Fisher information in quantum statistics

Braunstein and Caves (1994) proposed to use Helstrom's {\em quantum information} number to define, meaningfully, a metric on the set of all possible states of a given quantum system. They showed that the quantum information is nothing else than the maximal Fisher information in a measurement of the quantum system, maximized over all possible measurements. Combining this fact with classical statistical results, they argued that the quantum information determines the asymptotically optimal rate at which neighbouring states on some smooth curve can be distinguished, based on arbitrary measurements on $n$ identical copies of the given quantum system. We show that the measurement which maximizes the Fisher information typically depends on the true, unknown, state of the quantum system. We close the resulting loophole in the argument by showing that one can still achieve the same, optimal, rate of distinguishability, by a two stage adaptive measurement procedure. When we consider states lying not on a smooth curve, but on a manifold of higher dimension, the situation becomes much more complex. We show that the notion of ``distinguishability of close-by states'' depends strongly on the measurement resources one allows oneself, and on a further specification of the task at hand. The quantum information matrix no longer seems to play a central role.Comment: This version replaces the previous versions of February 1999 (titled 'An Example of Non-Attainability of Expected Quantum Information') and that of November 1999. Proofs and results are much improved. To appear in J. Phys.

Law Behind Second Law of Thermodynamics --Unification with Cosmology--

In an abstract setting of a general classical mechanical system as a model for the universe we set up a general formalism for a law behind the second law of thermodynamics, i.e. really for "initial conditions". We propose a unification with the other laws by requiring similar symmetry and locality properties.Comment: 17 page

On the energy dependence of the D^+/D^- production asymmetry

In this paper we discuss the origin of the asymmetry present in D meson production and its energy dependence. In particular, we have applied the meson cloud model to calculate the asymmetries in D^-/D^+ meson production in high energy p-p collisions and find a good agreement with recent LHCb data. Although small, this non-vanishing asymmetry may shed light on the role played by the charm meson cloud of the proton.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:hep-ph/000927

The Wishart short rate model

We consider a short rate model, driven by a stochastic process on the cone of positive semidefinite matrices. We derive sufficient conditions ensuring that the model replicates normal, inverse or humped yield curves

Valence Bond Solids for Quantum Computation

Cluster states are entangled multipartite states which enable to do universal quantum computation with local measurements only. We show that these states have a very simple interpretation in terms of valence bond solids, which allows to understand their entanglement properties in a transparent way. This allows to bridge the gap between the differences of the measurement-based proposals for quantum computing, and we will discuss several features and possible extensions

Fast quantum algorithm for numerical gradient estimation

Given a blackbox for f, a smooth real scalar function of d real variables, one wants to estimate the gradient of f at a given point with n bits of precision. On a classical computer this requires a minimum of d+1 blackbox queries, whereas on a quantum computer it requires only one query regardless of d. The number of bits of precision to which f must be evaluated matches the classical requirement in the limit of large n.Comment: additional references and minor clarifications and corrections to version

Application of asymptotic expansions of maximum likelihood estimators errors to gravitational waves from binary mergers: the single interferometer case

In this paper we describe a new methodology to calculate analytically the error for a maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) for physical parameters from Gravitational wave signals. All the existing litterature focuses on the usage of the Cramer Rao Lower bounds (CRLB) as a mean to approximate the errors for large signal to noise ratios. We show here how the variance and the bias of a MLE estimate can be expressed instead in inverse powers of the signal to noise ratios where the first order in the variance expansion is the CRLB. As an application we compute the second order of the variance and bias for MLE of physical parameters from the inspiral phase of binary mergers and for noises of gravitational wave interferometers . We also compare the improved error estimate with existing numerical estimates. The value of the second order of the variance expansions allows to get error predictions closer to what is observed in numerical simulations. It also predicts correctly the necessary SNR to approximate the error with the CRLB and provides new insight on the relationship between waveform properties SNR and estimation errors. For example the timing match filtering becomes optimal only if the SNR is larger than the kurtosis of the gravitational wave spectrum

Scalable gate architecture for densely packed semiconductor spin qubits

We demonstrate a 12 quantum dot device fabricated on an undoped Si/SiGe heterostructure as a proof-of-concept for a scalable, linear gate architecture for semiconductor quantum dots. The device consists of 9 quantum dots in a linear array and 3 single quantum dot charge sensors. We show reproducible single quantum dot charging and orbital energies, with standard deviations less than 20% relative to the mean across the 9 dot array. The single quantum dot charge sensors have a charge sensitivity of 8.2 x 10^{-4} e/root(Hz) and allow the investigation of real-time charge dynamics. As a demonstration of the versatility of this device, we use single-shot readout to measure a spin relaxation time T1 = 170 ms at a magnetic field B = 1 T. By reconfiguring the device, we form two capacitively coupled double quantum dots and extract a mutual charging energy of 200 microeV, which indicates that 50 GHz two-qubit gate operation speeds are feasible

Design and control of spin gates in two quantum dots arrays

We study the spin-spin interaction between quantum dots coupled through a two dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction. We show that the interplay between transverse electron focusing and spin-orbit coupling allows to dynamically change the symmetry of the effective spin-spin Hamiltonian. That is, the interaction can be changed from Ising-like to Heisenberg-like and vice versa. The sign and magnitude of the coupling constant can also be tuned.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure