Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1512.05477 · Physical Review A

Control of noisy quantum systems: Field-theory approach to error mitigation

Rafael Hipolito, Paul M. Goldbart

Published Apr 12, 2016• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the basic quantum-control task of obtaining a target unitary operation (i.e., a quantum gate) via control fields that couple to the quantum system and are chosen to best mitigate errors resulting from time-dependent noise, which frustrate this task. We allow for two sources of noise: fluctuations in the control fields and fluctuations arising from the environment. We address the issue of control-error mitigation by means of a formulation rooted in the Martin-Siggia-Rose (MSR) approach to noisy, classical statistical-mechanical systems. To do this, we express the noisy control problem in terms of a path integral, and integrate out the noise to arrive at an effective, noise-free description. We characterize the degree of success in error mitigation via a fidelity metric, which characterizes the proximity of the sought-after evolution to ones that are achievable in the presence of noise. Error mitigation is then best accomplished by applying the optimal control fields, i.e., those that maximize the fidelity subject to any constraints obeyed by the control fields. To make connection with MSR, we reformulate the fidelity in terms of a Schwinger-Keldysh (SK) path integral, with the added twist that the ``forward'' and ``backward'' branches of the time contour are inequivalent with respect to the noise. The present approach naturally and readily allows the incorporation of constraints on the control fields---a useful feature in practice, given that constraints feature in all real experiments. In addition to addressing the noise average of the fidelity, we consider its full probability distribution. The information content present in this distribution allows one to address more complex questions regarding error mitigation, including, in principle, questions of extreme value statistics, i.e., the likelihood and impact of rare instances of the fidelity and how to harness or cope with their influence. We illustrate this MSR-SK reformulation by considering a model system consisting of a single spin-$s$ freedom (with $s$ arbitrary), focusing on the case of $1/f$ noise in the weak-noise limit. We discover that optimal error mitigation is accomplished via a universal control field protocol that is valid for all $s$, from the qubit (i.e., $s=1/2$) case to the classical (i.e., $s\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$) limit. In principle, this MSR-SK approach provides a transparent framework for addressing quantum control in the presence of noise for systems of arbitrary complexity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.042319

Related papers

Noise Filtering in Quantum Information

Todd J. Green

We present novel techniques for modelling and mitigating the effects of time-dependent noise created by interactions between a quantum system and its environment, and by errors in applied controls. Our scope encompasses quantum storage and nontrivial QIP tasks in both single- and multi-qubit systems, with a particular focus on control operations applied to trapped-ion qubits. The work begins with the introduction of a computationally efficient approach to characterizing the impact of time-dependent noise in single-qubit systems, in terms of the spectral characteristics of the noise and a set of generalized control filter functions. In conjunction with brute-force numerical simulation, we show that this novel analytical technique can used to model the evolution of a noisy single-qubit system subject to an arbitrary piecewise-constant control sequence, and to accurately predict the effects of experimentally engineered noise in single-qubit trapped ion systems. We also obtain a number of new and important results that extend the range of utility of state-preserving dynamical decoupling control sequences. These device-independent results provide a means to create a practically useful high-fidelity, long-time quantum memory in both single- and multi-qubit systems. We go on to explain how, given the freedom to arbitrarily and quasi-instantaneously change the phase of the interaction between a system of qubits and a finite collection of oscillators, frequency-specific phase modulation protocols can be implemented that decouple the qubits from targeted oscillator modes at pre-determined times. This technique can be used to generate fast, high-fidelity multi-qubit entangling operations in, for example, ion trap QIP devices.

•Oct 14, 2016•0 citations

Quantum control for time-dependent noise

Chingiz Kabytayev

The main obstacles to implementing ideal quantum operations are unwanted interactions of quantum systems with the environment and noise in control fields. This problem can be tackled by methods of quantum control. Among these methods are \ncomposite pulse (CP) sequences which have long been employed in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to mitigate the effects of systematic errors in the control. CP sequences have been initially developed to correct for static but otherwise unknown \nerrors in the amplitude or frequency of the driving field. One of the challenges to the systematic incorporation of these control protocols into practical quantum information systems remains the limited understanding of CP performance in the presence \nof time-dependent noise. Treating the influence of time-dependent noise processes on quantum control operations has been facilitated by recent advances in dynamical \nerror suppression based on open-loop Hamiltonian engineering. These approaches provide a general framework for understanding and mitigating non-Markovian time- \ndependent noise in a finite-dimensional open quantum system. Particularly, arbitrary single-qubit control characteristics may be captured quantitatively in filter-transfer \nfunctions (FF) using methods of spectral overlap in the frequency domain. In this thesis work, we present a systematic study of control pulse sequences in the presence of time-dependent noise. We use a combination of analytic formulations based on FFs and numerical simulations to demonstrate that CPs are able to effectively suppress control errors caused by time-dependent processes possessing realistic noise \npower spectra. We provide a geometric interpretation of CP performance under time-dependent amplitude noise, further linking the FF formalism with known techniques in CP construction. We also develop new optimized pulse sequences that act as notch filters for time-dependent noise. These high-fidelity control protocols effectively sup- \npress errors from the noise sources with sharp features in spectral densities and can be used practically on various quantum architectures. We also present our work \non simulation of randomized benchmarking protocols and CPs that have been used experimentally by our collaborators to measure gate errors.

