Randomized Measurements for Multiparameter Quantum Metrology

Abstract

The optimal quantum measurements for estimating different unknown parameters in a parameterized quantum state are usually incompatible with each other. Traditional approaches to addressing the measurement incompatibility issue, such as the Holevo Cramér-Rao bound, suffer from multiple difficulties toward practical applicability, as the optimal measurement strategies are usually state-dependent, difficult to implement and also take complex analyses to determine. Here we study randomized measurements as an approach for multiparameter quantum metrology. We show quantum measurements on single copies of quantum states given by 3-designs perform near-optimally when estimating an arbitrary number of parameters in pure states and more generally, approximately low-rank well-conditioned states, whose metrological information is largely concentrated in a low-dimensional subspace. The near-optimality is also shown in estimating the maximal number of parameters for three types of mixed states that are well conditioned on their supports. Examples of fidelity estimation and Hamiltonian estimation are explicitly provided to demonstrate the power and limitation of randomized measurements in multiparameter quantum metrology.