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This tutorial introduces a systematic approach for addressing the key question of quantum metrology: For a generic task of sensing an unknown parameter, what is the ultimate precision given a constrained set of admissible strategies. The approach outputs the maximal attainable precision (in terms of the maximum of quantum Fisher information) as a semidefinite program and optimal strategies as feasible solutions thereof. Remarkably, the approach can identify the optimal precision for different sets of strategies, including parallel, sequential, quantum SWITCH-enhanced, causally superposed, and generic indefinite-causal-order strategies. The tutorial consists of a pedagogic introduction to the background and mathematical tools of optimal quantum metrology, a detailed derivation of the main approach, and various concrete examples. As shown in the tutorial, applications of the approach include, but are not limited to, strict hierarchy of strategies in noisy quantum metrology, memory effect in non-Markovian metrology, and designing optimal strategies. Compared with traditional approaches, the approach here yields the exact value of the optimal precision, offering more accurate criteria for experiments and practical applications. It also allows for the comparison between conventional strategies and the recently discovered causally-indefinite strategies, serving as a powerful tool for exploring this new area of quantum metrology., Comment: Tutorial. 38 pages, 18 figures

Previous studies in quantum information have recognized that specific types of noise can encode information in certain applications. However, the role of noise in Quantum Hypothesis Testing (QHT), traditionally assumed to undermine performance and reduce success probability, has not been thoroughly explored. Our study bridges this gap by establishing sufficient conditions for noisy dynamics that can surpass the success probabilities achievable under noiseless (unitary) dynamics within certain time intervals. We then devise and experimentally implement a noise-assisted QHT protocol in the setting of ultralow-field nuclear magnetic resonance spin systems. Our experimental results demonstrate that the success probability of QHT under the noisy dynamics can indeed surpass the ceiling set by unitary evolution alone. Moreover, we have shown that in cases where noise initially hampers the performance, strategic application of coherent controls on the system can transform these previously detrimental noises into advantageous factors. This transformative approach demonstrates the potential to harness and leverage noise in QHT, which pushes the boundaries of QHT and general quantum information processing.

In quantum multiparameter estimation, multiple to-be-estimated parameters are encoded in a quantum dynamics system by a unitary evolution. As the parameters vary, the system may undergo a topological phase transition (TPT). In this paper, we investigate two SU(2) TPT models and propose the singular behavior of the quantum metric tensor around the TPT point as a tool for the simultaneous optimal estimation of multiple parameters. We find that the proposed TPT sensing protocol can achieve the same metrology performance as the quantum-control-enhanced one. Moreover, the probe state of the TPT sensing protocol is only the ground state of the Hamiltonian rather than the entangled state required in the control-enhanced one. In addition, an adaptive multiparameter estimation strategy is developed for updating the estimated values until the desired quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound is approached. Our work reinforces the connection between quantum multiparameter estimation and topology physics, with potential inspiration for quantum critical metrology., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

Recent progress shows that a surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) cavity can not only induce quantum acoustic dynamics but also can form optomechanical-like systems. Its operating frequencies in the microwave band make it resistant to the thermal noise of surrounding environments, while its radiation-pressure couplings make it susceptible to weak forces. Based on these advantages, we propose a gyroscope comprising coupled microwave-SAW cavities. In this paper, we systematically consider the three indices including range, signal-to-noise ratio, and sensitivity, which are the most important to gyroscopes but only partially considered in existing works. Additionally, we establish the fundamental limits of sensitivity when the quantum input is in the vacuum state and the squeezed vacuum state. We find that squeezing improves sensitivity and can surpass the standard quantum limit. However, this improvement can only reach up to $\sqrt{2}/2$ even as the squeezed parameter approaches infinity, which is rarely noted in recent works. Finally, we also offer analytical constraints for cooperativity and squeezed parameters. These constraints can be utilized to design gyroscopes based on coupled cavities in experiments., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

