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arXiv:1409.2976 · Physical Review A

Optimal quantum control of Bose-Einstein condensates in magnetic microtraps: Comparison of gradient-ascent-pulse-engineering and Krotov optimization schemes

Georg Jäger, Daniel M. Reich, Michael H. Goerz, Christiane P. Koch, Ulrich Hohenester

Published Sep 25, 2014• 79 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study optimal quantum control of the dynamics of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates: The targets are to split a condensate, residing initially in a single well, into a double well, without inducing excitation, and to excite a condensate from the ground state to the first-excited state of a single well. The condensate is described in the mean-field approximation of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We compare two optimization approaches in terms of their performance and ease of use; namely, gradient-ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE) and Krotov's method. Both approaches are derived from the variational principle but differ in the way the control is updated, additional costs are accounted for, and second-order-derivative information can be included. We find that GRAPE produces smoother control fields and works in a black-box manner, whereas Krotov with a suitably chosen step-size parameter converges faster but can produce sharp features in the control fields.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.90.033628

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We study optimal quantum control of the dynamics of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates: The targets are to split a condensate, residing initially in a single well, into a double well, without inducing excitation, and to excite a condensate from the ground state to the first-excited state of a single well. The condensate is described in the mean-field approximation of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We compare two optimization approaches in terms of their performance and ease of use; namely, gradient-ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE) and Krotov's method. Both approaches are derived from the variational principle but differ in the way the control is updated, additional costs are accounted for, and second-order-derivative information can be included. We find that GRAPE produces smoother control fields and works in a black-box manner, whereas Krotov with a suitably chosen step-size parameter converges faster but can produce sharp features in the control fields.
We discuss quantum optimal control of Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in magnetic microtraps. The objective is to transfer a condensate from the ground state to the first-excited state. This type of control problem is typically solved using derivative-based methods in a high-dimensional control space such as gradient-ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE) and Krotov's method or derivative-free methods in a reduced control space such as Nelder-Mead with a chopped random basis (CRAB). We discuss how these methods can be combined in gradient optimization using parametrization (GROUP) including the finite bandwidth of the control electronics. We compare these methods and find that GROUP converges much faster than Nelder-Mead with CRAB and achieves better results than GRAPE and Krotov's method on the control problem presented here.
Abstract The mathematics of optimal control of quantum systems is of great interest in connection with fundamental problems of physics as well as with existing and prospective applications to quantum technologies. One important problem is the development of methods for constructing controls for quantum systems. One of the commonly used methods is the Krotov method, which was initially proposed outside of quantum control theory in articles by Krotov and Feldman (1978, 1983). This method was used to develop a novel approach to finding optimal controls for quantum systems in [64] (Tannor, Kazakov, and Orlov, 1992), [65] (Somlói, Kazakov, and Tannor, 1993), and in many other works by various scientists. Our survey discusses mathematical aspects of this method for optimal control of closed quantum systems. It outlines various modifications with different forms of the improvement function (for example, linear or linear-quadratic), different constraints on the control spectrum and on the admissible states of the quantum system, different regularisers, and so on. The survey describes applications of the Krotov method to controlling molecular dynamics and Bose–Einstein condensates, and to quantum gate generation. This method is compared with the GRAPE (GRadient Ascent Pulse Engineering) method, the CRAB (Chopped Random-Basis) method, and the Zhu–Rabitz and Maday–Turinici methods. Bibliography: 158 titles.
Mathematical problems of optimal control of quantum systems attract high interest in connection with both fundamental questions and existing and prospective applications. An important problem is the development of methods for constructing controls for quantum systems. One of the widely used methods is the Krotov method. The article is the first part of the review devoted to mathematical aspects of this method for optimal control of quantum systems. Beyond quantum control this method was suggested in the articles [V.F. Krotov, I.N. Feldman, Eng. Cybern. 1983. Vol. 21, 123], [A.I. Konnov, V.F. Krotov, Automat. Remote Control, 1999], and then adopted to optimal quantum control in papers by V.A. Kazakov, V.F. Krotov, R. Kosloff, C.P. Koch, D.J. Tannor, and others. The review considers this method, including cases with constraints on control spectrum and on states of the quantum system, various ways for choosing the improvement function, in particular, linear or linear-quadratic form, etc. We also discuss GRAPE (GRadient Ascent Pulse Engineering) and CRAB (Chopped Random-Basis) methods, as well as combined methods such as the method suggested by I. Maday and G. Turinici for generalizing the 1st order Krotov method and the Zhu-Rabitz method. Nowadays, various versions of the Krotov method are used as a key tool in optimal quantum control, and the review describes applications of this method to mathematical control problems for molecular dynamics, Bose-Einstein condensate, nuclear-magnetic resonance, quantum gates generation, etc. The first part of the review is devoted to closed quantum systems.
Transport of Bose-Einstein condensates in magnetic microtraps, controllable by external parameters such as wire currents or radio-frequency fields, is studied within the framework of optimal control theory (OCT). We derive from the Gross-Pitaevskii equation the optimality system for the OCT fields that allow efficient channeling of the condensate between given initial and desired states. For a variety of magnetic confinement potentials we study transport and wave-function splitting of the condensate, and demonstrate that OCT drastically outperforms simpler schemes for the time variation of the microtrap control parameters.
The control of the transport of Bose–Einstein condensates in magnetic microtraps is formulated within the framework of optimal control theory and solved by multigrid optimization schemes. The time evolution of the wave function of Bose–Einstein condensates is governed by the Gross–Pitaevskii equation and can be manipulated through variation of a controllable magnetic confinement potential. In order to define an optimal control strategy, an appropriate cost functional is introduced that must be minimized under the constraint given by the dynamic equation. The resulting optimality system consists of two nonlinear Schrödinger-type equations with opposite time orientation coupled with an elliptic equation for the control function. These equations are approximated by using a time-splitting pseudospectral method and finite differences. To solve the resulting problem a cascadic nonlinear conjugate gradient scheme and a multigrid optimization scheme are considered. The convergence properties of these two schemes are investigated theoretically, and their computational performance is discussed based on results of numerical experiments. It appears that the multigrid optimization scheme provides a robust optimization strategy.
We theoretically investigate protocols based on optimal control theory (OCT) for manipulating Bose-Einstein condensates in magnetic microtraps, using the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. In our approach we explicitly account for filter functions that distort the computed optimal control, a situation inherent to many experimental OCT implementations. We apply our scheme to the shakeup process of a condensate from the ground to the first excited state, following a recent experimental and theoretical study, and demonstrate that the fidelity of OCT protocols is not significantly deteriorated by typical filters.