We consider the optimal control problem of determining electromagnetic pulses for implementing logical gates in a closed quantum system, where the Hamiltonian models the dynamics of coupled superconducting qudits. The quantum state is governed by Schrödinger's equation, which we formulate in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the state vector and solve by the Störmer--Verlet scheme, which is a symplectic partitioned Runge--Kutta method. A novel parameterization of the control functions based on B-splines with carrier waves is introduced. The carrier waves are used to trigger the resonant frequencies in the system Hamiltonian, and the B-spline functions specify their amplitude and phase. This approach allows the number of control parameters to be independent of, and significantly smaller than, the number of time steps for integrating Schrödinger's equation. We present numerical examples of how the proposed technique can be combined with an interior point limited memory BFGS algorithm for realizing quantum gates and generalize our approach to calculate risk-neutral controls that are resilient to noise in the Hamiltonian model. The proposed method is also shown to compare favorably with QuTiP/pulse_optim and Grape-TensorFlow.
We consider the optimal control problem of determining electromagnetic pulses for implementing logical gates in a closed quantum system, where the Hamiltonian models the dynamics of coupled superconducting qudits. The quantum state is governed by Schrödinger's equation, which we formulate in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the state vector and solve by the Störmer--Verlet scheme, which is a symplectic partitioned Runge--Kutta method. A novel parameterization of the control functions based on B-splines with carrier waves is introduced. The carrier waves are used to trigger the resonant frequencies in the system Hamiltonian, and the B-spline functions specify their amplitude and phase. This approach allows the number of control parameters to be independent of, and significantly smaller than, the number of time steps for integrating Schrödinger's equation. We present numerical examples of how the proposed technique can be combined with an interior point limited memory BFGS algorithm for realizing quantum gates and generalize our approach to calculate risk-neutral controls that are resilient to noise in the Hamiltonian model. The proposed method is also shown to compare favorably with QuTiP/pulse_optim and Grape-TensorFlow.
This paper considers the optimal control problem for realizing logical gates in a closed quantum system. The quantum state is governed by Schrodinger's equation, which we formulate as a time-dependent Hamiltonian system in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the state vector. The system is discretized with the Stormer-Verlet scheme, which is a symplectic partitioned Runge-Kutta method. Our main theoretical contribution is the derivation of a compatible time-discretization of the adjoint state equation, such that the gradient of the discrete objective function can be calculated exactly, at a computational cost of solving two Schrödinger systems, independently of the number of parameters in the control functions. A parameterization of the control functions based on B-splines with built-in carrier waves is also introduced. The carrier waves are used to specify the frequency spectra of the control functions, while the B-spline functions specify their envelope and phase. This approach allows the number of control parameters to be independent of, and significantly smaller than, the number of time steps for integrating Schrodinger's equation. We consider Hamiltonians that model the dynamics of a superconducting multi-level qudit and present numerical examples of how the proposed technique can be combined with the interior point L-BFGS algorithm from the IPOPT package for realizing quantum gates. In a set of test cases, the proposed algorithm is shown to compare favorably with QuTiP/pulse_optim and Grape-Tensorflow.
Modelling optimal implementation of an arbitrary N-qubit quantum gate within the generalized Bloch vectors formalism
The optimal implementation of quantum gates for closed N-qubit systems is one of the key challenges for practical realization of many quantum information processing tasks. In the present article, based on the generalized Bloch vectors formalism [J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 54, 195301 (2021)] for a finite-dimensional quantum system, we develop a new general model for the optimal implementation of quantum gates, which is formulated in terms of the Bloch vectors for the unitary evolution operator and the system Hamiltonians, drift and control, and has the unified mathematical form, which is standard for the mathematical control theory and applicable for the implementation of an arbitrary N-qubit gate within any closed N-qubit system, satisfying the controllability conditions. Within the developed optimal model, the cost functional has both the terminal part and also, the integral part with the special scaling, and this allows us to specify the quantum optimal control synthesis via solving the two-point boundary value problem (BVP) for the system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which can be explored numerically by any of the known BVP solvers for ODEs. The numerical experiments, conducted for the implementation within the developed optimal model of a variety of N=1,2,3 qubit gates, demonstrate the high accuracy of the model-based results.
This paper considers some control problems for closed and open two-level quantum systems. The closed system's dynamics is governed by the Schrödinger equation with coherent control. The open system dynamics is governed by the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad master equation whose Hamiltonian depends on coherent control and superoperator of dissipation depends on incoherent control. For the closed system, we consider the problem of generation of the phase shift gate for some values of phases and final times for which we numerically show that zero coherent control, which is a stationary point of the objective functional, is not optimal; it gives an example of subtle point for practical solving quantum control problems. The two-stage method, which was developed in [48] for generic N-level open quantum systems for approximate generation of a given target density matrix, is modified here for the case of two-level systems. We modify the first ("incoherent") stage by numerically optimizing piecewise constant incoherent control instead of using constant incoherent control analytically computed using eigenvalues of the target density matrix. Exact analytical formulas are derived for the system state evolution, the objective functions and their gradients for the modified first stage. These formulas are then applied in the two-step gradient projection method. The numerical simulations show that the modified first stage duration can be significantly less than the unmodified first stage duration, but at the cost of performing optimization in the class of piecewise constant controls.
This article considers some control problems for closed and open two-level quantum systems. The closed system's dynamics is governed by the Schrödinger equation with coherent control. The open system's dynamics is governed by the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad master equation whose Hamiltonian depends on coherent control and superoperator of dissipation depends on incoherent control. For the closed system, we consider the problem for generation of the phase shift gate for some values of phases and final times for which we numerically show that zero coherent control, which is a stationary point of the objective functional, is not optimal; it gives an example of subtle point for practical solving quantum control problems. The two-stage method, which was developed in [A. Pechen, Phys. Rev. A., 84, 042106 (2011)] for generic N-level open quantum systems for approximate generation of a given target density matrix, is modified here for the case of two-level systems. We modify the first ("incoherent") stage by numerically optimizing piecewise constant incoherent control instead of using constant incoherent control analytically computed using eigenvalues of the target density matrix. Exact analytical formulas are derived for the system's state evolution, the objective functions and their gradients for the modified first stage. These formulas are then applied in the two-step gradient projection method. The numerical simulations show that the modified first stage's duration can be significantly less than the unmodified first stage's duration, but at the cost of performing optimization in the class of piecewise constant controls. Bibliography: 72 titles.
This thesis is concerned with the control of quantum systems.Given a Hamiltonian model of a quantum system, we are interested in finding controls-typically shaped electromagnetic pulses-that steer the evolution of the system toward a desired target operation.For this we employ a numerical optimisation method known as the GRAPE algorithm.For particular experimental systems, we design control schemes that respect constraints of robustness and addressability, and are within the reach of the experimental hardware.A general procedure is given for specifying a Hamiltonian model of a driven N -level system and converting it to an appropriate rotating frame.This is then applied together with the numerical algorithm to design improved schemes for two different systems, where laser fields manipulate orbital and hyperfine states of Pr 3+ and Rb.The generation of cluster states in Ising-coupled systems is also studied.We find that, in the ideal case, the solution of evolving only under the coupling Hamiltonian is not time-optimal.This surprising result is in contrast to the known cases for unitary gates.For a symmetrised three-qubit example, we provide a geometrical interpretation of this.Numerically optimised control schemes are then developed for a nonideal coupling topology, modelling an experimental configuration of trapped ions.Controls for the implementation of the two-qubit Deutsch and Grover algorithms are designed for a pair of 13 C nuclear spins at a nitrogen vacancy center in diamond.These implementations are robust to experimental errors, and found to be reproduced with high accuracy on a VFG-150 pulse generator.We also consider two-qubit gate synthesis in a system of superconducting qubits coupled by mii xii CONTENTS C.4 Examples of time-optimal gates . . . . . . . .
An exquisite control over the dynamics of a quantum system is essential for realizing any quantum technology. This thesis presents some practical and efficient strategies for coherent quantum control: a paradigm for controlling quantum dynamics using electromagnetic fields. Coherent control is a common framework for describing the physical implementation of quantum logic gates in several quantum information processing platforms including superconducting qubits and trapped ions. For the purpose of demonstration, however, liquid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is used in this thesis as it is an ideal test-bed for developing, testing and benchmarking coherent control tools and techniques. Coherent control was revitalised in 2005 by the development of Gradient Ascent Pulse Engineering (GRAPE), a powerful optimal control technique that is widely used for designing shaped pulses for a variety of tasks. GRAPE, like any other closed-loop optimal control algorithm, requires multiple evaluations of the computationally expensive matrix exponential and the full time-evolution propagator. To this end, I present strategies to sidestep the explicit evaluation of matrix exponentials, thereby offering substantial speed-ups over conventional implementations of the GRAPE algorithm. The results are demonstrated experimentally in NMR, but also in simulations of ultracold molecules and superconducting qubits. Beyond GRAPE, this thesis also considers methods for designing spin-echo sequences for implementing any arbitrary network of controlled-Z gates in a system of qubits with zz-couplings. First, a method based on linear-programming provides near time-optimal sequences in fully-coupled systems having up to a few hundred qubits. Further, an analytic method based on graph colouring finds near time-optimal spin echo sequences in engineered systems with any number of qubits having only nearest and next-nearest neighbour-couplings.