testbed (QuDIT) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, using a tantalum-based superconducting transmon device.