Optimal Detection of Rotations about Unknown Axes by Coherent and Anticoherent States

Abstract

Coherent and anticoherent states of spin systems up to spin $j=2$ are known to be optimal in order to detect rotations by a known angle but unknown rotation axis. These optimal quantum rotosensors are characterized by minimal fidelity, given by the overlap of a state before and after a rotation, averaged over all directions in space. We calculate a closed-form expression for the average fidelity in terms of anticoherent measures, valid for arbitrary values of the quantum number $j$. We identify optimal rotosensors (i) for arbitrary rotation angles in the case of spin quantum numbers up to $j=7/2$ and (ii) for small rotation angles in the case of spin quantum numbers up to $j=5$. The closed-form expression we derive allows us to explain the central role of anticoherence measures in the problem of optimal detection of rotation angles for arbitrary values of $j$.