Critical systems near quantum phase transitions were predicted to be useful for improvement of metrological precision, thanks to their ultra-sensitive response to a tiny variation of the control Hamiltonian. Despite the promising perspective, realization of criticality-enhanced quantum metrology is an experimentally challenging task, mainly owing to the extremely long time needed to encode the signal to some physical quantity of a critical system. We here circumvent this problem by making use of the critical behaviors in the Jaynes-Cummings model, comprising a single qubit and a photonic resonator, to which the signal field is coupled. The information about the field amplitude is encoded in the qubit's excitation number in the dark state, which displays a divergent changing rate at the critical point. The most remarkable feature of this critical sensor is that the performance is insensitive to the leakage to bright eigenstates, caused by decoherence and non-adiabatic effects. We demonstrate such a metrological protocol in a superconducting circuit, where an Xmon qubit, interacting with a resonator, is used as a probe for estimating the amplitude of a microwave field coupled to the resonator. The measured quantum Fisher information exhibits a critical quantum enhancement, confirming the potential of this system for quantum metrology.
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-…
Quantum metrology makes use of quantum mechanics to improve precision measurements and measurement sensitivities. It is usually formulated for time-independent Hamiltonians but time-dependent Hamiltonians may offer advantages, such as a $T^4$ time dependence of the Fisher information which cannot be reached with a time-independent Hamiltonian. In Optimal adaptive control for quantum metrology with time-dependent Hamiltonians (Nature Communications 8, 2017), Shengshi Pang and Andrew N. Jordan put forward a Shortcut-to-adiabaticity (STA)-like method, specifically an approach formally similar to …
Shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) are fast routes to the final results of slow, adiabatic changes of the controlling parameters of a system. The shortcuts are designed by a set of analytical and numerical methods suitable for different systems and conditions. A motivation to apply STA methods to quantum systems is to manipulate them on timescales shorter than decoherence times. Thus shortcuts to adiabaticity have become instrumental in preparing and driving internal and motional states in atomic, molecular, and solid-state physics. Applications range from information transfer and processing base…
Suppressing unwanted transitions out of the instantaneous ground state is a major challenge in unitary adiabatic quantum computation. A recent approach consists in building counterdiabatic potentials approximated using variational strategies. In this contribution, we extend this variational approach to Lindbladian dynamics, having as a goal the suppression of diabatic transitions between pairs of Jordan blocks in quantum annealing. We show that, surprisingly, unitary counterdiabatic ansätze are successful for dissipative dynamics as well, allowing for easier experimental implementations compar…
Shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) are fast methods to realize the same final state evolution of quantum adiabatic process. We develop a general theory to construct a new kind of STA by solely sampling the points of the adiabatic path of the original adiabatic Hamiltonian. In contrast to previous methods, our approach does not require any additional control resources, has inherent robustness, and does not use any complicated unitary transformation. Based on path sampling, the resulting STA protocols are simple and can avoid points of adiabatic path that are challenging to implement. As applicatio…
Quantum battery is an emerging subject in the field of quantum thermodynamics, which is applied to charge, store and dispatch energy in quantum systems. In this work, we propose a fast and stable charging protocol based on the adiabatic evolution for the dark state of a three-level quantum battery. It combines the conventional stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) and the quantum transitionless driving technique. The charging process can be accelerated up to nearly one order in magnitude even under constraint of the strength of counter-diabatic driving. To perform the charging protocol i…
We propose a method for the fast generation of nonclassical ground states of the Rabi model in the ultrastrong and deep-strong coupling regimes via the shortcuts-to-adiabatic (STA) dynamics. The time-dependent quantum Rabi model is simulated by applying parametric amplification to the Jaynes-Cummings model. Using experimentally feasible parametric drive, this STA protocol can generate large-size Schrödinger cat states, through a process that is 10 times faster compared to adiabatic protocols. Such fast evolution increases the robustness of our protocol against dissipation. Our method enables o…
We use optimal control theory to obtain shortcuts to adiabaticity which maximize population transfer in a three-level STIRAP system, for a given finite duration of the process and specified dissipation rate at the intermediate state. We fix the sum of the intensities of the pump and Stokes pulses and use the mixing angle as the sole control variable. We determine the optimal variation of this angle and reveal the role of singular arc in the optimal trajectory, in order to minimize the effect of dissipation.
