Distributed Phase Estimation at the Heisenberg Limit with Classical Light

Phase estimation has a wide range of applications. Over the years, several strategies have been studied to improve precision in phase estimation. These strategies include using exotic quantum states to quantum detection schemes. This dissertation summarizes my effort in improving the precision of phase estimation with a linear and nonlinear interferometer. Chapter 1 introduces quantum optics and quantum metrology. I introduce all relevant quantum states of light used. We also look into tools and terminologies of quantum metrology such as Fisher information, shot-noise limit, Heisenberg limit, etc., along with examples of phase estimation with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In Chapter 2, I discuss multiple phase estimation using a multimode interferometer. Building upon previous work, our scheme consists of a multimode interferometer with single-photon inputs. By using a quantum Fisher information analysis, we show that our scheme gives a constant improvement over other schemes. We also show that our scheme with photon-number-resolving detection approaches the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound. Moreover, we also consider the probabilistic nature of photon emission at the input, and we study its effect on phase sensitivity. I discuss phase estimation with SU(1,1) interferometer in Chapter 3. We look at phase sensitivity in this interferometer with different input states. Namely, we consider two different phase estimation scheme, one using thermal and squeezed states, and others using coherent and displaced squeezed states with parity and on-off as a detection scheme. We also look into the effect of photon loss inside the interferometer. In Chapter 4, we revisit phase estimation in SU(1,1) interferometer from the perspective of quantum Fisher information. I discuss in detail a longstanding confusion regarding the use of quantum Fisher information in SU(1,1) interferometer. We show that phase averaging or quantum Fisher information matrix method is needed in general for calculating the phase sensitivity which resolves inconsistencies reported in previously published articles.

The Mach-Zehnder interferometer is a powerful device for detecting small phase shifts between two light beams. Simple input states, such as coherent states or single photons, can reach the standard quantum limit of phase estimation, while more complex states can be used to reach Heisenberg scaling; the latter, however, require challenging preparation and measurement strategies. The quest for highly sensitive phase estimation therefore calls for interferometers with nonlinear devices which would make the preparation of these complex states more efficient. Here, we show that the Heisenberg scaling can be recovered with simple input states (including Fock and coherent states) when the linear mirrors in the interferometer are replaced with controlled-swap gates and measurements on auxiliary qubits. These swap tests project the input Fock and coherent states onto NOON and entangled coherent states, respectively, and allow optimal or near-optimal measurements, leading to improved sensitivity to small phase shifts in one of the interferometer arms. We analyze auxiliary qubit errors in detail, showing that biasing the qubit towards phase flips offers a great advantage, and perform thorough numerical simulations of a possible implementation in circuit quantum electrodynamics with an auxiliary Kerr-cat qubit. Our results thus present a viable approach to phase estimation approaching Heisenberg-limited sensitivity and demonstrate potential advantages of using biased-noise qubits in quantum metrology. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

The emerging field of entanglement or nonseparability in classical optics is reviewed, and its similarities with and differences from quantum entanglement clearly pointed out through a recapitulation of Hilbert spaces in general, the special restrictions on Hilbert spaces imposed in quantum mechanics and the role of Hilbert spaces in classical polarization optics. The production of Bell-like states in classical polarization optics is discussed, and new theorems are proved to discriminate between separable and nonseparable states in classical wave optics where no discreteness is involved. The influence of the Pancharatnam phase on a classical Bell-like state is deived. Finally, to what extent classical polarization optics can be used to simulate quantum information processing tasks is also discussed. This should be of great practical importance because coherence and entanglement are robust in classical optics but not in quantum systems.

The sensitivities of optical magnetometers, atomic clocks and atom interferometers and other quantum metrology devices, whose signals are linear in the number N of active atoms, have practically arrived at their theoretical limit. Further enhancement of the sensitivities of such devices requires the introduction of new physical processes to improve on their present achievements. Many-body collective correlation among the atoms, spins or, in general, quantum systems may prove to be a suitable method. As such correlations introduce interference terms in the intensity of the scattering amplitudes they may enhance the signal as N(N − 1) for N correlated quantum systems. These correlations enhance the signal to noise ratio by a factor of N 2 and contribute to better sensitivity in quantum metrology. Moreover, atomic correlation may provide a quantum noise limit, the Heisenberg limit. In the present letter a novel operator is introduced that expresses photon-induced excitation exchange that takes into account energy conservation, Vij=aˆ†σiσj†aˆ , where σi=giei is the lowering operator of the i-th atom, and aˆ†,aˆ are photon creation and annihilation operators. Here i and j stand for two different atoms. This operator describes real or virtual photon-assisted excitation exchange between two atoms. Moreover, it conserves the total number of excitations in the joint electromagnetic field and the quantum system. A photon-induced excitation exchange between two atoms is calculated and clearly exhibits correlation and collective effects.