Squeezing a quantum state along a specific direction has long been recognized as a crucial technique for enhancing the precision of quantum metrology by reducing parameter uncertainty. However, practical quantum metrology often involves the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters, necessitating the use of high-quality squeezed states along multiple orthogonal axes to surpass the standard quantum limit for all relevant parameters. In addition, a temporally stabilized squeezed state can provide an event-ready probe for parameters, regardless of the initial state, and robust to the timing of the state preparation process once stabilized. In this work, we generate and stabilize a two-mode squeezed state along two secular motional modes in a vibrating trapped ion with reservoir engineering, despite starting from a thermal state of the motion. Leveraging this resource, we demonstrate an estimation of two simultaneous collective displacements along the squeezed axes, achieving improvements surpassing the classical limit by up to 6.9(3) and 7.0(3) decibels (dB), respectively. Our demonstration can be readily scaled to squeezed states with even more modes. The practical implications of our findings span a wide range of applications, including quantum sensing, quantum imaging, and various fields that demand precise measurements of multiple parameters.

How well can multiple incompatible observables be implemented by a single measurement? This is a fundamental problem in quantum mechanics with wide implications for the performance optimization of numerous tasks in quantum information science. While existing studies have been mostly focusing on the approximation of two observables with a single measurement, in practice multiple observables are often encountered, for which the errors of the approximations are little understood. Here we provide a framework to study the implementation of an arbitrary finite number of observables with a single measurement. Our methodology yields novel analytical bounds on the errors of these implementations, significantly advancing our understanding of this fundamental problem. Additionally, we introduce a more stringent bound utilizing semi-definite programming that, in the context of two observables, generates an analytical bound tighter than previously known bounds. The derived bounds have direct applications in assessing the trade-off between the precision of estimating multiple parameters in quantum metrology, an area with crucial theoretical and practical implications. To validate the validity of our findings, we conducted experimental verification using a superconducting quantum processor. This experimental validation not only confirms the theoretical results but also effectively bridges the gap between the derived bounds and empirical data obtained from real-world experiments. Our work paves the way for optimizing various tasks in quantum information science that involve multiple noncommutative observables.

Quantum hypothesis testing plays a pivotal role in quantum technologies, making decisions or drawing conclusions about quantum systems based on observed data. Recently, quantum control techniques have been successfully applied to quantum hypothesis testing, enabling the reduction of error probabilities in the task of distinguishing magnetic fields in presence of environmental noise. In real-world physical systems, such control is prone to various channels of inaccuracies. Therefore improving the robustness of quantum control in the context of quantum hypothesis testing is crucial. In this work, we utilize optimal control methods to compare scenarios with and without accounting for the effects of signal frequency inaccuracies. For parallel dephasing and spontaneous emission, the optimal control inherently demonstrates a certain level of robustness, while in the case of transverse dephasing with an imperfect signal, it may result in a higher error probability compared to the uncontrolled scheme. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a robust control approach optimized for a range of signal noise, demonstrating superior robustness beyond the predefined tolerance window. On average, both the optimal control and robust control show improvements over the uncontrolled schemes for various dephasing or decay rates, with the robust control yielding the lowest error probability., Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures

Most previous efforts of quantum error correction focused on either extending classical error correction schemes to the quantum regime by performing a perfect correction on a subset of errors, or seeking a recovery operation to maximize the fidelity between a input state and its corresponding output state of a noisy channel. There are few results concerning quantum error pre-compensation. Here we design an error pre-compensated input state for an arbitrary quantum noisy channel and a given target output state. By following a procedure, the required input state, if it exists, can be analytically obtained in single-partite systems. Furthermore, we also present semidefinite programs to numerically obtain the error pre-compensated input states with maximal fidelities between the target state and the output state. The numerical results coincide with the analytical results., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

Precise control of hyperfine matterwaves via Raman excitations is instrumental to a class of atom-based quantum technology. We investigate the Raman spinor control technique for alkaline atoms in an intermediate regime of single-photon detuning where a choice can be made to balance the Raman excitation power efficiency with the control speed, excited-state adiabatic elimination, and spontaneous emission suppression requirements. Within the regime, rotations of atomic spinors by the Raman coupling are biased by substantial light shifts. Taking advantage of the fixed bias angle, we show that composite biased rotations can be optimized to enable precise ensemble spinor matterwave control within nanoseconds, even for multiple Zeeman pseudo-spins defined on the hyperfine ground states and when the laser illumination is strongly inhomogeneous. Our scheme fills a technical gap in light pulse atom interferometry, for achieving high speed Raman spinor matterwave control with moderate laser power., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

By utilizing quantum mechanical effects, such as superposition and entanglement, quantum metrology promises higher precision than the classical strategies. It is, however, practically challenging to realize the quantum advantages. This is mainly due to the difficulties in engineering non-classical probe state and performing nontrivial measurement in practise, particularly with a large number of particles. Here we propose a scalable scheme with a symmetrical variational quantum circuit which, same as the Loschmidt echo, consists of a forward and a backward evolution. We show that in this scheme the quantum Fisher information, which quantifies the precision limit, can be efficiently obtained from a measurement signal of the Loschmidt echo. We experimentally implement the scheme on an ensemble of 10-spin quantum processor and successfully achieves a precision near the theoretical limit which outperforms the standard quantum limit with 12.4 dB. The scheme can be efficiently implemented on various noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices which provides a promising routine to demonstrate quantum advantages.

In most quantum technologies, measurements need to be performed on the parametrized quantum states to transform the quantum information to classical information. The measurements, however, inevitably distort the information. The characterization of the discrepancy is an important subject in quantum information science, which plays a key role in understanding the difference between the structures of the quantum and classical information. Here we analyze the discrepancy in terms of the Fisher information metric and present a framework that can provide analytical bounds on the difference under hierarchical quantum measurements. Specifically, we present a set of analytical bounds on the difference between the quantum and classical Fisher information metric under hierarchical p-local quantum measurements, which are measurements that can be performed collectively on at most p copies of quantum states. The results can be directly transformed to the precision limit in multi-parameter quantum metrology, which leads to characterizations of the tradeoff among the precision of different parameters. The framework also provides a coherent picture for various existing results by including them as special cases., Comment: This is a short version of arXiv:2109.05807

Quantum parameter estimation promises a high-precision measurement in theory, however, how to design the optimal scheme in a specific scenario, especially under a practical condition, is still a serious problem that needs to be solved case by case due to the existence of multiple mathematical bounds and optimization methods. Depending on the scenario considered, different bounds may be more or less suitable, both in terms of computational complexity and the tightness of the bound itself. At the same time, the metrological schemes provided by different optimization methods need to be tested against realization complexity, robustness, etc. Hence, a comprehensive toolkit containing various bounds and optimization methods is essential for the scheme design in quantum metrology. To fill this vacancy, here we present a Python-Julia-based open-source toolkit for quantum parameter estimation, which includes many well-used mathematical bounds and optimization methods. Utilizing this toolkit, all procedures in the scheme design, such as the optimizations of the probe state, control and measurement, can be readily and efficiently performed., Comment: 40 pages, 20 figures. Close to the published version. Corresponding package version: v0.2.0 (Python) v0.1.3 (Julia)

One of the main quests in quantum metrology is to attain the ultimate precision limit with given resources, where the resources are not only of the number of queries, but more importantly of the allowed strategies. With the same number of queries, the restrictions on the strategies constrain the achievable precision. In this work, we establish a systematic framework to identify the ultimate precision limit of different families of strategies, including the parallel, the sequential, and the indefinite-causal-order strategies, and provide an efficient algorithm that determines an optimal strategy within the family of strategies under consideration. With our framework, we show there exists a strict hierarchy of the precision limits for different families of strategies., Comment: 6 + 23 pages, 10 figures; close to the published version

Quantum metrology can achieve far better precision than classical metrology, and is one of the most important applications of quantum technologies in the real world. To attain the highest precision promised by quantum metrology, all steps of the schemes need to be optimized, which include the state preparation, parametrization, and measurement. Here the recent progresses on the optimization of these steps, which are essential for the identification and achievement of the ultimate precision limit in quantum metrology, are reviewed. It is hoped this provides a useful reference for the researchers in quantum metrology and related fields., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures

Heisenberg scaling characterizes the ultimate precision of parameter estimation enabled by quantum mechanics, which represents an important quantum advantage of both theoretical and technological interest. Here, we study the attainability of strong, global notions of Heisenberg scaling in the fundamental problem of phase estimation, from a practical standpoint. A main message of this work is an asymptotic noise "threshold" for global Heisenberg scaling. We first demonstrate that Heisenberg scaling is fragile to noises in the sense that it cannot be achieved in the presence of phase damping noise with strength above a stringent scaling in the system size. Nevertheless, we show that when the noise does not exceed this threshold, the global Heisenberg scaling in terms of limiting distribution (which we highlight as a practically important figure of merit) as well as average error can indeed be achieved. Furthermore, we provide a practical adaptive protocol using one qubit only, which achieves global Heisenberg scaling in terms of limiting distribution under such noise.

The incompatibility of the measurements constraints the achievable precisions in multi-parameter quantum estimation. Understanding the tradeoff induced by such incompatibility is a central topic in quantum metrology. Here we provide an approach to study the incompatibility under general $p$-local measurements, which are the measurements that can be performed collectively on at most $p$ copies of quantum states. We demonstrate the power of the approach by presenting a hierarchy of analytical bounds on the tradeoff among the precision limits of different parameters. These bounds lead to a necessary condition for the saturation of the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound under $p$-local measurements, which recovers the partial commutative condition at p=1 and the weak commutative condition at $p=\infty$. As a further demonstration of the power of the framework, we present another set of tradeoff relations with the right logarithmic operators(RLD)., Comment: 34 pages, 5 figures, with improved bounds

In conventional quantum mechanics, quantum no-deleting and no-cloning theorems indicate that two different and nonorthogonal states cannot be perfectly and deterministically deleted and cloned, respectively. Here, we investigate the quantum deleting and cloning in a pseudo-unitary system. We first present a pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonian with real eigenvalues in a two-qubit system. By using the pseudo-unitary operators generated from this pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonian, we show that it is possible to delete and clone a class of two different and nonorthogonal states, and it can be generalized to arbitrary two different and nonorthogonal pure qubit states. Furthermore, state discrimination, which is strongly related to quantum no-cloning theorem, is also discussed. Last but not least, we simulate the pseudo-unitary operators in conventional quantum mechanics with post-selection, and obtain the success probability of simulations. Pseudo-unitary operators are implemented with a limited efficiency due to the post-selections. Thus, the success probabilities of deleting and cloning in the simulation by conventional quantum mechanics are less than unity, which maintain the quantum no-deleting and no-cloning theorems., Comment: 6 pages

The critical quantum metrology, which exploits the quantum phase transition for high precision measurement, has gained increasing attention recently. The critical quantum metrology with the continuous quantum phase transition, however, is experimentally very challenging since the continuous quantum phase transition only exists at the thermal dynamical limit. Here, we propose an adiabatic scheme on a perturbed Ising spin model with the first order quantum phase transition. By employing the Landau-Zener anticrossing, we can not only encode the unknown parameter in the ground state but also tune the energy gap to control the evolution time of the adiabatic passage. We experimentally implement the adiabatic scheme on the nuclear magnetic resonance and show that the achieved precision attains the Heisenberg scaling. The advantages of the scheme-easy implementation, robust against the decay, tunable energy gap-are critical for practical applications of quantum metrology.

Quantum control can be employed in quantum metrology to improve the precision limit for the estimation of unknown parameters. The optimal control, however, typically depends on the actual values of the parameters and thus needs to be designed adaptively with the updated estimations of those parameters. Traditional methods, such as gradient ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE), need to be rerun for each new set of parameters encountered, making the optimization costly, especially when many parameters are involved. Here we study the generalizability of optimal control, namely, optimal controls that can be systematically updated across a range of parameters with minimal cost. In cases where control channels can completely reverse the shift in the Hamiltonian due to a change in parameters, we provide an analytical method which efficiently generates optimal controls for any parameter starting from an initial optimal control found by either GRAPE or reinforcement learning. When the control channels are restricted, the analytical scheme is invalid, but reinforcement learning still retains a level of generalizability, albeit in a narrower range. In cases where the shift in the Hamiltonian is impossible to decompose to available control channels, no generalizability is found for either the reinforcement learning or the analytical scheme. We argue that the generalization of reinforcement learning is through a mechanism similar to the analytical scheme. Our results provide insights into when and how the optimal control in multiparameter quantum metrology can be generalized, thereby facilitating efficient implementation of optimal quantum estimation of multiple parameters, particularly for an ensemble of systems with ranges of parameters., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures

Quantum discrimination and estimation are pivotal for many quantum technologies, and their performance depends on the optimal choice of probe state and measurement. Here we show that their performance can be further improved by suitably tailoring the pulses that make up the interferometer. Developing an optimal control framework and applying it to the discrimination and estimation of a magnetic field in the presence of noise, we find an increase in the overall achievable state distinguishability. Moreover, the maximum distinguishability can be stabilized for times that are more than an order of magnitude longer than the decoherence time., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

The main obstacle for practical quantum technology is the noise, which can induce the decoherence and destroy the potential quantum advantages. The fluctuation of a field, which induces the dephasing of the system, is one of the most common noises and widely regarded as detrimental to quantum technologies. Here we show, contrary to the conventional belief, the fluctuation can be used to improve the precision limits in quantum metrology for the estimation of various parameters. Specifically, we show that for the estimation of the direction and rotating frequency of a field, the achieved precisions at the presence of the fluctuation can even surpass the highest precision achievable under the unitary dynamics which have been widely taken as the ultimate limit. We provide explicit protocols, which employs the adaptive quantum error correction, to achieve the higher precision limits with the fluctuating fields. Our study provides a completely new perspective on the role of the noises in quantum metrology. It also opens the door for higher precisions beyond the limit that has been believed to be ultimate., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures

The quantum speed limit is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics, which aims at finding the minimum time scale or the maximum dynamical speed for some fixed targets. In a large number of studies in this field, the construction of valid bounds for the evolution time is always the core mission, yet the physics behind it and some fundamental questions like which states can really fulfill the target, are ignored. Understanding the physics behind the bounds is at least as important as constructing attainable bounds. Here we provide an operational approach for the definition of the quantum speed limit, which utilizes the set of states that can fulfill the target to define the speed limit. Its performances in various scenarios have been investigated. For time-independent Hamiltonians, it is inverse-proportional to the difference between the highest and lowest energies. The fact that its attainability does not require a zero ground-state energy suggests it can be used as an indicator of quantum phase transitions. For time-dependent Hamiltonians, it is shown that contrary to the results given by existing bounds, the true speed limit should be independent of the time. Moreover, in the case of spontaneous emission, we find a counterintuitive phenomenon that a lousy purity can benefit the reduction of the quantum speed limit., Comment: 9+9 pages, 10 figures

The precise measurement of a magnetic field is one of the most fundamental and important tasks in quantum metrology. Although extensive studies on quantum magnetometry have been carried out over past decades, the ultimate precision that can be achieved for the estimation of all three components of a magnetic field with entangled probe states under the parallel scheme remains unknown. Here we present the ultimate lower bound for the sum of arbitrarily weighted variances in the estimation of all three components of a magnetic field under the parallel scheme and show that this lower bound can be achieved for sufficiently large N. The optimal entangled probe state that achieves the ultimate precision is also explicitly constructed. The obtained precision sets the ultimate limit for the multi-parameter quantum magnetometry under the parallel scheme, which is of fundamental interest and importance in quantum metrology. Our approach also provides a way to characterize the tradeoff among the precisions of multiple parameters that arise from the constraints on the probe states., Comment: 20 pages. Comments are welcome

In this paper, we continue our investigation on controlling the state of a quantum harmonic oscillator, by coupling it to a reservoir composed of a sequence of qubits. Specifically, we show that sending qubits separable from each other but initialised at different states in pairs can stabilise the oscillator at squeezed states. However, only if entanglement is allowed in the reservoir qubit can we stabilise the oscillator at a wider set of squeezed states. This thus provides a proof for the necessity of involving entanglement in the reservoir qubits input to the oscillator, as regard to the stabilisation of quantum states in the proposed system setting. On the other hand, this system setup can be in turn used to estimate the coupling strength between the oscillator and reservoir qubits. We further demonstrate that entanglement in the reservoir input qubits contributes to the corresponding quantum Fisher information. From this point of view, entanglement is proved to play an indispensable role in the improvement of estimation precision in quantum metrology., Comment: Accepted by Conference on Decision and Control, 2019

