Saturation of the Multiparameter Quantum Cram\'er-Rao Bound at the Single-Copy Level with Projective Measurements

TL;DR

This paper investigates the conditions under which the quantum Cramér-Rao bound can be saturated with single-copy measurements, revealing that optimal measurements are often projective and providing new insights into measurement strategies.

Contribution

It establishes that the sufficient conditions for saturability are also necessary and sufficient for projective measurements, and characterizes general POVMs that achieve the bound.

Findings

Optimal measurements that saturate the bound are often projective.

Necessary and sufficient conditions for saturability are clarified.

Explicit examples of solutions to the conditions are provided.

Abstract

Quantum parameter estimation theory is an important component of quantum information theory and provides the statistical foundation that underpins important topics such as quantum system identification and quantum waveform estimation. When there is more than one parameter the ultimate precision in the mean square error given by the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound is not necessarily achievable. For non-full rank quantum states, it was not known when this bound can be saturated (achieved) when only a single copy of the quantum state encoding the unknown parameters is available. This single-copy scenario is important because of its experimental/practical tractability. Recently, necessary and sufficient conditions for saturability of the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound in the multiparameter single-copy scenario have been established in terms of i) the commutativity of a set of projected symmetric logarithmic derivatives and ii) the existence of a unitary solution to a system of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations. New sufficient conditions were also obtained that only depend on properties of the symmetric logarithmic derivatives. In this paper, key structural properties of optimal measurements that saturate the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound are illuminated. These properties are exploited to i) show that the sufficient conditions are in fact necessary and sufficient for an optimal measurement to be projective, ii) give an alternative proof of previously established necessary conditions, and iii) describe general POVMs, not necessarily projective, that saturate the multiparameter QCRB. Examples are given where a unitary solution to the system of nonlinear partial differential equations can be explicitly calculated when the required conditions are fulfilled.