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Physical Review A

Coherence and quantum Fisher information in general single-qubit parameter estimation processes

Jun‐Long Zhao, Dong‐Xu Chen, Yu Zhang, Yu-Liang Fang, Ming Yang, Qi‐Cheng Wu, Chui‐Ping Yang

Published Dec 8, 2021• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum metrology is superior to classical metrology in parameter estimation. This is because quantum states have coherence that, however, does not exist in classical states. Previous works were limited to the study of the relationship between quantum Fisher information (QFI) and coherence of the initial probe state only for a specific single-qubit parameter estimation process (e.g., a process described by a single-qubit spin angular momentum operator ${J}_{z}$). Here, we consider a more general case and study the relationship between QFI and coherence of the initial probe state for a single-qubit general parameter estimation process, which is described by a single-qubit spin angular momentum operator ${J}_{\stackrel{P\vec}{n}}$ with a general unit vector $\stackrel{P\vec}{n}$. We find that the QFI is proportional to the square of coherence of the initial probe state, when the single-qubit bases are eigenstates of the spin angular momentum operator ${J}_{\stackrel{P\vec}{n}}$ describing the parametrization process. We also design and conduct a linear optical experiment to support our theory. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical ones. This work provides an important guideline for enhancing the precision of parameter estimation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.104.062608

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Quantum metrology is superior to classical metrology in parameter estimation. This is because quantum states have coherence that, however, does not exist in classical states. Previous works were limited to the study of the relationship between quantum Fisher information (QFI) and coherence of the initial probe state only for a specific single-qubit parameter estimation process (e.g., a process described by a single-qubit spin angular momentum operator Jz{J}_{z}Jz​). Here, we consider a more general case and study the relationship between QFI and coherence of the initial probe state for a single-qubit general parameter estimation process, which is described by a single-qubit spin angular momentum operator {J}_{\stackrel{P\vec}{n}} with a general unit vector \stackrel{P\vec}{n}. We find that the QFI is proportional to the square of coherence of the initial probe state, when the single-qubit bases are eigenstates of the spin angular momentum operator {J}_{\stackrel{P\vec}{n}} describing the parametrization process. We also design and conduct a linear optical experiment to support our theory. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical ones. This work provides an important guideline for enhancing the precision of parameter estimation.
Abstract Quantum metrology is an important field in quantum information and plays a crucial role in quantum parameter estimation. Quantum Fisher information (QFI) is widely used to characterize the precision of quantum parameter estimation. However, a full understanding of the precision for different parameterization processes and the role of quantum evolutions in quantum parameter estimations, remains a crucial area of research. In this paper, we introduce a new concept, named as quantum Fisher information power (QFI power), to characterize the QFI-creating capability of quantum evolutions. At the same time, we take both unitary and non-unitary evolutions as examples and study QFI power. The results show that: (i) For unitary evolutions described by spin angular momentum operators, the dynamic of QFI power is dependent on the z component of the Bloch vector, and the rotating angle; (ii) For non-unitary evolutions under decoherence channels, QFI cannot be enhanced when the initial probe state belongs to zero QFI set, and the QFI power is negative when the initial probe state has maximal QFI; (iii) For the PT - and APT -symmetric non-unitary evolutions, the dynamics of QFI power exhibit oscillations in symmetry unbroken regime, while the phenomenon of stable value (SV) occurs in broken regimes with the SV = 1.
Quantum Fisher information (QFI) quantifies the sensitivity of a quantum state to a parameter change and plays a key role in quantum metrology. Meanwhile, quantum coherence is a crucial resource for quantum information processing. However, despite extensive studies on various aspects of quantum metrology, the interplay between the dynamics of the QFI and quantum coherence remains unexplored. Here, we explore the factorization relationship between the QFI and quantum coherence, both theoretically and experimentally. We prepare pure states in qubit and qutrit systems and apply unitary evolution to investigate this relationship. Our results confirm the factorization law, offering strong evidence for this relationship. Furthermore, we establish a lower bound on the variance of the estimated parameter that does not require the final state information. This approach reveals a deep connection between the QFI and quantum coherence, providing insights into quantum parameter estimation. These findings have potential applications in quantum sensing and quantum metrology.
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.
Gaussian quantum states and channels are pivotal across many branches of quantum science and their applications, including the processing and storage of quantum information, the investigation of thermodynamics in the quantum regime, and quantum computation. The great advantage is that Gaussian states are experimentally accessible via their first and second statistical moments. In this work, we investigate parameter estimation for Gaussian states, in which the probe-state preparation stage involves two noncommutative Gaussian measurements on the position and momentum observables, introducing tunable parameters. The influence of these noncommutative Gaussian measurements is investigated through the quantum Fisher information (QFI). We showed that the QFI for characterizing Gaussian channels can be increased by adjusting the uncertainty parameters in the preparation of the probe state. Furthermore, if the probe is initially in a thermal state, probe-state preparation may generate quantum coherence in its energy basis. We showed that not only does the amount of coherence affect the improvement of the QFI, but also the rate of change of the coherence with respect to the parameter to be estimated. The proposed probe-state protocol is applied to two paradigmatic single-mode Gaussian channels, the attenuator and amplification channels, which are building blocks of Gaussian quantum information. Our results contribute to the use of coherence in quantum metrology and are experimentally feasible in quantum-optical devices.
Gaussian quantum channels are relevant operations in continuous variable systems. In general, given an arbitrary state, the action on it is well known, provided that the quantum channels are completely characterized. In this work, we have studied the role played by quantum coherence in the estimation of Gaussian channel parameters. For this purpose, we start by considering an initial single-mode vacuum state where coherence is generated through displaced or/and squeezing operations. Then, we consider a probe state with two resources, the average thermal number and the quantum coherence. The results are computed using the quantum Fisher information (QFI) as well as some gain functions defined in the work. We applied the estimation protocol for two paradigmatic bosonic Gaussian channels: the thermal attenuator and the thermal amplifier. Our results show that for the vacuum initial state, coherence can be exploited to obtain a high QFI. Moreover, we can state two important facts: the first being that for a small parameter region of a channel, the QFI depends on the mechanism used to generate the coherence, while the second is that the QFI depends not only on the amount of coherence but also on how it changes as a function of the parameter to be estimated. For the probe state, including also an average thermal number, the two examples show that thermal resources are not always beneficial to the QFI and that this depends on the channel structure. For the attenuator channel, the optimal probe state is only limited by the ability to implement an average thermal number and generate an amount of coherence, while for the amplifier channel, the vacuum probe state with coherence is the optimal state. Finally, we obtain a direct relation between the quantum Fisher information and the relative entropy of coherence, allowing, in principle, an experimental verification based on the measurement of the covariance matrix of the probe system.
Abstract Quantum Fisher information (QFI) is a key concept of quantum metrology, which is widely used in quantum parameter estimation. We introduce a general approach to analytically get the QFI of pure states for unitary parametrization processes governed by arbitrary finite dimensional Lie algebras. We show the universality of this approach by comparing the result of algebra with the previous work and applying it to and algebras. For case, there are some interesting findings. The phase of the initial coherent state has an optimal value for maximum QFI, and the QFI can vanish and revive during the time evolution.