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arXiv:2608.11042

Entanglement depth and ancilla efficiency in quantum channel estimation

Javid Naikoo

quant-phSubmitted Aug 11, 2026• Announced Aug 12, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

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.

Comments
9 pages, 1 figure; comments welcome

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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 kkk-ancilla Fisher information, which quantifies the optimal estimation precision achievable with input states of rank at most kkk, 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∗k^*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.
The quantum Fisher information of a quantum state with respect to a certain parameter quantifies the sensitivity of the quantum state to changes in that parameter. Maximizing the quantum Fisher information is essential for achieving the optimal estimation precision of quantum sensors. A typical quantum sensor involves a qubit(e.g. a spin-1/2) probe undergoing an unknown rotation, here the unknown rotation angle is the parameter to be estimated. A well known limitation is that if the rotation axis is unknown, the maximal quantum Fisher information is impossible to attain. This limitation has been lifted recently by leveraging entanglement between the probe qubit and an ancilla qubit. Namely, through measurement of the ancilla after the axis is revealed, one can prepare the probe that is optimal for any unknown rotation axis. This proposal, however, works only for a spin-1/2. Considering large spin probes can achieve a larger quantum Fisher information, offering enhanced metrological advantage, we here utilize the entanglement between a large spin probe and an ancilla to achieve optimal quantum Fisher information for estimating the rotation angle, without prior knowledge of the rotation axis. Different from the previous spin-1/2 case, achieving the optimal precision with large spins generally requires post-selection, resulting in a success probability dependent on the dimension of the Hilbert space. Furthermore, we extend the encoding state from the maximally entangled case to general entangled states, showing that optimal metrology can still be achieved with a certain success probability.
The Heisenberg scaling is an ultimate precision limit of parameter estimation allowed by the principles of quantum mechanics, with no counterpart in the classical realm, and has been a long-pursued goal in quantum metrology. It has been known that interactions between the probes can help reach the Heisenberg scaling without entanglement. In this paper, we show that interactions between the probes and the additional dimensions of an ancillary system may also increase the precision of parameter estimation to surpass the standard quantum limit and attain the Heisenberg scaling without entanglement, if the measurement scheme is properly designed. The quantum Fisher information exhibits periodic patterns over the evolution time, implying the existence of optimal time points for measurements that can maximize the quantum Fisher information. By implementing optimizations over the Hamiltonian, the initial states of the probes and the ancillary system, the interaction strength, and the time points for measurements, our protocol achieves the Heisenberg scaling for the parameter of the probe Hamiltonian, in terms of both evolution time and probe number. Our protocol features two aspects: (i) the Heisenberg scaling can be achieved by a product state of the probes and (ii) mere local measurement on the ancilla is sufficient, both of which reduce the quantum resources and the implementation complexity to achieve the Heisenberg scaling. The paper is concluded by the investigation of the effects of noise on this protocol.
Entanglement fidelity quantifies how well a quantum channel preserves the correlations between a transmitted system and an inaccessible reference system. We derive closed-form expressions for the entanglement fidelity associated with several standard quantum noise models, including the random Pauli-X, dephasing, depolarizing, Werner-Holevo, generalized Pauli (Weyl), and amplitude-damping channels. For each model, we express the entanglement fidelity in terms of a general input density operator ρρρ, using Schumacher's Kraus-operator approach, which provides a channel-agnostic recipe applicable to any completely positive trace-preserving (CPTP) map with a finite Kraus representation. We then specialize to a communication scenario in which the source emits a two-letter parametric alphabet, thereby making explicit the dependence of entanglement preservation on both channel and source parameters. The resulting expressions enable direct comparisons of channel performance and rankings for representative families of input states, including common qubit states.
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Entanglement is widely regarded as an essential resource for a number of tasks and can in some cases be quantified by figures of merit related to those tasks. In quantum metrology, this is showcased by the connections between the quantum Fisher information (QFI), providing a bound to the precision, and multipartite entanglement quantifiers such as the entanglement depth. However, a connection between the QFI and entanglement monotones, i.e., functions that do not increase under Local Operations and Classical Communications, has so far remained elusive. In this Letter, we fill this gap by introducing a family of uncertainty relations that bound bipartite entanglement monotones from below via elements of a quantum Fisher information matrix. To further emphasize the significance of our results, we connect these relations to the achievable precision in multiparameter estimation. Considering a system split into two parts with arbitrary dimension, we also show that, while two-dimensional entanglement is sufficient to estimate a single parameter with maximal precision, genuine high-dimensional entanglement is required for multiparameter estimation. We conclude by illustrating how our method extends naturally to a multipartite splitting.
We study the maximum quantum Fisher information (QFI) for estimating a single parameter embedded in a generic multimode lossless passive Gaussian unitary using general Gaussian probes under a signal-energy constraint. Unlike previous work, which imposed a total energy constraint on the full probe, we constrain only the transmitted signal modes while allowing an arbitrary number of locally retained ancilla modes with arbitrarily large energy. We prove that this additional freedom does not increase the maximum achievable QFI; the optimum remains identical to that attainable without extra ancilla energy. The same conclusion also extends to the sequential setting under a total energy constraint. We also characterize the family of optimal probe states and show that entanglement is not necessary to attain the optimum in the lossless setting. This extends the result of Matsubara et al. to the physically motivated signal-energy-constrained scenario and establishes a no-go theorem for ancilla-assisted Gaussian enhancement in noiseless passive-unitary estimation.