The quantum Fisher information represents a continuous family of metrics on the space of quantum states and places the fundamental limit on the accuracy of quantum state estimation. We show that the entire family of quantum Fisher information can be determined from linear-response theory through generalized covariances. We derive the generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem that relates linear-response functions to generalized covariances and hence allows us to determine the quantum Fisher information from linear-response functions, which are experimentally measurable quantities. As an application, we examine the skew information, which is a quantum Fisher information, of a harmonic oscillator in thermal equilibrium, and show that the equality of the skew-information-based uncertainty relation holds.

• Received 14 October 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.062316