Beating three-parameter precision trade-offs with entangling collective measurements

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 10 Apr 2026] Beating three-parameter precision trade-offs with entangling collective measurements Simon K. Yung, Wen-Zhe Yan, Lan-Tian Feng, Aritra Das, Jiayi Qin, Guang-Can Guo, Ping Koy Lam, Jie Zhao, Zhibo Hou, Lorcan O. Conlon, Syed M. Assad, Xi-Feng Ren, Guo-Yong Xiang Quantum-mechanical incompatibility, which precludes the simultaneous precise measurement of non-commuting observables, imposes fundamental limits on the rate at which classical information can be extracted. While the potential to surpass these limits using entangling collective measurements has been explored for two parameters, the regime of three or more parameters remains largely unexplored despite its fundamental and technological importance. Here, we investigate the three-parameter trade-off relations for estimating the Bloch vector components of a qubit, comparing conventional individual measurements with entangling collective measurements. We theoretically derive and experimentally implement optimal collective measurements on two identically prepared qubits using a programmable photonic circuit. Our experimental results demonstrate a clear violation of the entanglement-free trade-off relation -- by an average of 16 standard deviations -- achieving a tomography precision beyond the reach of any individual measurement scheme. This work directly confirms that optimal collective measurements can surpass the fundamental quantum limits of individual schemes in a three-parameter setting -- thereby deepening our understanding of quantum uncertainty relations beyond the two-parameter regime and providing a clear strategy to overcome the precision trade-offs imposed by quantum incompatibility. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2604.08871 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2604.08871v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.08871 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Simon K Yung [view email] [v1] Fri, 10 Apr 2026 02:21:53 UTC (4,129 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)