We establish the necessary and sufficient conditions for local unbiased estimation in multi-parameter estimation tasks. More specifically, we first consider quantum state estimation, where multiple parameters are encoded in a quantum state, and derive simple and intuitive necessary and sufficient conditions for a local unbiased estimation based on the derivatives of the encoded state. To demonstrate the utility of our framework, we consider phase estimation under unknown Pauli noise. We show that while local unbiased phase estimation is infeasible with a naive scheme, employing an entangled probe with a noiseless ancilla enables local unbiased estimation. We then extend our analysis to quantum channel estimation and derive a necessary and sufficient condition for local unbiased estimability of channel parameters, allowing noiseless ancillae, general CPTP controls, and multiple uses of the channel. As a concrete application, we analyze unbiased estimation of noise parameters affecting non-Clifford gates via cycle benchmarking under SPAM errors.
We establish the necessary and sufficient conditions for local unbiased estimation in multi-parameter estimation tasks. More specifically, we first consider quantum state estimation, where multiple parameters are encoded in a quantum state, and derive simple and intuitive necessary and sufficient conditions for a local unbiased estimation based on the derivatives of the encoded state. To demonstrate the utility of our framework, we consider phase estimation under unknown Pauli noise. We show that while local unbiased phase estimation is infeasible with a naive scheme, employing an entangled probe with a noiseless ancilla enables local unbiased estimation. We then extend our analysis to quantum channel estimation and derive a necessary and sufficient condition for local unbiased estimability of channel parameters, allowing noiseless ancillae, general CPTP controls, and multiple uses of the channel. As a concrete application, we analyze unbiased estimation of noise parameters affecting non-Clifford gates via cycle benchmarking under SPAM errors.
A generic qubit unitary operator affected by quantum noise is duplicated and inserted in a coherently superposed channel, superposing two paths offered to a probe qubit across the noisy unitary, and driven by a control qubit. A characterization is performed of the transformation realized by the superposed channel on the joint state of the probe-control qubit pair. The superposed channel is then specifically analyzed for the fundamental metrological task of phase estimation on the noisy unitary, with the performance assessed by the Fisher information, classical or quantum. A comparison is made with conventional estimation techniques and also with a quantum switched channel with indefinite causal order recently investigated for a similar task of phase estimation. In the analysis here, a first important observation is that the control qubit of the superposed channel, although it never directly interacts with the unitary being estimated, can nevertheless be measured alone for effective estimation, while discarding the probe qubit that interacts with the unitary. This property is also present with the switched channel but is inaccessible with conventional techniques. The optimal measurement of the control qubit here is characterized in general conditions. A second important observation is that the noise plays an essential role in coupling the control qubit to the unitary, and that the control qubit remains operative for phase estimation at very strong noise, even with a fully depolarizing noise, whereas conventional estimation and the switched channel become inoperative in these conditions. The results extend the analysis of the capabilities of coherently controlled channels which represent novel devices exploitable for quantum signal and information processing.
We study the role of ancillary entanglement in quantum channel parameter estimation and investigate the minimal ancilla dimension required to achieve the maximum Fisher information. We introduce the k-ancilla Fisher information, which quantifies the optimal estimation precision achievable with input states of rank at most k, and derive a variational characterization in terms of a rank-constrained optimization problem. This formulation leads to a simple characterization of the minimum ancilla dimension k∗ required for optimal estimation, given by the minimum rank among the maximizers of the associated variational problem. We further identify sufficient conditions under which ancillary entanglement provides no advantage, including channel families admitting a fixed measure-and-prepare representation and channels satisfying a natural horizontality condition. In addition, we derive a bound on the incremental gain in Fisher information obtained by increasing the ancilla dimension under suitable structural assumptions on the optimal input states. The general results are illustrated through explicit examples, including unitary channels, qubit depolarizing and amplitude damping channels. These results provide a systematic framework for understanding and quantifying the entanglement resources required for optimal quantum channel estimation.
We propose a parameter estimation protocol for generalized Pauli channels acting on d -dimensional Hilbert space. The salient features of the proposed method include product probe states and measurements, the number of measurement configurations linear in d , minimal post-processing, and the scaling of the mean square error comparable to that of the entanglement-based parameter estimation scheme for generalized Pauli channels. We also show that while measuring generalized Pauli operators the errors caused by the Pauli noise can be modeled as measurement errors. This makes it possible to utilize the measurement error mitigation framework to mitigate the errors caused by the generalized Pauli channels. We use this result to mitigate noise on the probe states and recover the scaling of the noiseless probes, except with a noise strength-dependent constant factor. This method of modeling Pauli channel as measurement noise can also be of independent interest in other NISQ tasks, e.g., state tomography problems, variational quantum algorithms, and other channel estimation problems where Pauli measurements have the central role.
Optimal probe states and measurements are always required to achieve the best estimation precision in quantum metrology. In the actual physical environment, ubiquitous noise hinders estimation precision and amplifies the challenges of optimizing the probe states and measurements. In this study we extend a theoretical proposal, presented in Phys. Rev. A 103, 032615 (2021), to encompass noisy general Pauli channels for SU(2) phase estimation. By utilizing a superposition of different causal orders of two channels, we establish theoretically a probe-state-independent criterion for the estimation precision. We show that the probe-state-independent property results from the noncommutativity of the Kraus operators of the parameter-encoding channels. Based on this criterion, one can find some parameter-encoding channels without the requirement of precisely preparing the probe state. Moreover, our scheme requires only deterministic projection measurement on the control qubit. In this way, one can simultaneously avoid optimizing both the probe states and measurements. In addition, we also show that the estimation precision and probe-state-independent property of the indefinite causal order scheme are independent of representations of the Kraus operators. This alleviates the experimental challenges in realizing quantum channels. We demonstrate experimentally the advantages of the indefinite causal order for phase estimation of an SU(2) unitary transformation in the three kinds of quantum noise channels. Our result shows that the dynamic evolution of indefinite causal order can outperform the conventional cascaded estimation scenario at high noise levels, exhibiting high robustness and feasibility in practical estimation tasks.
Erasures are more favorable for quantum sensing than unflagged errors such as Pauli errors. However, realistic sensing noise does not usually appear as erasures; it often acts within the same sensing Hilbert space as the signal, making it difficult to identify and mitigate. For such noise, we establish a noise-model-agnostic necessary and sufficient condition for erasure conversion, identifying the noise components that can be converted into erasures and removed without damaging the signal. For components satisfying the condition, conversion can be realized by a passive dimension-lifted scheme requiring neither detailed noise knowledge nor active control. Theoretically, the protocol remains effective over a broad range of noise strengths and approaches the corresponding precision limit. Experimentally, in single-photon phase sensing, we recover standard-quantum-limit precision in a Pauli-noise channel with erasure-convertible weight 0.5, using orbital angular momentum as the ancilla. These results provide a practical route to robust quantum sensing under realistic noise.
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