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arXiv:1603.04950 · The Open Automation and Control Systems Journal

Quantum Linear Systems Theory

Ian R. Petersen

Published Oct 31, 2016• 77 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

This paper surveys some recent results on the theory of quantum linear systems and presents them within a unified framework.Quantum linear systems are a class of systems whose dynamics, which are described by the laws of quantum mechanics, take the specific form of a set of linear quantum stochastic differential equations (QSDEs).Such systems commonly arise in the area of quantum optics and related disciplines.Systems whose dynamics can be described or approximated by linear QSDEs include interconnections of optical cavities, beam-splitters, phase-shifters, optical parametric amplifiers, optical squeezers, and cavity quantum electrodynamic systems.With advances in quantum technology, the feedback control of such quantum systems is generating new challenges in the field of control theory.Potential applications of such quantum feedback control systems include quantum computing, quantum error correction, quantum communications, gravity wave detection, metrology, atom lasers, and superconducting quantum circuits.A recently emerging approach to the feedback control of quantum linear systems involves the use of a controller which itself is a quantum linear system.This approach to quantum feedback control, referred to as coherent quantum feedback control, has the advantage that it does not destroy quantum information, is fast, and has the potential for efficient implementation.However, the design of coherent quantum feedback controllers remains a major challenge.This paper discusses recent results concerning the synthesis of H-infinity optimal controllers for linear quantum systems in the coherent control case.An important issue which arises both in the modelling of linear quantum systems and in the synthesis of linear coherent quantum controllers is the issue of physical realizability.This issue relates to the property of whether a given set of QSDEs corresponds to a physical quantum system satisfying the laws of quantum mechanics.The paper will cover recent results relating the question of physical realizability to notions occurring in linear systems theory such as lossless bounded real systems and dual J-J unitary systems.

DOI
10.2174/1874444301608010067

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This paper surveys some recent results on the theory of quantum linear systems and presents them within a unified framework.Quantum linear systems are a class of systems whose dynamics, which are described by the laws of quantum mechanics, take the specific form of a set of linear quantum stochastic differential equations (QSDEs).Such systems commonly arise in the area of quantum optics and related disciplines.Systems whose dynamics can be described or approximated by linear QSDEs include interconnections of optical cavities, beam-splitters, phase-shifters, optical parametric amplifiers, optical squeezers, and cavity quantum electrodynamic systems.With advances in quantum technology, the feedback control of such quantum systems is generating new challenges in the field of control theory.Potential applications of such quantum feedback control systems include quantum computing, quantum error correction, quantum communications, gravity wave detection, metrology, atom lasers, and superconducting quantum circuits.A recently emerging approach to the feedback control of quantum linear systems involves the use of a controller which itself is a quantum linear system.This approach to quantum feedback control, referred to as coherent quantum feedback control, has the advantage that it does not destroy quantum information, is fast, and has the potential for efficient implementation.However, the design of coherent quantum feedback controllers remains a major challenge.This paper discusses recent results concerning the synthesis of H-infinity optimal controllers for linear quantum systems in the coherent control case.An important issue which arises both in the modelling of linear quantum systems and in the synthesis of linear coherent quantum controllers is the issue of physical realizability.This issue relates to the property of whether a given set of QSDEs corresponds to a physical quantum system satisfying the laws of quantum mechanics.The paper will cover recent results relating the question of physical realizability to notions occurring in linear systems theory such as lossless bounded real systems and dual J-J unitary systems.
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A recently emerging approach to the feedback control of linear quantum systems involves the use of a controller which itself is a quantum linear system. This approach to quantum feedback control, referred to as coherent quantum feedback control, has the advantage that it does not destroy quantum information, is fast, and has the potential for efficient implementation. An important issue which arises both in the synthesis of linear coherent quantum controllers and in the modeling of linear quantum systems, is the issue of physical realizability. This issue relates to the property of whether a given set of linear quantum stochastic differential equations corresponds to a physical quantum system satisfying the laws of quantum mechanics. Under suitable assumptions, the paper shows that the question of physical realizability is equivalent to a frequency domain (J,J) -unitary condition. This is important in controller synthesis since it is the transfer function matrix of the controller which determines the closed loop system behavior.
This thesis makes some theoretical contributions towards mixed quantum feedback network synthesis, quantum optical realization of classical linear stochastic systems and quantum feedback control designs. A mixed quantum-classical feedback network is an interconnected system consisting of a quantum system and a classical system connected by interfaces that convert quantum signals to classical signal (using homodyne detectors), and vice versa (using electro-optic modulators). In the area of mixed quantum-classical feedback networks, we present a network synthesis theory, which provides a natural framework for analysis and design for mixed linear systems. Physical realizability conditions are derived for linear stochastic differential equations to ensure that mixed systems can correspond to physical systems. The mixed network synthesis theory developed based on physical realizability conditions shows that how a classical of mixed quantum-classical systems described by linear stochastic differential equations can be built as a interconnection of linear quantum systems and linear classical systems using quantum optical devices as well as electrical and electric devices. However, an important practical problem for the implementation of mixed quantum-classical systems is the relatively slow speed of classical parts implemented with standard electrical and electronic devices, since a mixed system will not work correctly unless the electronic processing of classical devices is fast enough. Therefore, another interesting work is to show how classical linear stochastic systems build using electrical and electric devices can be physically implemented using quantum optical components. A complete procedure is proposed for a stable quantum linear stochastic system realizing a given stable classical linear stochastic system. The thesis explains how it may be possible to realize certain measurement feedback loops fully at the quantum level. In the area of quantum feedback control design, two numerical procedures based on extended linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach are proposed to design a coherent quantum controller in this thesis. The extended synthesis linear matrix inequalities are, in addition to new analysis tools, less conservative in comparison to the conventional counterparts since the optimization variables related to the system parameters in extended LMIs are independent of the symmetric Lyapunov matrix. These features may be useful in the optimal design of quantum optical networks. Time delays are frequently encountered in linear quantum feedback control systems such as long transmission lines between quantum plants and linear controllers, which may have an effect on the performance of closed-loop plant controller systems. Therefore, this thesis investigates the problem of linear quantum measurement-based feedback control systems subject to feedback-loop time delay described by linear stochastic differential equations. Several numerical procedures are proposed to design classical controllers that make quantum measurement-based feedback control systems with time delay stable and also guarantee that their desired control performance specifications are satisfied.
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Quantum engineering has seen rapid growth in the past two decades. Physicists, mathematicians and engineers have been working in unison to control a number of diverse systems in the quantum regime. Quantum control involving feedback has become particularly topical, as using information gained from a system can lead to more stable operation of a control protocol. Quantum feedback can be split into two paradigms: measurement based feedback and coherent feedback. Although it is increasingly evident that retaining the coherence of the feedback signal provides an intrinsic advantage over measurement-based feedback, coherent feedback is still a new paradigm. In particular, there are a limited number of options for coherently estimating a state within a feedback loop. As a step towards better understanding and implementation of quantum feedback, this thesis reports on modelling, estimation and control of quantum systems. The first topic is physical realisability of a variety of quantum systems, especially finite level systems and their outgrowths. Bilinear quantum stochastic differential equations (QSDEs) have to be employed to characterise these systems, which is a significant complement to the previous work on linear QSDEs. In light of the fact that direct and indirect couplings play a vital role in quantum network and control, we also provide state-space models for different classes of coupled open quantum systems incorporating both bidirectional and directional interactions. The second topic is coherent observers and optimal filtering. It is well established that classically estimation using the Kalman filter can provide improved performance over direct feedback schemes, and similar demonstrations have been performed for measurement-based quantum feedback. In this thesis I present coherent observers, including least mean squares estimators, which are driven by the coherent output of a specified quantum plant and designed such that some subset of the observer and plant's expectation values converge in the asymptotic limit. Not only can estimators "observe" mean quantities of quantum plant, but also they can "estimate" quantum correlations such as entanglement. This is of much importance to coherent feedback design in the absence of measurement steps without loss of fidelity. Last but not least, several topics regarding stabilisation and control design of quantum systems are discussed in my thesis. To be specific, tools for quantum stability analysis (e.g. Lyapunov conditions) are provided. Both measurement-based feedback and coherent feedback control design are taken into account. A measurement-based optimal controller for opto-mechanical systems aimed at synchronising different mechanical modes is presented, which is application-oriented. Moreover, A general observer-based coherent feedback control framework is studied, and I demonstrate a pole-placement approach via coherent observers that can be applied to various scenarios.
Coherent feedback H∞H^\inftyH∞ control of quantum linear systems
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the coherent feedback H∞H^\inftyH∞ control problem for linear quantum systems. A key contribution is a simplified design methodology that guarantees closed-loop stability and a prescribed level of disturbance attenuation. It is shown that for general linear quantum systems, a physically realizable quantum controller can be obtained by solving at most four Lyapunov equations. In the passive case, a necessary and sufficient condition is provided in terms of two uncoupled pairs of Lyapunov equations. These results represent a significant simplification over the standard approach, which requires solving two coupled algebraic Riccati equations. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through two typical quantum optical devices: an empty optical cavity and a degenerate parametric amplifier. These results provide a computationally efficient procedure for the robust and optimal control of quantum optical and optomechanical systems.