•May 15, 2015•2 citations

Robust quantum optimal control for Markovian quantum systems

Ran Liu, Xiaodong Yang, Jun Li

Resisting diverse noise effects is crucial for the accurate manipulation of quantum systems. For static or slowly varying noises, many efficient noise mitigation strategies have been developed, such as composite pulses and dynamical decoupling. However, for fast fluctuating noise in the Markovian limit, whether and to what extent coherent quantum control can enhance quantum engineering tasks remains unclear and less explored. Here, we propose a robust quantum optimal control method to tackle Markovian noises. The basic idea is that, regarding the Markovian noise channel as perturbation, we quantitatively characterize the noise-induced error evolution by the perturbative expansion term, and then take them as the objective functions to be suppressed. During optimization, the optimal controls are obtained by maximizing the control target function and meanwhile minimizing the perturbative terms due to Markovian noise order by order. As demonstration examples, we first apply our method to quantum state transfer tasks on two-level and three-level $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ systems, then use it to design quantum gates in two-level and three-level ladder systems, all under Markovian noises. The simulation results illustrate that our method can notably enhance quantum state transfer fidelities and have very limited improvement on gate fidelities. The method presented here is versatile and can be extended to enhance the performance of various control tasks under Markovian noise in multilevel or multiqubit quantum systems.

Physical Review A•Jul 1, 2024•3 citations

Universally robust control of open quantum systems

Lixiang Ding, Jingtao Fan, Xingze Qiu

Mitigating noise-induced decoherence is the central challenge in controlling open quantum systems. While existing robust protocols often require precise noise models, we introduce a universal framework for noise-agnostic quantum control that achieves high-fidelity operations without prior environmental noise characterization. This framework capitalizes on the dynamical modification of the system-environment coupling through control drives, an effect rigorously encoded in the dynamical equation. Since the derived noise sensitivity metric remains independent of the coupling details between the system and the environment, our protocol demonstrates robustness against arbitrary Markovian noises within the first-order weak coupling approximation. Numerical validation through quantum state transfer and gate operations reveals near-unity fidelity across diverse noise regimes, achieving orders-of-magnitude error suppression compared to target-only approaches. This framework bridges critical gaps between theoretical control design and experimental constraints, establishing a broadly applicable strategy for high-fidelity quantum information processing across platforms such as superconducting circuits, trapped ions, and solid-state qubits.

arXiv:2508.07379•npj Quantum Information•Dec 27, 2025•0 citations

Quantum control with noisy fields: computational complexity versus sensitivity to noise

Shimshon Kallush, Michael Khasin, Ronnie Kosloff

A closed quantum system is defined as completely controllable if an arbitrary unitary transformation can be executed using the available controls.In practice, control fields are a source of unavoidable noise, which has to be suppressed to retain controllability.Can one design control fields such that the effect of noise is negligible on the time-scale of the transformation?This question is intimately related to the fundamental problem of a connection between the computational complexity of the control problem and the sensitivity of the controlled system to noise.The present study considers a paradigm of control, where the Lie-algebraic structure of the control Hamiltonian is fixed, while the size of the system increases with the dimension of the Hilbert space representation of the algebra.We find two types of control tasks, easy and hard.Easy tasks are characterized by a small variance of the evolving state with respect to the operators of the control operators.They are relatively immune to noise and the control field is easy to find.Hard tasks have a large variance, are sensitive to noise and the control field is hard to find.The influence of noise increases with the size of the system, which 4

