Trade-off relation between integrated metrological gain and local dissipation in magnetic-field sensing by quantum spin ensemble

TL;DR

The paper addresses the fundamental trade-off between metrological performance and dissipation in magnetic-field sensing with a spin ensemble by introducing the Integrated Metrological Gain (IMG) and deriving exact bounds using the Lindblad master equation in conjunction with quantum Fisher information. It analyzes local dephasing and local emission noise, obtaining explicit expressions for the integrated gain for both GHZ-like and product-state initial preparations, and highlighting how IMG scales inversely with the dissipation rate $\gamma$. A key finding is that entanglement enables Heisenberg-like scaling only at short times, but accelerates dissipative degradation, so long-time metrological performance can be comparable without entanglement. The results provide a practical figure of merit for dissipative quantum metrology, with potential relevance to nanoscale sensing platforms such as NV centers and connections to quantum thermodynamics concepts like TUR.

Abstract

Quantum metrology plays a central role in precision sensing, where quantum enhancement of detection performance is crucial for both fundamental studies and practical applications. In this work, we derive a tight performance bound for magnetic-field sensing with a spin ensemble in the presence of dissipation. The metrological performance is quantified by the integrated metrological gain (IMG), which explicitly incorporates the time evolution of the measurement apparatus. By combining the Lindblad master equation with the quantum Fisher information, we obtain analytically exact trade-off relations between the IMG and the dissipation rate for local dephasing and local emission processes, showing that the gain scales inversely with the dissipation strength. This trade-off complements the Heisenberg limit, which addresses only the scaling with the number of spins and neglects dissipative dynamics. We analyze various initial state preparations and elucidate the role of quantum entanglement in the presence of dissipation. Notably, while entanglement is essential for achieving Heisenberg scaling at short times, it also accelerates dissipative degradation during time evolution. Consequently, for sufficiently long observation times, comparable metrological performance can be achieved even without entanglement.