The estimation of some parameters with super-Heisenberg (SH) sensitivity, i.e. beyond Heisenberg limit, is one of the principal problems for current quantum metrology. We propose to use Bose–Einstein condensate quantum bright solitons for this purpose. We have shown that solitons, as quantum nonlinear structured field objects, allow SH phase estimation even with coherent probes in the framework of a nonlinear metrology approach. To achieve ultimate scaling in nonlinear phase estimation, which is 1/N3, we examine soliton phase shift occurring due to interaction of weakly coupled 1D solitons. We have shown that steady states of coupled solitons can be used for the formation of maximally path-entangled N00N-state providing minimal propagation error of solitons’ relative distance, momentum, and atom–atom scattering length parameter.

Finding optimal and noise robust probe states is a key problem in quantum\nmetrology. In this paper we propose Markov dynamics as a possible mechanism for\ngenerating such states, and show how the Heisenberg scaling emerges for systems\nwith multiple `dynamical phases' (stationary states), and noiseless channels.\nWe model noisy channels by coupling the Markov output to `environment'\nancillas, and consider the scenario where the environment is monitored to\nincrease the quantum Fisher information of the output. In this setup we find\nthat the survival of the Heisenberg limit depends on whether the environment\nreceives `which phase' information about the memory system.\n

We develop a variational principle to determine the quantum controls and initial state that optimizes the quantum Fisher information, the quantity characterizing the precision in quantum metrology. When the set of available controls is limited, the exact optimal initial state and the optimal controls are, in general, dependent on the probe time, a feature missing in the unrestricted case. Yet, for time-independent Hamiltonians with restricted controls, the problem can be approximately reduced to the unconstrained case via Floquet engineering. In particular, we find for magnetometry with a time-independent spin chain containing three-body interactions, even when the controls are restricted to one- and two-body interaction, that the Heisenberg scaling can still be approximately achieved. Our results open the door to investigate quantum metrology under a limited set of available controls, of relevance to many-body quantum metrology in realistic scenarios.

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Measuring the polarization states of light and their variations, a process known as polarimetry, is essential to modern metrology, especially within the field of optical rotation. However, enhancing the precision of such measurements by improving the detectors is challenging, primarily due to the limitation in photoelectric response. By contrast, the scheme of quantum polarimetry has shown that exploiting correlated particles as the probe can provide an enhancement in the precision. Inspired by the scheme, by introducing correlations among classical light beams, we demonstrate that the precision of polarimetry focused on optical rotation can be enhanced. This conclusion is supported by both our theoretical analysis and experimental results. And we call it correlated optical polarimetry. Because the correlated beams we consider are spatially separable, a distributed optical rotation polarimetry scheme is given, which can be applied for the detection of spatially distributed but homogeneous objects. Our results show that the maximal improvements of the precision scales are proportional to the square root of the probe number, and we verify the results by experiments when the probe number is 2, 4, and 6. The scaling of precision improvements mathematically resembles the transition from shot-noise scaling to Heisenberg scaling in quantum metrology, but works for a classical light detection system. Hence, it helps enhance the traditional light-based polarization measure and other relevant practical applications.

The statistical error is ineluctable in any measurement. Quantum techniques, especially with the development of quantum information, can help us squeeze the statistical error and enhance the precision of measurement. In a quantum system, there are some quantum parameters, such as the quantum state, quantum operator, and quantum dimension, which have no classical counterparts. So quantum metrology deals with not only the traditional parameters, but also the quantum parameters. Quantum metrology includes two important parts: measuring the physical parameters with a precision beating the classical physics limit and measuring the quantum parameters precisely. In this review, we will introduce how quantum characters (e.g., squeezed state and quantum entanglement) yield a higher precision, what the research areas are scientists most interesting in, and what the development status of quantum metrology and its perspectives are.

