The uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector serves as a fundamental model in relativistic quantum metrology. While previous studies have mainly concentrated on single-parameter estimation via quantum Cramér-Rao bound, the multi-parameter case remains significantly underexplored. In this paper, we investigate the multiparameter estimation for a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a vacuum scalar field in both bounded and unbounded Minkowski vacuum. Our analysis reveals that quantum Cramér-Rao bound fails to provide a tight error bound for the two-parameter estimation involving the initial phase and weight parameters. For this reason, we numerically compute two tighter error bounds, Holevo Cramér-Rao bound and Nagaoka bound, based on a semidefinite program. Notably, our results demonstrate that Nagaoka bound yields the tightest error bound among all the considered error bounds, consistent with the general hierarchy of multiparameter quantum estimation. In the case with a boundary, we observe the introduction of boundary systematically reduces the values of both Holevo Cramér-Rao bound and Nagaoka bound, indicating an improvement on the attainable estimation precision. These results offer valuable insights on and practical guidance for advancing multiparameter estimation in relativistic context.
The uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector serves as a fundamental model in relativistic quantum metrology. While previous studies have mainly concentrated on single-parameter estimation via quantum Cramér-Rao bound, the multi-parameter case remains significantly underexplored. In this paper, we investigate the multiparameter estimation for a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a vacuum scalar field in both bounded and unbounded Minkowski vacuum. Our analysis reveals that quantum Cramér-Rao bound fails to provide a tight error bound for the two-parameter estimation involving the initial phase and weight parameters. For this reason, we numerically compute two tighter error bounds, Holevo Cramér-Rao bound and Nagaoka bound, based on a semidefinite program. Notably, our results demonstrate that Nagaoka bound yields the tightest error bound among all the considered error bounds, consistent with the general hierarchy of multiparameter quantum estimation. In the case with a boundary, we observe the introduction of boundary systematically reduces the values of both Holevo Cramér-Rao bound and Nagaoka bound, indicating an improvement on the attainable estimation precision. These results offer valuable insights on and practical guidance for advancing multiparameter estimation in relativistic context.
The quantum Fisher information matrix (QFIM) is central to multiparameter quantum metrology, dictating the attainable sensitivity via the quantum Cramér-Rao bound. In this work, we investigate the ultimate precision limits for relativistic quantum thermometry in a bipartite system of uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detectors. Utilizing the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) formalism within the QFIM framework, we analyze the individual and simultaneous estimation of the Unruh temperature T and the initial-state parameter Δ0. In the noiseless case, we demonstrate that these two parameters are quantum compatible, allowing the multiparameter quantum Cramér-Rao bound to be saturated without a loss of precision. We then examine the impact of environmental effects by comparing Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics. In the Markovian regime, dissipation leads to a monotonic degradation of estimation precision; conversely, non-Markovian memory effects induce temporal oscillations and transient precision enhancements due to information backflow. The robustness of the estimation protocols is further analyzed under correlated noisy channels, including amplitude damping, phase flip, and phase damping. We show that dissipative noise results in more significant precision loss than purely dephasing mechanisms, whereas classical correlations in the noise mitigate this degradation. Finally, we discuss the estimation of the detector energy-level spacing ω as a natural extension, highlighting its sensitivity to the environmental structure. Our results provide a unified framework for relativistic multiparameter quantum metrology within the context of open quantum systems.
As photons propagate through curved spacetime, gravitational effects become unavoidable. In particular, gravitational redshift can induce significant distortion in photon wave packets, making it es?sential to investigate parameter estimation within this context. While previous research has focused on single-parameter estimation using the quantum Cramer-Rao bound, the multiparameter scenario remains largely unexplored. In this work, we investigate multiparameter quantum estimation for a photon system subject to gravitational redshift under both amplitude-damping and Ohmic-like dephasing channels. Our analysis reveals that the quantum Cramer-Rao bound fails to provide a tight error bound for the two-parameter estimation involving the initial phase and weight parameters inboth types of noisy channels. To overcome this limitation, we numerically compute two tighter error bounds, i.e., the Holevo Cramer-Rao bound and the Nagaoka bound, when utilizing a semidefinite program. We demonstrate that the Nagaoka bound yields the tightest error bound among all considered bounds, consistent with the general hierarchy of multiparameter quantum estimation. Furthermore, for the three-parameter estimation, including the initial weight parameter, the phase parameter, and the strength of gravitational redshift, we observe significantly enhanced estimation precision in the strong-coupling regime compared to the weak-coupling regime under the amplitude-damping channel. Similarly, in the Ohmic-like dephasing channel, the sub-Ohmic regime consistently affords higher precision than the Ohmic and super-Ohmic regimes.
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.
Measurement estimation bounds for local quantum multiparameter estimation, which provide lower bounds on possible measurement uncertainties, have so far been formulated in two ways: by extending the classical Cramér-Rao bound (e.g., the quantum Cramér-Rao bound and the Nagaoka Cramér-Rao bound) and by incorporating the parameter estimation framework with the uncertainty principle, as in the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation. In this work, we present a general framework that allows a direct comparison between these different types of estimation limits. Specifically, we compare the attainability of the Nagaoka Cramér-Rao bound and the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation, using analytical and numerical techniques. We show that these two limits can provide different information about the physically attainable precision. We present an example where both limits provide the same attainable precision and an example where the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation is not attainable even for pure states. We further demonstrate that the unattainability in the latter case arises because the figure of merit underpinning the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation (the difference between the quantum and classical Fisher information matrices) does not necessarily agree with the conventionally used figure of merit (mean-squared error). The results offer insights into the general attainability and applicability of the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation. Furthermore, our proposed framework for comparing bounds of different types may prove useful in other settings. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Multiparameter quantum metrology is ubiquitous in physics, yet it remains fundamentally challenging. As reflected by the uncertainty principle, distinct unknown parameters generally cannot be estimated simultaneously at their individual ultimate precision limits. The quantum Cramér--Rao bound (QCRB) and the Holevo Cramér--Rao bound (HCRB) represent the ultimate precision bounds in multiparameter quantum metrology. Here we introduce new formulations of these bounds based on quantum state purification. We show that, for any mixed state, their values are directly related to those of its purification, provided that nuisance parameters are introduced on the environmental system. Leveraging this connection, we develop a remarkably simple method for asymptotically attaining either the HCRB or twice the QCRB for arbitrary mixed states, using random purification channels and individual measurements.
The goal of quantum metrology is the exploitation of quantum resources, like entanglement or quantum coherence, in the fundamental task of parameter estimation. Here we consider the question of the estimation of the Unruh temperature in the scenario of relativistic quantum metrology. Specifically, we study two distinct cases. First, a single Unruh-DeWitt detector interacting with a scalar quantum field undergoes an uniform acceleration for a finite amount of proper time, and the role of coherence in the estimation process is analyzed. After this, we consider two initially entangled detectors, one of which is inertial while the other one undergoes acceleration. Our results show that the maximum of the Fisher information, thus characterizing the maximum possible precision according to Crammér-Rao bound, occurs only for small accelerations, while it decreases fast when acceleration increases. Moreover, the role of initial coherence ---in the single detector case---, or entanglement ---in the two detectors case---, is to decrease Fisher information. Therefore, under the considered protocol, internal coherence (or entanglement) is not a resource for estimating Unruh temperature. These unexpected results show that a detection of the Unruh effect can be even more challenge than previously thought. Finally, by considering the connection between Unruh effect and Hawking radiation, we discuss how our results can be understood in the context of the estimation of Hawking temperature.