Randomized measurements for multi-parameter 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 Cram\'{e}r--Rao bound, suffer from multiple difficulties towards 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 a new approach for multi-parameter 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 multi-parameter quantum metrology.