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arXiv:2504.18324 · Physical Review A

Measurement compatibility in multiparameter quantum interferometry

Jayanth Jayakumar, Marco Barbieri, Magdalena Stobińska

Published Sep 11, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

The Cram\'er-Rao bound captures completely the performance of single-parameter quantum sensors. On the other hand, its extension to multiple parameters demands more caution. Different aspects need to be captured at once, including, critically, compatibility. In this article we consider compatibility in quantum interferometry for an important class of probe states, measured by double homodyne or photon counters, standard benchmarks for these applications. We include the presence of loss and phase diffusion in the estimation of a phase. Our results illustrate how different weighting of the precision on individual parameters affects their compatibility, adding to the list of considerations for quantum multiparameter estimation.

DOI
10.1103/m8l6-8nct

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The Cram'er-Rao bound captures completely the performance of single-parameter quantum sensors. On the other hand, its extension to multiple parameters demands more caution. Different aspects need to be captured at once, including, critically, compatibility. In this article we consider compatibility in quantum interferometry for an important class of probe states, measured by double homodyne or photon counters, standard benchmarks for these applications. We include the presence of loss and phase diffusion in the estimation of a phase. Our results illustrate how different weighting of the precision on individual parameters affects their compatibility, adding to the list of considerations for quantum multiparameter estimation.
We investigate the ultimate precision achievable in Gaussian quantum metrology. We derive general analytical expressions for the quantum Fisher information matrix and for the measurement compatibility condition, ensuring asymptotic saturability of the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound, for the estimation of multiple parameters encoded in multimode Gaussian states. We then apply our results to the joint estimation of a phase shift and two parameters characterizing Gaussian phase covariant noise in optical interferometry. In such a scheme, we show that two-mode displaced squeezed input probes with optimally tuned squeezing and displacement fulfill the measurement compatibility condition and enable the simultaneous estimation of all three parameters, with an advantage over individual estimation schemes that quickly rises with increasing mean energy of the probes.
Interferometry with quantum light is known to provide enhanced precision for estimating a single phase. However, depending on the parameters involved, the quantum limit for the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters may not attainable, leading to trade-offs in the attainable precisions. Here we study the simultaneous estimation of two parameters related to optical interferometry: phase and loss, using a fixed number of photons. We derive a trade-off in the estimation of these two parameters which shows that, in contrast to single-parameter estimation, it is impossible to design a strategy saturating the quantum Cramer-Rao bound for loss and phase estimation in a single setup simultaneously. We design optimal quantum states with a fixed number of photons achieving the best possible simultaneous precisions. Our results reveal general features about concurrently estimating Hamiltonian and dissipative parameters, and has implications for sophisticated sensing scenarios such as quantum imaging.
Only with the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters are the quantum aspects of metrology fully revealed. This is due to the incompatibility of observables. The fundamental bound for multiparameter quantum estimation is the Holevo Cramér-Rao bound (HCRB) whose evaluation has so far remained elusive. For finite-dimensional systems we recast its evaluation as a semidefinite program, with reduced size for rank-deficient states. We show that it also satisfies strong duality. We use this result to study phase and loss estimation in optical interferometry and three-dimensional magnetometry with noisy multiqubit systems. For the former, we show that, in some regimes, it is possible to attain the HCRB with the optimal (single-copy) measurement for phase estimation. For the latter, we show a nontrivial interplay between the HCRB and incompatibility and provide numerical evidence that projective single-copy measurements attain the HCRB in the noiseless 2-qubit case.
The sensitivity of a probe to a parameter characterizing a system can be described within the single-parameter estimation framework.In the simplest treatment, the parameter is estimated under ideal conditions, neglecting imperfections from system-environment interactions.More advanced analyses consider estimation in the presence of known environmental noise.Although Heisenberglimited sensitivity is lost, suitably engineered probes can still offer quantum enhancements.When the noise itself is unknown, the estimation problem becomes more complex, requiring a multiparameter approach.Fundamental precision bounds for multiparameter estimation are well established, but their practical attainability remains elusive due to the challenge of constructing measurements with good multiparameter sensitivity.For a given probe, the incompatibility of optimal observables associated with different parameters poses an additional roadblock to achieving simultaneous optimal estimation.In practice, assessing the compatibility of separable measurements is essential, since very often collective strategies that are impractical are required to saturate the bound capturing fundamental incompatibility.To this end, we consider the joint estimation of phase and phase diffusion, introducing quantifiers for information extraction and availability.We find that double homodyne measurement on states generated by the interference of N photons injected into one beamsplitter port yields the highest sensitivity.With respect to measurement compatibility, we study the joint estimation of phase and photon loss, and of phase and phase diffusion.Using the same multiphoton states, we compare double homodyne detection and photon counting against multiparameter precision benchmarks for collective and separable measurements.Among the cases considered, photon counting generally offers better performance for joint phase and loss estimation, while double homodyne still performs reasonably in some regimes for both estimation problems.
The multiparameter estimation in quantum metrology is significant for a large number of applications for quantum information tasks. Nevertheless, how mode correlations affect the multiparameter-estimation precision with and without photon-loss cases remains ambiguous. For this reason, here, we present the relationship between the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound and the mode correlations in the framework of the simultaneous two-phase estimation for a three-mode Mach-Zehnder interferometer induced by the tritter which is composed of three cascaded beam splitters and phase shifters. By choosing different input resources, including a two-mode squeezed vacuum state $\ensuremath{\bigotimes}$ a coherent state (scheme I) and a twin squeezed vacuum state $\ensuremath{\bigotimes}$ a coherent state (scheme II), the results show that compared with scheme II, scheme I shows a better estimation performance even in the presence of photon losses. The reason may be that the intramode correlation of the probe state for scheme I is stronger than that for scheme II, while the intermode correlation of the probe state for the former is weaker than that for the latter. This allow us to open vital perspectives on the essence of enhanced multiparameter-estimation precision.
Optimal measurements for quantum multiparameter estimation are complicated by the uncertainty principle. Generally, there is a trade-off between the precision with which different parameters can be simultaneously estimated. The task of determining the minimum achievable estimation error is a central task of multiparameter quantum metrology. For estimating parameters encoded in pure quantum states, the ultimate limit is known, but is given by the solution of a non-trivial minimisation problem. We present a new expression for the achievable bound for two-parameter estimation with pure states that is considerably simpler. We also determine the optimal measurements, completing the problem of two-parameter estimation with pure state probes. To demonstrate the utility of our result, we determine the precision limit for estimating displacements using grid states.