Quantum Metrology: Extended Convexity of Quantum Fisher Information

Abstract: We prove an extended convexity for quantum Fisher information of a mixed state with a given convex decomposition. This convexity introduces a bound which has two parts: i. classical part associated to the Fisher information of the probability distribution of the states contributing to the decomposition, and ii. quantum part given by the average quantum Fisher information of the states in this decomposition. Next we use a non-Hermitian extension of symmetric logarithmic derivative in order to obtain another upper bound on quantum Fisher information, which enables to derive a closed form for a fairly general class of system dynamics given by a dynamical semigroup. We combine our two upper bounds together in a general (open system) metrology framework where the dynamics is described by a quantum channel, and derive the ultimate precision limit for quantum metrology. We illustrate our results and their applications through two examples, where we also demonstrate that how the extended convexity allows to track transition between quantum and classical behaviors for an estimation precision.