Knowledge-dependent optimal Gaussian strategies for phase estimation
Ricard Ravell Rodríguez, Simon Morelli
SciPost Phys. 18, 167 (2025) · published 27 May 2025
- doi: 10.21468/SciPostPhys.18.5.167
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Abstract
When estimating an unknown phase rotation of a continuous-variable system with homodyne detection, the optimal probe state strongly depends on the value of the estimated parameter. In this article, we identify the optimal pure single-mode Gaussian probe states depending on the knowledge of the estimated phase parameter before the measurement. We find that for a large prior uncertainty, the optimal probe states are close to coherent states, a result in line with findings from noisy parameter estimation. However, with increasingly precise estimates of the parameter, it becomes beneficial to put more of the available energy into the squeezing of the probe state. Surprisingly, there is a clear jump, where the optimal probe state changes abruptly to a squeezed vacuum state, which maximizes the Fisher information for this estimation task. We use our results to study repeated measurements and compare different methods to adapt the probe state based on the changing knowledge of the parameter according to the previous findings.
Authors / Affiliations: mappings to Contributors and Organizations
See all Organizations.- 1 Ricard Ravell Rodríguez,
- 2 Simon Morelli
- 1 Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos / Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems [IFISC]
- 2 Atominstitut [ATI]