A geometric criterion for optimal measurements in multiparameter quantum metrology
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Abstract
Determining when the multiparameter quantum Cramér--Rao bound (QCRB) is saturable with experimentally relevant single-copy measurements is a central open problem in quantum metrology. Here we establish an equivalence between QCRB saturation and the simultaneous hollowization of a set of traceless operators associated with the estimation model, i.e., the existence of complete (generally nonorthogonal) bases in which all corresponding diagonal matrix elements vanish. This formulation yields a geometric characterization: optimal rank-one measurement vectors are confined to a subspace orthogonal to a state-determined Hermitian span. This provides a direct criterion to construct optimal Positive Operator-Valued Measures(POVMs). We then identify conditions under which the partial commutativity condition proposed in [Phys. Rev. A 100, 032104(2019)] becomes necessary and sufficient for the saturation of the QCRB, demonstrate that this condition is not always sufficient, and prove the counter-intuitive uselessness of informationally-complete POVMs.