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arXiv:quant-ph/0103032 · Physical Review A

State and dynamical parameter estimation for open quantum systems

Jay Gambetta, Howard M. Wiseman

Published Sep 13, 2001• 106 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Following evolution of an open quantum system one requires full knowledge of its dynamics. In this paper we consider open quantum systems for which the Hamiltonian is ``uncertain.'' In particular, we treat in detail a simple system similar to that considered by Mabuchi [Quant. Semiclass. Opt. 8, 1103 (1996)]: a radiatively damped atom driven by an unknown Rabi frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ (as would occur for an atom at an unknown point in a standing light wave). By measuring the environment of the system, knowledge about the system state, and about the uncertain dynamical parameter, can be acquired. We find that these two sorts of knowledge acquisition (quantified by the posterior distribution for $\ensuremath{\Omega},$ and the conditional purity of the system, respectively) are quite distinct processes, which are not strongly correlated. Also, the quality and quantity of knowledge gain depend strongly on the type of monitoring scheme. We compare five different detection schemes (direct, adaptive, homodyne of the x quadrature, homodyne of the y quadrature, and heterodyne) using four different measures of the knowledge gain (Shannon information about $\ensuremath{\Omega},$ variance in $\ensuremath{\Omega},$ long-time system purity, and short-time system purity).

DOI
10.1103/physreva.64.042105

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Following evolution of an open quantum system one requires full knowledge of its dynamics. In this paper we consider open quantum systems for which the Hamiltonian is ``uncertain.'' In particular, we treat in detail a simple system similar to that considered by Mabuchi [Quant. Semiclass. Opt. 8, 1103 (1996)]: a radiatively damped atom driven by an unknown Rabi frequency \ensuremathΩ\ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremathΩ (as would occur for an atom at an unknown point in a standing light wave). By measuring the environment of the system, knowledge about the system state, and about the uncertain dynamical parameter, can be acquired. We find that these two sorts of knowledge acquisition (quantified by the posterior distribution for \ensuremathΩ,\ensuremath{\Omega},\ensuremathΩ, and the conditional purity of the system, respectively) are quite distinct processes, which are not strongly correlated. Also, the quality and quantity of knowledge gain depend strongly on the type of monitoring scheme. We compare five different detection schemes (direct, adaptive, homodyne of the x quadrature, homodyne of the y quadrature, and heterodyne) using four different measures of the knowledge gain (Shannon information about \ensuremathΩ,\ensuremath{\Omega},\ensuremathΩ, variance in \ensuremathΩ,\ensuremath{\Omega},\ensuremathΩ, long-time system purity, and short-time system purity).
We investigate the effect of imperfections in realistic detectors upon the problem of quantum state and parameter estimation by continuous monitoring of an open quantum system. Specifically, we have reexamined the system of a two-level atom with an unknown Rabi frequency introduced by Gambetta and Wiseman [Phys. Rev. A 64, 042105 (2001)]. We consider only direct photodetection and use the realistic quantum trajectory theory reported by Warszawski, Wiseman, and Mabuchi [Phys. Rev. A 65, 023802 (2002)]. The most significant effect comes from a finite bandwidth, corresponding to an uncertainty in the response time of the photodiode. Unless the bandwidth is significantly greater than the Rabi frequency, the observer's ability to obtain information about the unknown Rabi frequency, and about the state of the atom, is severely compromised. This result has implications for quantum control in the presence of unknown parameters for realistic detectors, and even for ideal detectors, as it implies that most of the information in the measurement record is contained in the precise timing of the detections.
We consider the problem of estimating a dynamical parameter of a Markovian quantum open system (the atom maser), by performing continuous time measurements in the systemʼs output (outgoing atoms). Two estimation methods are investigated and compared. Firstly, the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) takes into account the full measurement data and is asymptotically optimal in terms of its mean square error. Secondly, the 'likelihood-free' method of approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) produces an approximation of the posterior distribution for a given set of summary statistics, by sampling trajectories at different parameter values and comparing them with the measurement data via chosen statistics. Building on previous results which showed that atom counts are poor statistics for certain values of the Rabi angle, we apply MLE to the full measurement data and estimate its Fisher information. We then select several correlation statistics such as waiting times, distribution of successive identical detections, and use them as input of the ABC algorithm. The resulting posterior distribution follows closely the data likelihood, showing that the selected statistics capture 'most' statistical information about the Rabi angle.
We consider several observers who monitor different parts of the environment of a single quantum system and use their data to deduce its state. We derive a set of conditional stochastic master equations that describe the evolution of the density matrices each observer ascribes to the system under the Markov approximation, and show that this problem can be reduced to the case of a single ``superobserver,'' who has access to all the acquired data. The key problem---consistency of the sets of data acquired by different observers---is then reduced to the probability that a given combination of data sets will be ever detected by the superobserver. The resulting conditional master equations are applied to several physical examples: homodyne detection of phonons in quantum Brownian motion, photodetection and homodyne detection of resonance fluorescence from a two-level atom. We introduce relative purity to quantify the correlations between the information about the system gathered by different observers from their measurements of the environment. We find that observers gain the most information about the state of the system and they agree the most about it when they measure the environment observables with eigenstates most closely correlated with the optimally predictable pointer basis of the system.
We simulate the process of continuous homodyne detection of the radiative emission from a quantum system, and we investigate how a Bayesian analysis can be employed to determine unknown parameters that govern the system evolution. Measurement backaction quenches the system dynamics at all times and we show that the ensuing transient evolution is more sensitive to system parameters than the steady state of the system. The parameter sensitivity can be quantified by the Fisher information, and we investigate numerically and analytically how the temporal noise correlations in the measurement signal contribute to the ultimate sensitivity limit of homodyne detection.
We investigate the determination of a Hamiltonian parameter in a quantum system undergoing continuous measurement. We demonstrate a computationally rapid method to estimate an unknown and possibly time-dependent parameter, where we maximize the likelihood of the observed stochastic readout. By dealing directly with the raw measurement record rather than the quantum-state trajectories, the estimation can be performed while the data are being acquired, permitting continuous tracking of the parameter during slow drifts in real time. Furthermore, we incorporate realistic nonidealities, such as decoherence processes and measurement inefficiency. As an example, we focus on estimating the value of the Rabi frequency of a continuously measured qubit and compare maximum likelihood estimation to a simpler fast Fourier transform. Using this example, we discuss how the quality of the estimation depends on both the strength and the duration of the measurement; we also discuss the trade-off between the accuracy of the estimate and the sensitivity to drift as the estimation duration is varied.
We consider the general problem of estimating an unknown control parameter of an open quantum system. We establish a direct relation between the evolution of both system and environment and the precision with which the parameter can be estimated. We show that when the open quantum system undergoes a first-order dynamical phase transition the quantum Fisher information (QFI), which gives the upper bound on the achievable precision of any measurement of the system and environment, becomes quadratic in observation time (cf. ``Heisenberg scaling''). In fact, the QFI is identical to the variance of the dynamical observable that characterizes the phases that coexist at the transition, and enhanced scaling is a consequence of the divergence of the variance of this observable at the transition point. This identification makes it possible to establish the finite time scaling of the QFI. Near the transition the QFI is quadratic in time for times shorter than the correlation time of the dynamics. In the regime of enhanced scaling the optimal measurement whose precision is given by the QFI involves measuring both system and output. As a particular realization of these ideas, we describe a theoretical scheme for quantum enhanced estimation of an optical phase shift using the photons being emitted from a quantum system near the coexistence of dynamical phases with distinct photon emission rates.