Saturating the Quantum Cramér--Rao Bound in Prioritised Parameter Estimation

Abstract: Measurement incompatibility is a cornerstone of quantum mechanics. In the context of estimating multiple parameters of a quantum system, this manifests as a fundamental trade-off between the precisions with which different parameters can be estimated. Often, a parameter can be optimally measured, but at the cost of gaining no information about incompatible parameters. Here, we report that there are systems where one parameter's information can be maximised while not completely losing information about the other parameters. In doing so, we find attainable trade-off relations for quantum parameter estimation with a structure that is different to typical Heisenberg-type trade-offs. We demonstrate our findings by implementing an optimal entangling measurement on a Quantinuum trapped-ion quantum computer.