Precision Limits of Multiparameter Markovian-Noise Metrology
Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, NIST/University of Maryland（量子信息与计算联合中心，美国国家标准与技术研究院/马里兰大学）；Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland（量子信息联合研究所，美国国家标准与技术研究院/马里兰大学）；Quantum and Condensed Matter Physics Group (T-4), Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室理论部量子与凝聚态物理组（T-4））
Conventional strategies of quantum metrology are built upon POVMs, thereby possessing several general features, including the demolition of the state to be measured, the need of performing a number of measurements, and the degradation of performance under decoherence and dissipation. Here, we propose an innovative measurement scheme, called dissipative adiabatic measurements (DAMs), based on which, we further develop an approach to estimation of parameters characterizing dissipative processes. Unlike a POVM, whose outcome is one of the eigenvalues of an observable, a DAM yields the expectation…
The heat dissipation in quantum metrology represents not only an unavoidable problem towards practical applications of quantum sensing devices but also a fundamental relationship between thermodynamics and quantum metrology. However, a general thermodynamic principle which governs the rule of energy consumption in quantum metrology, similar to Landauer's principle for heat dissipation in computations, has remained elusive. Here, we establish such a physical principle for energy consumption in order to achieve a certain level of measurement precision in quantum metrology, and show that it is in…
Quantum metrology employs quantum effects to attain a measurement precision surpassing the limit achievable in classical physics. However, it was previously found that the precision returns the shot-noise limit (SNL) from the ideal Zeno limit (ZL) due to the photon loss in quantum metrology based on Mech-Zehnder interferometer. Here, we find that not only the SNL can be beaten, but also the ZL can be asymptotically recovered in long-encoding-time condition when the photon dissipation is exactly studied in its inherent non-Markovian manner. Our analysis reveals that it is due to the formation o…
We study the influence that collective transition phenomena have on quantum metrological protocols. The single spherical quantum spin (SQS) serves as stereotypical toy model that allows analytical insights on a mean-field level. First, we focus on equilibrium quantum criticality in the SQS and obtain the quantum Fisher information analytically, which is associated with the minimum lower bound for the precision of estimation of the parameter driving the phase transition. We compare it with the Fisher information for a specific experimental scenario where photoncounting-like measurements are emp…
Optimal control theory, also known as Pontryagin's Maximum Principle, is applied to the quantum parameter estimation in the presence of decoherence. An efficient procedure is devised to compute the gradient of quantum Fisher information with respect to the control parameters and is used to construct the optimal control protocol. The proposed procedure keeps the control problem in the time-invariant form so that both first-order and second-order optimality conditions derived from Pontryagin's Maximum Principle apply; the second-order condition turns out to be crucial when the optimal control co…
We propose an efficient scheme for generating spin-squeezed states at steady state in a spin-mechanical hybrid system, where an ensemble of SiV centers are coupled to a strongly damped nanomechanical resonator. We show that,there exists a collective steady state in the system, which is exactly formed by the collective spin states plus the zero excitation state of the mechanical mode. The generation of the steady spin-squeezed state is based on a dissipative quantum dynamical process in which the mechanical dissipation plays a positive role but without destroying the target state. We demonstrat…
Engineering dissipation and control pulses for high-fidelity fault-tolerance quantum computing
Fujian Key Laboratory of Quantum Information and Quantum Optics, Fuzhou University（福州大学）；Department of Physics, Fuzhou University（福州大学）；Quantum Information Physics Theory Research Team, Center for Quantum Computing, RIKEN（理化学研究所）；Institute of Quantum Science and Technology, Yanbian University（延边大学）
Multi-Parameter Multi-Critical Metrology of the Dicke Model
Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）；Peking University（北京大学）；Shanxi University（山西大学）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）；Università degli Studi di Milano（米兰大学）；INFN, Sezione di Milano（意大利国家核物理研究所米兰分部）
Protocols for non-adiabatic quantum control often require the use of classical time varying fields. Assessing the thermodynamic cost of such protocols, however, is far from trivial. In this letter we study the irreversible entropy produced by the classical apparatus generating the control fields, thus providing a direct link between the cost of a control protocol and dissipation. We focus, in particular, on the case of time-dependent magnetic fields and shortcuts to adiabaticity. Our results are showcased with two experimentally realisable case studies: the Landau-Zener model of a spin-1/2 par…
Controlling the spread of correlations in quantum many-body systems is a key challenge at the heart of quantum science and technology. Correlations are usually destroyed by dissipation arising from coupling between a system and its environment. Here, we show that dissipation can instead be used to engineer a wide variety of spatio-temporal correlation profiles in an easily tunable manner. We describe how dissipation with any translationally-invariant spatial profile can be realized in cold atoms trapped in an optical cavity. A uniform external field and the choice of spatial profile can be use…
Stabilization of finite-energy grid states of a quantum harmonic oscillator by reservoir engineering with two dissipation channels
Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole normale supérieure, Mines Paris-PSL, Inria, ENS-PSL, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université（巴黎高等师范学院物理实验室、巴黎矿业学院、法国国家信息与自动化研究所、巴黎文理研究大学、法国国家科学研究中心、索邦大学）；Institut Quantique and Département de Physique, Université de Sherbrooke（谢布罗克大学量子研究所和物理系）
Fock states are the most fundamental quantum states of bosonic fields, forming an important basis for understanding their quantum dynamics. As energy and number eigenstates, they have an exactly defined number of quanta, and most faithfully express the particle nature of fields. These properties make them attractive for many applications in metrology, and quantum simulation and information processing. Yet, Fock states are notoriously difficult to generate. The problem is especially acute in optics, where it is difficult to deterministically produce Fock states with more than a single photon, l…
Dynamic polarization protocols aim to hyperpolarize a spin bath by transferring spin polarization from a well-controlled qubit such as a quantum dot or a color defect. Building on techniques from shortcuts to adiabaticity, we design fast and efficient dynamic polarization protocols in central spin models that apply to dipolarly interacting systems. The protocols maximize the transfer of polarization via bright states at a nearby integrable point, exploit the integrability-breaking terms to reduce the statistical weight on dark states that do not transfer polarization, and realize experimentall…
The NOON states are valuable quantum resources, which have a wide range of applications in quantum communication, quantum metrology, and quantum information processing. Here we propose a fast, concise and reliable protocol for deterministically generating the NOON states of two resonators coupled to a single $\triangle$-type superconducting qutrit. In particular, we derive the effective Hamiltonians at the multi-photon resonances by virtue of the strong counter-rotating interaction between the resonator modes and the qutrit. Based on these crucial effective Hamiltonians, our protocol simplifie…
Optimal multiparameter quantum estimation in accelerating Unruh-DeWitt detectors
Mohammed V University in Rabat（拉巴特穆罕默德五世大学）；Ibnou Zohr University（伊本·佐哈尔大学）；Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University（公主努拉·宾特·阿卜杜勒拉赫曼大学）；University of Bisha（比沙大学）