Making use of the general physical model of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer with photon loss which is a fundamental physical issue, we investigate the continuous-variable quantum phase estimation based on machine learning approach, and an efficient recursive Bayesian estimation algorithm for Gaussian states phase estimation has been proposed. With the proposed algorithm, the performance of the phase estimation may be improved distinguishably. For example, the physical limits (i.e., the standard quantum limit and Heisenberg limit) for the phase estimation precision may be reached in more efficient ways especially in the situation of the prior information being employed, the range for the estimated phase parameter can be extended from [0, π/2] to [0, 2π] compared with the conventional approach, and influences of the photon losses on the output parameter estimation precision may be suppressed dramatically in terms of saturating the lossy bound. In addition, the proposed algorithm can be extended to the time-variable or multi-parameter estimation framework.

Estimation of physical parameters is essential in almost any part of science and technology. The enhancement of performance in this task (e.g. beating the standard classical shot-noise limit) using available physical resources is a major goal in metrology. Quantum metrology in closed systems has indicated that entanglement in such systems may be a useful resource. However, whether in open quantum systems such enhancements may still show up is not yet fully understood. Here, we consider a dissipative (open) quantum system of identical particles in which a parameter of the open dynamics itself is to be estimated. We employ a recently developed dissipative quantum metrology framework, and investigate whether the entanglement produced in the course of the dissipative dynamics may help the estimation task. Specifically, we show that, even in a Markovian dynamics in which states become less distinguishable in time, at small enough times the entanglement generated by the dynamics may offer some advantage over the classical shot-noise limit.

Optical phase estimation is a vital measurement primitive that is used to perform accurate measurements of various physical quantities like length, velocity and displacements. The precision of such measurements can be largely enhanced by the use of entangled or squeezed states of light as demonstrated in a variety of different optical systems. Most of these accounts however deal with the measurement of a very small shift of an already known phase, which is in stark contrast to ab-initio phase estimation where the initial phase is unknown. Here we report on the realization of a quantum enhanced and fully deterministic phase estimation protocol based on real-time feedback control. Using robust squeezed states of light combined with a real-time Bayesian estimation feedback algorithm, we demonstrate deterministic phase estimation with a precision beyond the quantum shot noise limit. The demonstrated protocol opens up new opportunities for quantum microscopy, quantum metrology and quantum information processing.

The recent advances in Machine Learning hold great promises for the field of quantum sensing and metrology. With the help of reinforcement learning, we can tame the complexity of quantum systems and solve the problem of optimal experimental design. Reinforcement learning is a powerful model-free technique that allows an agent, which is typically a neural network, to learn the best strategy to reach a certain goal in a completely a priori unknown environment. However, in general, we know something about the quantum system the agent is interacting with, at least that it follows the rules of quantum mechanics. In quantum metrology, we typically have a model for the system and only some parameters of the evolution or of the initial state are unknown. We present here a general Machine Learning technique that can optimize the precision of quantum sensors, and in doing so it exploits the knowledge we have on the system. We have developed a Python package to automate a broad class of optimizations that can be found in the tasks of quantum parameter estimation, quantum metrology and quantum hypothesis testing. What the agent is learning here is an optimal adaptive strategy, that, on the basis of the previous outcomes, decides the next measurements to perform. It works both for Bayesian estimation and for frequentist estimation. The user is required to implement the physics of the system to be studied and state which parameters in the experiment are controllable and which are unknowns. The functions of the library allow then to easily train a neural network agent for optimizing the precision of the sensor, by simulating the experiment. We have explored some applications of this technique to magnetometry on NV centers (both DC and AC), to state discrimination in quantum optics and to phase estimation. So far, we were able to certify better results than the current state-of-the-art controls for many examples. The Machine Learning technique developed here can be applied in all those scenarios where the quantum system is well characterized and relatively simple and small. In these cases, we can squeeze every last bit of information from a quantum sensor by controlling it with a neural network appropriately trained.

We show that the quantum Fisher information attained in an adiabatic approach to critical quantum metrology cannot lead to the Heisenberg limit of precision and therefore regular quantum metrology under optimal settings is always superior. Furthermore, we argue that even though shortcuts to adiabaticity can arbitrarily decrease the time of preparing critical ground states, they cannot be used to achieve or overcome the Heisenberg limit for quantum parameter estimation in adiabatic critical quantum metrology. As case studies, we explore the application of counter-diabatic driving to the Landau-Zener model and the quantum Rabi model.