Quantum thermometry by a single dephased qubit under Hermitian and non-Hermitian symmetries

We investigate the dephasing dynamics of a qubit as an effective mechanism for estimating the temperature of its surrounding environment for different symmetries. Our approach is fundamentally quantum, leveraging the qubit’s susceptibility to decoherence without necessitating thermal equilibrium with the system under study. We also examine how symmetry properties affect the accuracy of information retrieval and the robustness of quantum information storage in such systems, highlighting their potential advantages in mitigating decoherence effects. The optimization of quantum Fisher information is performed with respect to both the interaction duration and the environmental temperature, focusing on Ohmic-like spectral density environments. Furthermore, we explicitly identify the optimal qubit measurement that attains the quantum Cramér–Rao bound for precision. Our findings reveal that optimal estimation arises from a complex interplay between the qubit’s dephasing dynamics and the Ohmic characteristics of the environment, with a particular focus on non-Hermitian systems that exhibit enhanced resilience to decoherence. We examine the decoherence dynamics of a two-level spin system governed by an anti-parity-time-symmetric Hamiltonian. The obtained results are systematically compared with those corresponding to both PT-symmetric and conventional Hermitian qubit models. To this end, we first employ a time-dependent Dyson transformation to derive the exact analytical evolution of a generic non-Hermitian qubit interacting with an external environment. The formalism is then applied to the particular case of an anti-PT-symmetric qubit. Our analysis reveals that the coherence of the non-Hermitian-symmetric qubit is preserved over significantly longer times, as evidenced by the slower decay of its decoherence function relative to its Hermitian counterparts. Furthermore, the generation of entanglement entropy is found to proceed at a reduced rate, indicating a more gradual buildup of system–environment correlations. In addition, the anti-PT-symmetric configuration exhibits substantially enhanced quantum Fisher information together with a smaller variance than those observed in the corresponding PT-symmetric and Hermitian systems. These findings highlight the remarkable robustness of anti-PT-symmetric qubits against environmental decoherence and suggest that they constitute a promising platform for the implementation of quantum information processing and quantum computing protocols.