A quantum mechanical system S is indirectly controlled when the control affects an ancillary system A and the evolution of S is modified through the interaction with A only. A study of indirect controllability gives a description of the set of states that can be obtained for S with this scheme. In this paper, we study the indirect controllability of quantum systems in the finite dimensional case. After discussing the relevant definitions, we give a general necessary condition for controllability in Lie algebraic terms. We present a detailed treatment of the case where both systems, S and A, are two-dimensional (qubits). In particular, we characterize the dynamical Lie algebra associated with S + A, extending previous results, and prove that complete controllability of S + A and an appropriate notion of indirect controllability are equivalent properties for this system. We also prove several further indirect controllability properties for the system of two qubits, and illustrate the role of the Lie algebraic analysis in the study of reachable states.
We consider a control scheme where a quantum system S is put in contact with an auxiliary quantum system A and the control can affect A only, while S is the system of interest. The system S is then controlled indirectly through the interaction with A. Complete controllability of S +A means that every unitary state transformation for the system S +A can be achieved with this scheme. Indirect controllability means that every unitary transformation on the system S can be achieved. We prove in this paper, under appropriate conditions and definitions, that these two notions are equivalent in finite dimension. We use Lie algebraic methods to prove this result.
In many experiments, a target quantum mechanical system is controlled and-or measured indirectly using an auxiliary quantum system. In the case of control, this means that the control action only affects the auxiliary system while the evolution of the target system is affected indirectly through the interaction with the auxiliary system. In the case of measurement, only the state of the auxiliary system can be measured, providing information on the initial state of the target system. Indirect controllability is the property of the target system of being driven between two arbitrary states while indirect observability refers to the possibility of extracting all the information on the state of the target system by measuring the auxiliary system. This paper has three main goals. First, we summarize recent notions and results introduced by us on the study of indirect controllability. Then, we present some new technical results on indirect controllability. In particular, we present a counterexample to the converse of a criterion for indirect controllability, which shows that the Lie algebraic condition introduced in this criterion is necessary but not sufficient for indirect controllability. This gives an open problem which is how to strengthen this condition to obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for indirect controllability. Lastly, we present a parallel treatment of indirect observability, give the relevant notions and definitions and relate the properties of indirect controllability and observability. Our final result says that strong notions of indirect controllability and observability are equivalent properties to complete controllability of the system. We discuss examples of physical systems which are controlled and-or measured indirectly. The research is motivated by experimental schemes of current interest
In several quantum control schemes, a target quantum system
S is put in contact with an auxiliary system
A and the coherent control can directly affect only
A. The system
S is controlled indirectly through the interaction with
A. The system
S is said to be indirectly controllable if every unitary transformation can be performed on the state of
S with this scheme. The indirect controllability of
S will depend on the dynamical Lie algebra
L characterizing the dynamics of the total system
S+A and on the initial state of the auxiliary system
A. In this paper, we describe this characterization exactly. A natural assumption is that the auxiliary system
A is minimal, which means that there is no part of
A that is not coupled to
S, and we denote by
nA the dimension of such a minimal
A, which we assume to be fully controllable. We show that if
nA is greater than or equal to
3, indirect controllability of
S is verified if and only if complete controllability of the total system
S+A is verified, i.e.,
L=su(nSnA) or
L=u(nSnA), where
nS denotes the dimension of the system
S. If
nA=2, it is possible to have indirect controllability without having complete controllability. The exact condition for that to happen is given in terms of a Lie algebra
LS which describes the evolution of the system
S only. We prove that indirect controllability is verified if and only if
LS=u(nS) and the initial state of the auxiliary system
A is pure.
In coherent quantum feedback control schemes, a target quantum system S is put in contact with an auxiliary system A and the coherent control can directly affect only A. The system S is controlled 'indirectly' through the interaction with A. The system S is said to be indirectly controllable if every unitary transformation can be performed on the state of S with this scheme. The indirect controllability of S will depend on the `dynamical Lie algebra' L characterizing the dynamics of the total system S+A and on the initial state of the auxiliary system A. In this paper we describe this characterization exactly. A natural assumption is that the auxiliary system A is minimal which means that there is no part of A which is uncoupled to S, and we denote by n_A the dimension of such a minimal A, which we assume to be fully controllable. We show that, if n_A is greater than or equal to 3, indirect controllability of S is verified if and only if complete controllability of the total system S+A is verified, i.e., L=su(n_Sn_A) or L=u(n_Sn_A), where n_S denotes the dimension of the system S. If n_A=2, it is possible to have indirect controllability without having complete controllability. The exact condition for that to happen is given in terms of a Lie algebra L_S which describes the evolution on the system S only. We prove that indirect controllability is verified if and only if L_S=u(n_S), and the initial state of the auxiliary system A is pure.
In coherent feedback control schemes a target quantum system S is put in contact with an auxiliary system A and the coherent control can directly affect only A. The system S is controlled indirectly through the interaction with A. The system S is said to be indirectly controllable if every unitary transformation can be performed on the state of S with this scheme. In this paper we show how indirect controllability of S is equivalent to complete controllability of the combined system S + A, if the dimension of A is ≥ 3. In the case where the dimension of A is equal to 2, it is possible to have indirect controllability without having complete controllability of S +A and we give sufficient conditions for this to happen. We conjecture that these conditions are also necessary. The results of the paper extend the result of [5] and expand the results of [6] to systems of arbitrary dimensions.