James-Stein estimation for quantum sensing schemes

Abstract

Quantum metrology protocols typically consist of four steps: state preparation, evolution, measurement, and data processing. Often, the first three steps are prioritised when designing a scheme as they contain all the quantum elements. The data analysis is generally considered an add-on with an implicit assumption that this step is well behaved and so standard data techniques can be applied. However, the situation can be more nuanced, such as when the available data are limited. In limited-data quantum metrology the choice of data analysis technique and cost function of the estimator is of great importance, and a reliable prior distribution of the unknown parameters is required for Bayesian analysis. An interesting question is what we should do when no such prior is available. In this work, we consider how the James-Stein estimator can give significant advantages when measuring multiple unknown parameters with limited data and, importantly, does not require any prior distribution. We demonstrate the advantage by applying this methodology to simple quantum metrology schemes.