This paper reviews quantum spin squeezing, which characterizes the sensitivity of a state with respect to an SU(2) rotation, and is significant for both entanglement detection and high-precision metrology. We first present various definitions of spin squeezing parameters, explain their origin and properties for typical states, and then discuss spin-squeezed states produced with the Ising and the nonlinear twisting Hamiltonians. Afterwards, we explain correlations and entanglement in spin-squeezed states, as well as the relations between spin squeezing and quantum Fisher information, where the latter plays a central role in quantum metrology. We also review the applications of spin squeezing for detecting quantum chaos and quantum phase transitions, as well as the influence of decoherence on spin-squeezed states. Finally, several experiments are discussed including: producing spin squeezed states via particle collisions in Bose-Einstein condensates, mapping photon squeezing onto atomic ensembles, and quantum non-demolition measurements.Comment: 99 pages, 25 figure

The dynamics of two variants of quantum Fisher information under decoherence are investigated from a geometrical point of view. We first derive the explicit formulas of these two quantities for a single qubit in terms of the Bloch vector. Moreover, we obtain analytical results for them under three different decoherence channels, which are expressed as affine transformation matrices. Using the hierarchy equation method, we numerically study the dynamics of both the two information in a dissipative model and compare the numerical results with the analytical ones obtained by applying the rotating-wave approximation. We further express the two information quantities in terms of the Bloch vector for a qudit, by expanding the density matrix and Hermitian operators in a common set of generators of the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{su}(d)$. By calculating the dynamical quantum Fisher information, we find that the collisional dephasing significantly diminishes the precision of phase parameter with the Ramsey interferometry.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure