Squeezing metrology: a unified framework

Abstract

Quantum metrology theory has up to now focused on the resolution gains obtainable thanks to the entanglement among N probes. Typically, a quadratic gain in resolution is achievable, going from the 1/N of the central limit theorem to the 1/N of the Heisenberg bound. Here we focus instead on quantum squeezing and provide a unified framework for metrology with squeezing, showing that, similarly, one can generally attain a quadratic gain when comparing the resolution achievable by a squeezed probe to the best N-probe classical strategy achievable with the same energy. Namely, here we give a quantification of the Heisenberg squeezing bound for arbitrary estimation strategies that employ squeezing. Our theory recovers known results (e.g. in quantum optics and spin squeezing), but it uses the general theory of squeezing and holds for arbitrary quantum systems.