Quantum Fisher information matrix (QFIM) is a core concept in theoretical quantum metrology due to the significant importance of quantum Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound in quantum parameter estimation. However, studies in recent years have revealed wide connections between QFIM and other aspects of quantum mechanics, including quantum thermodynamics, quantum phase transition, entanglement witness, quantum speed limit and non-Markovianity. These connections indicate that QFIM is more than a concept in quantum metrology, but rather a fundamental quantity in quantum mechanics. In this paper, we summarize the properties and existing calculation techniques of QFIM for various cases, and review the development of QFIM in some aspects of quantum mechanics apart from quantum metrology. On the other hand, as the main application of QFIM, the second part of this paper reviews the quantum multiparameter Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound, its attainability condition and the associated optimal measurements. Moreover, recent developments in a few typical scenarios of quantum multiparameter estimation and the quantum advantages are also thoroughly discussed in this part., Comment: ~70 pages, close to published version, open access

Measurement and estimation of parameters are essential for science and engineering, where one of the main quests is to find systematic schemes that can achieve high precision. While conventional schemes for quantum parameter estimation focus on the optimization of the probe states and measurements, it has been recently realized that control during the evolution can significantly improve the precision. The identification of optimal controls, however, is often computationally demanding, as typically the optimal controls depend on the value of the parameter which then needs to be re-calculated after the update of the estimation in each iteration. Here we show that reinforcement learning provides an efficient way to identify the controls that can be employed to improve the precision. We also demonstrate that reinforcement learning is highly generalizable, namely the neural network trained under one particular value of the parameter can work for different values within a broad range. These desired features make reinforcement learning an efficient alternative to conventional optimal quantum control methods., Comment: 7+7 pages, 6+3 figures

We study the joint estimation of multiple Rabi frequencies in a multilevel system. By analytically identifying the optimal probe state and the optimal measurement, we obtain the highest precision limit for the joint estimation of multiple Rabi frequencies. We show that the joint estimation does not always outperform the separate estimation. In different regimes the joint estimation can either outperform or underperform the separate estimation. We further show that if additional adaptive quantum controls are allowed then the advantage of the joint estimation over the separate estimation can be reestablished.

The advantage of quantum metrology has been experimentally demonstrated for phase estimations where the dynamics are commuting. General noncommuting dynamics, however, can have distinct features. For example, the direct sequential scheme, which can achieve the Heisenberg scaling for the phase estimation under commuting dynamics, can have even worse performances than the classical scheme under noncommuting dynamics. Here we realize a scalable optimally controlled sequential scheme, which can achieve the Heisenberg precision under general noncommuting dynamics. We also present an intuitive geometrical framework for the controlled scheme and identify sweet spots in time at which the optimal controls used in the scheme can be pre-fixed without adaptation, which simplifies the experimental protocols significantly. We successfully implement the scheme up to eight controls in an optical platform, demonstrate a precision near the Heisenberg limit. Our work opens the avenue for harvesting the power of quantum control in quantum metrology, and provides a control-enhanced recipe to achieve the Heisenberg precision under general noncommuting dynamics.

In this paper we study the cooperation between coherent control and noises in open spin systems, aiming to demonstrate that such cooperation can provide new possibilities for parametrization in quantum metrology. The cooperative scheme proposed here outperforms the standard scheme, with higher precision achieved. More specifically, we illustrate the effect of cooperative interaction between coherent control and noises in conventional single-spin systems described by Lindblad master equations, with the magnitude of a magnetic field taken as the parameter to be estimated and encoded in the noisy dynamics besides the Hamiltonian. The scenarios of both spontaneous emission and dephasing noise have been analyzed, where the associated quantum Fisher information has been given. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that in the realm where quantum metrology is mostly applied in practice, the precision limit under the cooperative scheme in the presence of noises can surpass the ultimate precision limit under the unitary dynamics. On the other hand, multiple-spin systems have also been considered. We show that the coupling between different spins can help realize non-local parametrization under the cooperative scheme, with the ground state made entangled. This thus leads to the improvement of precision limit, which has been proved and visualized in our paper., Comment: 8 pages

Most studies in multiparameter estimation assume the dynamics is fixed and focus on identifying the optimal probe state and the optimal measurements. In practice, however, controls are usually available to alter the dynamics, which provides another degree of freedom. In this paper we employ optimal control methods, particularly the gradient ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE), to design optimal controls for the improvement of the precision limit in multiparameter estimation. We show that the controlled schemes not only capable to provide a higher precision limit, but also have a higher stability to the inaccuracy of the time point performing the measurements. This high time stability will benefit the practical metrology where it is hard to perform the measurement at a very accurate time point due to the response time of the measurement apparatus., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, PRA published version

We study the existence of the maximal quantum Fisher information matrix in multi-parameter quantum estimation, which bounds the ultimate precision limit. We show that when the maximal quantum Fisher information matrix exists, it can be directly obtained from the underlying dynamics. Examples are then provided to demonstrate the usefulness of the maximal quantum Fisher information matrix by deriving various tradeoff relations in multi-parameter quantum estimation and obtaining the bounds for the scalings of the precision limit., Comment: 6 pages

The widely used quantum Cramer-Rao bound (QCRB) sets a lower bound for the mean square error of unbiased estimators in quantum parameter estimation, however, in general QCRB is only tight in the asymptotical limit. With a limited number of measurements biased estimators can have a far better performance for which QCRB cannot calibrate. Here we introduce a valid lower bound for all estimators, either biased or unbiased, which can serve as standard of merit for all quantum parameter estimations., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We propose a hierarchy of Bell-type inequalities for arbitrary $n$-partite systems that identify the different degrees of nonlocality ranging from standard to genuine multipartite nonlocality. After introducing the definition of nonsignaling $m$-locality, we show that the observed joint probabilities in any nonsignaling $m$-local realistic models should satisfy the $(m-1)$-th Bell-type inequality. When $m=2$ the corresponding inequality reduces to the one shown in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 140404 (2014)] whose violation indicates genuine multipartite nonlocality, and when $m=n$ the corresponding inequality is just Hardy's inequality whose violation indicates standard multipartite nonlocality. Furthermore, several examples are provided to demonstrate their hierarchy of multipartite nonlocality., Comment: 6 pages

A pivotal task in quantum metrology, and quantum parameter estimation in general, is to de- sign schemes that achieve the highest precision with given resources. Standard models of quantum metrology usually assume the dynamics is fixed, the highest precision is achieved by preparing the optimal probe states and performing optimal measurements. However, in many practical experimental settings, additional controls are usually available to alter the dynamics. Here we propose to use optimal control methods for further improvement on the precision limit of quantum parameter estimation. We show that by exploring the additional degree of freedom offered by the controls higher precision limit can be achieved. In particular we show that the precision limit under the controlled schemes can go beyond the constraints put by the coherent time, which is in contrast to the standard scheme where the precision limit is always bounded by the coherent time., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, PRA published version

Measurement and estimation of parameters are essential for science and engineering, where the main quest is to find out the highest achievable precision with given resources and design schemes to attain it. Two schemes, the sequential feedback scheme and the parallel scheme, are usually studied in quantum parameter estimation. While the sequential feedback scheme represents the most general scheme, it remains unknown whether it can outperform the parallel scheme for any quantum estimation tasks. In this Letter we show that the sequential feedback scheme has a 3-fold improvement over the parallel scheme for Hamiltonian parameter estimations on 2-dimensional systems, and an order of $O(d+1)$ improvement for Hamiltonian parameter estimation on $d-$dimensional systems. We also show that, contrary to the conventional belief, it is possible to simultaneously achieve the highest precision for estimating all three components of a magnetic field, which sets a benchmark on the local precision limit for the estimation of a magnetic field., Comment: 11 pages. Accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett

The laws of quantum physics place a limit on the speed of computation. In particular, the evolution time of a system from an initial state to a final state cannot be arbitrarily short. Bounds on the speed of evolution for unitary dynamics have long been studied. A few bounds on the speed of evolution for noisy dynamics have also been obtained recently, which, however, are in general not tight. In this paper, we present a new framework for quantum speed limit concerning noisy dynamics. Within this framework we obtain the exact maximal rotation angle that noisy dynamics can achieve at any given time, which gives rise to a tight bound on the evolution time for noisy dynamics. The obtained bound clearly reveals that noisy dynamics are essentially different from unitary dynamics. Furthermore, we show that the orthogonalization time, which is the minimum time needed to evolve any state to its orthogonal state, is in general not applicable to noisy dynamics., Comment: 11 pages

Polarization transfers from an electron spin to a nuclear spin are essential for various physical tasks, such as dynamic nuclear polarization in nuclear magnetic resonance and quantum state transformations on hybrid electron-nuclear spin systems. We present time-optimal schemes for electron-nuclear polarization transfers which improve on conventional approaches and will have wide applications., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures