Beyond Quantum State Estimation Proper

Dirk Oliver Theis

Banchi & Crooks (Quantum, 2021) have given methods to estimate derivatives of expectation values depending on a parameter that enters via what we call a "perturbed" quantum evolution x↦ei(xA+B)/ℏ . Their methods require modifications, beyond merely changing parameters, to the unitaries that appear. Moreover, in the case when the B -term is unavoidable, no exact method (unbiased estimator) for the derivative seems to be known: Banchi & Crooks's method gives an approximation.In this paper, for estimating the derivatives of parameterized expectation values of this type, we present a method that only requires shifting parameters, no other modifications of the quantum evolutions (a "proper" shift rule). Our method is exact (i.e., it gives analytic derivatives, unbiased estimators), and it has the same worst-case variance as Banchi-Crooks's.Moreover, we discuss the theory surrounding proper shift rules, based on Fourier analysis of perturbed-parametric quantum evolutions, resulting in a characterization of the proper shift rules in terms of their Fourier transforms, which in turn leads us to non-existence results of proper shift rules with exponential concentration of the shifts. We derive truncated methods that exhibit approximation errors, and compare to Banchi-Crooks's based on preliminary numerical simulations.

Berthold‐Georg Englert

Cheng Zhang, Kai Zhou, Wei Feng +1 more

Designing high-precision and efficient protocols is of crucial importance for quantum parameter estimation in practice. Estimation based on continuous quantum measurement is one possible type of this, which also appears to be the most natural choice for continuous dynamical processes. In this work we consider the state-of-the-art superconducting circuit quantum-electrodynamics (QED) systems, where high-quality continuous measurements have been extensively performed in the past decade. Within the framework of Bayesian estimation and particularly using the quantum Bayesian rule in circuit QED, we numerically simulate the likelihood function as an estimator for the Rabi frequency of qubit oscillations. We find that, by proper design of the interaction strength of measurement, the estimate precision can scale with the measurement time beyond the standard quantum limit, which is usually assumed for this type of continuous measurement. This unexpected result is supported by the simulated Fisher information and can be understood as a consequence of the quantum correlation between the output signals by simulating the effect of quantum efficiency of measurement.

László Ruppert

Timothy S. Woodworth, Carla Hermann-Avigliano, Kam Wai Clifford Chan +1 more

The field of quantum metrology seeks to apply quantum techniques and/or resources to classical sensing approaches with the goal of enhancing the precision in the estimation of a parameter beyond what can be achieved with classical resources. Theoretically, the fundamental minimum uncertainty in the estimation of a parameter for a given probing state is bounded by the quantum Cramér-Rao bound. From a practical perspective, it is necessary to find physical measurements that can saturate this fundamental limit and to show experimentally that it is possible to perform measurements with the required precision to do so. Here we perform experiments that saturate the quantum Cramér-Rao bound for transmission estimation over a wide range of transmissions when probing the system under study with a continuous wave bright two-mode squeezed state. To properly take into account the imperfections in the generation of the quantum state, we extend our previous theoretical results to incorporate the measured properties of the generated quantum state. For our largest transmission level of 84%, we show a 62% reduction over the optimal classical protocol in the variance in transmission estimation when probing with a bright two-mode squeezed state with -8 dB of intensity-difference squeezing. Given that transmission estimation is an integral part of many sensing protocols, such as plasmonic sensing, spectroscopy, calibration of the quantum efficiency of detectors, etc., the results presented promise to have a significant impact on a number of applications in various fields of research.