arXiv:1308.6128•New Journal of Physics•Jan 9, 2014•20 citations

Noise Mitigation Through Design and Optimization of Parametric Quantum Channels

LEONE, PIETRO

The primary aim of the thesis is to introduce and investigate an original protocol for the design and the optimization of parameterized noisy quantum channels, with the goal of mitigating hardware-induced noise. Significant attention is also devoted to the design of noise models, which are essential for emulation purposes. The protocol begins with the derivation of a noise model for a hardware gate, represented as a quantum channel, that can be simulated classically. This task is achieved through process tomography, a procedure that enables the characterization of the channel. It should be noted that such simulation is feasible on classical computers, since the optimization task concerns low-dimensional gates typically acting on 2–3 qubits. The noisy channel is then engineered by embedding it into a probabilistic ensemble of circuits, in which additional single-qubit parameterized gates — assumed to be noiseless — are introduced. Through this procedure, the noisy channel becomes parameterized and can be optimized according to an appropriate metric. Following a worst-case, agnostic perspective, we choose the diamond distance between the noisy channel and the target unitary channel as the cost function. This metric is generally considered the most suitable for distinguishing quantum channels. The resulting optimal ensemble of circuits can be implemented on real hardware under fixed calibration conditions, yielding a channel that approximates the target more closely than the original noisy channel. This approach can be interpreted as a noise mitigation strategy based on pre-processing design and optimization: rather than correcting errors after the computation, less noisy channels are employed during the computation itself. In this context, the protocol — within the noise-aware variational quantum compiling framework — shares with the randomized compiling the principle of circuit dressing to tailor noise during execution. The methodology is validated on two toy models of the single-qubit identity with amplitude damping noise, combining both analytical and numerical approaches. The analysis highlights the role of convexity in the space of quantum channels, with explicit demonstrations of optimal convex combinations and connections to encoding-decoding and dynamical decoupling strategies. The analysis of these simple models is intended as a proof-of-principle of the protocol in a controlled and well-characterized environment. In addition, this thesis introduces the design of random noise models that are constrained to maintain a fixed diamond distance from a target quantum channel. The controlled addition of random noise to a unitary channel represents a significant and — to our knowledge — previously unexplored approach within noise modeling. Indeed, in principle, the currently available built-in noise models may limit the expressivity of the emulation. The task was achieved by enriching the noise spectrum through the addition of random Kraus operators and small systematic rotations. To assess the effects of hardware-induced noise, we proposed an experimental design aimed at simulating the time evolution of a triangular Ising model in a transverse field. Our approach employs Trotterization, adapted to the topology and connectivity of a certain quantum processing unit (QPU) profile. Building on the noisy native gates of the QPU profile, we propose the emulation, engineering and optimization of a noisy CZ gate, subsequently employed within sequences of non-native gates. Using the designed noise models, we perform several emulations aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the protocol in the presence of progressively dominant systematic rotations, and at comparing it with Pauli twirling, a technique of randomized compiling.

•Oct 15, 2025•0 citations
We consider the basic quantum-control task of obtaining a target unitary operation (i.e., a quantum gate) via control fields that couple to the quantum system and are chosen to best mitigate errors resulting from time-dependent noise, which frustrate this task. We allow for two sources of noise: fluctuations in the control fields and fluctuations arising from the environment. We address the issue of control-error mitigation by means of a formulation rooted in the Martin-Siggia-Rose (MSR) approach to noisy, classical statistical-mechanical systems. To do this, we express the noisy control problem in terms of a path integral, and integrate out the noise to arrive at an effective, noise-free description. We characterize the degree of success in error mitigation via a fidelity metric, which characterizes the proximity of the sought-after evolution to ones that are achievable in the presence of noise. Error mitigation is then best accomplished by applying the optimal control fields, i.e., those that maximize the fidelity subject to any constraints obeyed by the control fields. To make connection with MSR, we reformulate the fidelity in terms of a Schwinger-Keldysh (SK) path integral, with the added twist that the forward'' and backward'' branches of the time contour are inequivalent with respect to the noise. The present approach naturally and readily allows the incorporation of constraints on the control fields---a useful feature in practice, given that constraints feature in all real experiments. In addition to addressing the noise average of the fidelity, we consider its full probability distribution. The information content present in this distribution allows one to address more complex questions regarding error mitigation, including, in principle, questions of extreme value statistics, i.e., the likelihood and impact of rare instances of the fidelity and how to harness or cope with their influence. We illustrate this MSR-SK reformulation by considering a model system consisting of a single spin-sss freedom (with sss arbitrary), focusing on the case of 1/f1/f1/f noise in the weak-noise limit. We discover that optimal error mitigation is accomplished via a universal control field protocol that is valid for all sss, from the qubit (i.e., s=1/2s=1/2s=1/2) case to the classical (i.e., s\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞s\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}s\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞) limit. In principle, this MSR-SK approach provides a transparent framework for addressing quantum control in the presence of noise for systems of arbitrary complexity.
We present novel techniques for modelling and mitigating the effects of time-dependent noise created by interactions between a quantum system and its environment, and by errors in applied controls. Our scope encompasses quantum storage and nontrivial QIP tasks in both single- and multi-qubit systems, with a particular focus on control operations applied to trapped-ion qubits. The work begins with the introduction of a computationally efficient approach to characterizing the impact of time-dependent noise in single-qubit systems, in terms of the spectral characteristics of the noise and a set of generalized control filter functions. In conjunction with brute-force numerical simulation, we show that this novel analytical technique can used to model the evolution of a noisy single-qubit system subject to an arbitrary piecewise-constant control sequence, and to accurately predict the effects of experimentally engineered noise in single-qubit trapped ion systems. We also obtain a number of new and important results that extend the range of utility of state-preserving dynamical decoupling control sequences. These device-independent results provide a means to create a practically useful high-fidelity, long-time quantum memory in both single- and multi-qubit systems. We go on to explain how, given the freedom to arbitrarily and quasi-instantaneously change the phase of the interaction between a system of qubits and a finite collection of oscillators, frequency-specific phase modulation protocols can be implemented that decouple the qubits from targeted oscillator modes at pre-determined times. This technique can be used to generate fast, high-fidelity multi-qubit entangling operations in, for example, ion trap QIP devices.
The main obstacles to implementing ideal quantum operations are unwanted interactions of quantum systems with the environment and noise in control fields. This problem can be tackled by methods of quantum control. Among these methods are \ncomposite pulse (CP) sequences which have long been employed in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to mitigate the effects of systematic errors in the control. CP sequences have been initially developed to correct for static but otherwise unknown \nerrors in the amplitude or frequency of the driving field. One of the challenges to the systematic incorporation of these control protocols into practical quantum information systems remains the limited understanding of CP performance in the presence \nof time-dependent noise. Treating the influence of time-dependent noise processes on quantum control operations has been facilitated by recent advances in dynamical \nerror suppression based on open-loop Hamiltonian engineering. These approaches provide a general framework for understanding and mitigating non-Markovian time- \ndependent noise in a finite-dimensional open quantum system. Particularly, arbitrary single-qubit control characteristics may be captured quantitatively in filter-transfer \nfunctions (FF) using methods of spectral overlap in the frequency domain. In this thesis work, we present a systematic study of control pulse sequences in the presence of time-dependent noise. We use a combination of analytic formulations based on FFs and numerical simulations to demonstrate that CPs are able to effectively suppress control errors caused by time-dependent processes possessing realistic noise \npower spectra. We provide a geometric interpretation of CP performance under time-dependent amplitude noise, further linking the FF formalism with known techniques in CP construction. We also develop new optimized pulse sequences that act as notch filters for time-dependent noise. These high-fidelity control protocols effectively sup- \npress errors from the noise sources with sharp features in spectral densities and can be used practically on various quantum architectures. We also present our work \non simulation of randomized benchmarking protocols and CPs that have been used experimentally by our collaborators to measure gate errors.
Resisting diverse noise effects is crucial for the accurate manipulation of quantum systems. For static or slowly varying noises, many efficient noise mitigation strategies have been developed, such as composite pulses and dynamical decoupling. However, for fast fluctuating noise in the Markovian limit, whether and to what extent coherent quantum control can enhance quantum engineering tasks remains unclear and less explored. Here, we propose a robust quantum optimal control method to tackle Markovian noises. The basic idea is that, regarding the Markovian noise channel as perturbation, we quantitatively characterize the noise-induced error evolution by the perturbative expansion term, and then take them as the objective functions to be suppressed. During optimization, the optimal controls are obtained by maximizing the control target function and meanwhile minimizing the perturbative terms due to Markovian noise order by order. As demonstration examples, we first apply our method to quantum state transfer tasks on two-level and three-level $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ systems, then use it to design quantum gates in two-level and three-level ladder systems, all under Markovian noises. The simulation results illustrate that our method can notably enhance quantum state transfer fidelities and have very limited improvement on gate fidelities. The method presented here is versatile and can be extended to enhance the performance of various control tasks under Markovian noise in multilevel or multiqubit quantum systems.
Mitigating noise-induced decoherence is the central challenge in controlling open quantum systems. While existing robust protocols often require precise noise models, we introduce a universal framework for noise-agnostic quantum control that achieves high-fidelity operations without prior environmental noise characterization. This framework capitalizes on the dynamical modification of the system-environment coupling through control drives, an effect rigorously encoded in the dynamical equation. Since the derived noise sensitivity metric remains independent of the coupling details between the system and the environment, our protocol demonstrates robustness against arbitrary Markovian noises within the first-order weak coupling approximation. Numerical validation through quantum state transfer and gate operations reveals near-unity fidelity across diverse noise regimes, achieving orders-of-magnitude error suppression compared to target-only approaches. This framework bridges critical gaps between theoretical control design and experimental constraints, establishing a broadly applicable strategy for high-fidelity quantum information processing across platforms such as superconducting circuits, trapped ions, and solid-state qubits.
A closed quantum system is defined as completely controllable if an arbitrary unitary transformation can be executed using the available controls.In practice, control fields are a source of unavoidable noise, which has to be suppressed to retain controllability.Can one design control fields such that the effect of noise is negligible on the time-scale of the transformation?This question is intimately related to the fundamental problem of a connection between the computational complexity of the control problem and the sensitivity of the controlled system to noise.The present study considers a paradigm of control, where the Lie-algebraic structure of the control Hamiltonian is fixed, while the size of the system increases with the dimension of the Hilbert space representation of the algebra.We find two types of control tasks, easy and hard.Easy tasks are characterized by a small variance of the evolving state with respect to the operators of the control operators.They are relatively immune to noise and the control field is easy to find.Hard tasks have a large variance, are sensitive to noise and the control field is hard to find.The influence of noise increases with the size of the system, which 4
The primary aim of the thesis is to introduce and investigate an original protocol for the design and the optimization of parameterized noisy quantum channels, with the goal of mitigating hardware-induced noise. Significant attention is also devoted to the design of noise models, which are essential for emulation purposes. The protocol begins with the derivation of a noise model for a hardware gate, represented as a quantum channel, that can be simulated classically. This task is achieved through process tomography, a procedure that enables the characterization of the channel. It should be noted that such simulation is feasible on classical computers, since the optimization task concerns low-dimensional gates typically acting on 2–3 qubits. The noisy channel is then engineered by embedding it into a probabilistic ensemble of circuits, in which additional single-qubit parameterized gates — assumed to be noiseless — are introduced. Through this procedure, the noisy channel becomes parameterized and can be optimized according to an appropriate metric. Following a worst-case, agnostic perspective, we choose the diamond distance between the noisy channel and the target unitary channel as the cost function. This metric is generally considered the most suitable for distinguishing quantum channels. The resulting optimal ensemble of circuits can be implemented on real hardware under fixed calibration conditions, yielding a channel that approximates the target more closely than the original noisy channel. This approach can be interpreted as a noise mitigation strategy based on pre-processing design and optimization: rather than correcting errors after the computation, less noisy channels are employed during the computation itself. In this context, the protocol — within the noise-aware variational quantum compiling framework — shares with the randomized compiling the principle of circuit dressing to tailor noise during execution. The methodology is validated on two toy models of the single-qubit identity with amplitude damping noise, combining both analytical and numerical approaches. The analysis highlights the role of convexity in the space of quantum channels, with explicit demonstrations of optimal convex combinations and connections to encoding-decoding and dynamical decoupling strategies. The analysis of these simple models is intended as a proof-of-principle of the protocol in a controlled and well-characterized environment. In addition, this thesis introduces the design of random noise models that are constrained to maintain a fixed diamond distance from a target quantum channel. The controlled addition of random noise to a unitary channel represents a significant and — to our knowledge — previously unexplored approach within noise modeling. Indeed, in principle, the currently available built-in noise models may limit the expressivity of the emulation. The task was achieved by enriching the noise spectrum through the addition of random Kraus operators and small systematic rotations. To assess the effects of hardware-induced noise, we proposed an experimental design aimed at simulating the time evolution of a triangular Ising model in a transverse field. Our approach employs Trotterization, adapted to the topology and connectivity of a certain quantum processing unit (QPU) profile. Building on the noisy native gates of the QPU profile, we propose the emulation, engineering and optimization of a noisy CZ gate, subsequently employed within sequences of non-native gates. Using the designed noise models, we perform several emulations aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the protocol in the presence of progressively dominant systematic rotations, and at comparing it with Pauli twirling, a technique of randomized compiling.