Absorption-Based Qubit Estimation in Discrete-Time Quantum Walks
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Abstract
We investigate state estimation in discrete-time quantum walks with a single absorbing boundary. Using a spectral approach, we obtain closed expressions for the escape probability as a function of the coin state and the boundary position, and their corresponding classical Fisher information for a simple absorption readout. Comparing with the single-copy quantum Fisher information shows a clear complementarity: near boundaries carry broad information about the population angle of the coin, whereas moderate or distant boundaries reveal phase-sensitive regions. Because a single boundary probes only one information direction, combining two boundary placements yields a full-rank Fisher matrix and tight joint Cramér--Rao bounds, while retaining a binary, tomography-free measurement. We outline an integrated-photonics implementation in which an on-chip sink realizes the absorber and estimate a substantial reduction in configuration count compared to mode-resolved qubit tomography. These results identify absorption in quantum walks as a simple and scalable primitive for coin-state metrology.