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arXiv:2604.27838

Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning without short-time control

Myeongjin Shin, Junseo Lee, Changhun Oh

quant-phcs.DSSubmitted Apr 30, 2026• Announced May 1, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Characterizing quantum systems by learning their underlying Hamiltonians is a central task in quantum information science. While recent algorithmic advances have achieved near-optimal efficiency in this task, they critically rely on accessing arbitrarily short-time dynamics. This reliance poses severe experimental challenges due to finite control bandwidth and transient pulse errors. In this work, we demonstrate that Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning can be achieved without short-time control. We introduce a framework in which every query to the unknown dynamics has duration at least a prescribed minimum time $T$, and show that this restriction does not preclude Heisenberg-limited scaling. The key ingredient is a method for emulating the continuous quantum control required by iterative learning algorithms using only such lower-bounded evolution times. This reduces the learning task to sparse pure-state tomography. Notably, for logarithmically sparse Hamiltonians, our algorithm achieves the information-theoretically optimal $1/\varepsilon$ scaling in total evolution time for any arbitrary constant minimum evolution time $T$. For many-body (polynomially sparse) systems, we uncover a rigorous quantitative tradeoff, showing that the minimum required evolution time can be significantly relaxed from the standard limit at a polynomial cost in total evolution time. Our results affirmatively resolve a prominent open problem in the field and reveal that high-bandwidth, ultra-short pulses are not fundamentally necessary for optimal quantum learning.

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Characterizing quantum systems by learning their underlying Hamiltonians is a central task in quantum information science. While recent algorithmic advances have achieved near-optimal efficiency in this task, they critically rely on accessing arbitrarily short-time dynamics. This reliance poses severe experimental challenges due to finite control bandwidth and transient pulse errors. In this work, we demonstrate that Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning can be achieved without short-time control. We introduce a framework in which every query to the unknown dynamics has duration at least a prescribed minimum time TTT, and show that this restriction does not preclude Heisenberg-limited scaling. The key ingredient is a method for emulating the continuous quantum control required by iterative learning algorithms using only such lower-bounded evolution times. This reduces the learning task to sparse pure-state tomography. Notably, for logarithmically sparse Hamiltonians, our algorithm achieves the information-theoretically optimal 1/ε1/\varepsilon1/ε scaling in total evolution time for any arbitrary constant minimum evolution time TTT. For many-body (polynomially sparse) systems, we uncover a rigorous quantitative tradeoff, showing that the minimum required evolution time can be significantly relaxed from the standard limit at a polynomial cost in total evolution time. Our results affirmatively resolve a prominent open problem in the field and reveal that high-bandwidth, ultra-short pulses are not fundamentally necessary for optimal quantum learning.
Characterizing quantum systems by learning their underlying Hamiltonians is a central task in quantum information science. While recent algorithmic advances have achieved near-optimal efficiency in this task, they critically rely on accessing arbitrarily short-time dynamics. This reliance poses severe experimental challenges due to finite control bandwidth and transient pulse errors. In this work, we demonstrate that Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning can be achieved without short-time control. We introduce a framework in which every query to the unknown dynamics has duration at least a prescribed minimum time T , and show that this restriction does not preclude Heisenberg-limited scaling. The key ingredient is a method for emulating the continuous quantum control required by iterative learning algorithms using only such lower-bounded evolution times. This reduces the learning task to sparse pure-state tomography. Notably, for logarithmically sparse Hamiltonians, our algorithm achieves the information-theoretically optimal 1 / ε scaling in total evolution time for arbitrary constant minimum evolution time T . For many-body (polynomially sparse) systems, we uncover a rigorous quantitative tradeoff, showing that the minimum required evolution time can be significantly relaxed from the standard limit at a polynomial cost in total evolution time. Our results affirmatively resolve a prominent open problem in the field and reveal that high-bandwidth, ultra-short pulses are not fundamentally necessary for optimal quantum learning.
Learning the unknown interactions that govern a quantum system is crucial for quantum information processing, device benchmarking, and quantum sensing. The problem, known as Hamiltonian learning, is well understood under the assumption that interactions are local, but this assumption may not hold for arbitrary Hamiltonians. Previous methods all require high-order inverse polynomial dependency with precision, unable to surpass the standard quantum limit and reach the gold-standard Heisenberg-limited scaling. Whether Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning is possible without prior assumptions about the interaction structures, a challenge we term , remains an open question. In this work, we present a quantum algorithm to learn arbitrary sparse Hamiltonians without any structure constraints using only black-box queries of the system’s real-time evolution and minimal digital controls to attain Heisenberg-limited scaling in estimation error. Our method is also resilient to state-preparation-and-measurement errors, enhancing its practical feasibility. We numerically demonstrate our ansatz-free protocol for learning physical Hamiltonians and validating analog quantum simulations, benchmarking our performance against the state-of-the-art Heisenberg-limited learning approach. Moreover, we establish a fundamental trade-off between total evolution time and quantum control on learning arbitrary interactions, revealing the intrinsic interplay between controllability and total evolution-time complexity for any learning algorithm. These results pave the way for further exploration into Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning in complex quantum systems under minimal assumptions, potentially enabling new benchmarking and verification protocols.
Learning the Hamiltonian governing a quantum system is a central task in quantum metrology, sensing, and device characterization. Existing Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning protocols either require multi-qubit operations that are prone to noise, or single-qubit operations whose frequency or strength increases with the desired precision. These two requirements limit the applicability of Hamiltonian learning on near-term quantum platforms. We present a protocol that learns a quantum Hamiltonian with the optimal Heisenberg-limited scaling using only single-qubit control in the form of static fields with strengths that are independent of the target precision. Our protocol is robust against the state preparation and measurement (SPAM) error. By overcoming these limitations, our protocol provides new tools for device characterization and quantum sensing. We demonstrate that our method achieves the Heisenberg-limited scaling through rigorous mathematical proof and numerical experiments. We also prove an information-theoretic lower bound showing that a non-vanishing static field strength is necessary for achieving the Heisenberg limit unless one employs an extensive number of discrete control operations.
Characterizing the features of a Hamiltonian that governs a quantum system serves as a fundamental subroutine of quantum device calibration, signal sensing, and error correction. Recent works have proposed protocols achieving the optimal Heisenberg-limited scaling learning ansatz-free Hamiltonians from their real-time evolutions without fully specifying interaction structures. However, these protocols rely on both deep circuits with interleaving probes and control, and extremely short time resolution, making them difficult to implement on near- and intermediate-term in situ quantum experiments. In this work, we propose a computationally efficient, control-free, and ancilla-free algorithm that uses only Pauli product state preparation and measurement, and learns an ansatz-free Hamiltonian HHH with ∣∣H∣∣≤Λ||H||\leqΛ∣∣H∣∣≤Λ in total evolution time of Θ(Λε2log⁡(Λε))Θ(\fracΛ{ε^2}\log(\fracΛε))Θ(ε2Λ​log(εΛ​)). The evolution time cost of our algorithm is optimal for any control-free protocols as we further prove a lower bound of Ω(Λε2log⁡(Λε))Ω(\fracΛ{ε^2}\log(\fracΛε))Ω(ε2Λ​log(εΛ​)). Technically, our method introduces a randomized-sampling framework that combines band-limited kernel-based time sampling with a displacement sieve for Hamiltonian structure learning. The characteristic probe time resolution depends only on ΛΛΛ instead of ε\varepsilonε, which makes our protocol especially appealing in the high-precision regime for sensing and calibration applications. We also show that the algorithm maintains the same asymptotic total evolution time in the presence of state-preparation-and-measurement (SPAM) noise when the Hamiltonian is local after calibration. Our results demonstrate the fundamental cost of experimentally friendly Hamiltonian learning and provide a practical route to rigorous in situ characterization of near-term quantum platforms.
We study the problem of learning an unknown quantum many-body Hamiltonian HHH from black-box queries to its time evolution e−iHte^{-\mathrm{i} H t}e−iHt. Prior proposals for solving this task either impose some assumptions on HHH, such as its interaction structure or locality, or otherwise use an exponential amount of computational postprocessing. In this paper, we present algorithms to learn any nnn-qubit Hamiltonian, which do not need to know the Hamiltonian terms in advance, nor are they restricted to local interactions. Our algorithms are efficient as long as the number of terms mmm is polynomially bounded in the system size nnn. We consider two models of control over the time evolution:~the first has access to time reversal (t<0t < 0t<0), enabling an algorithm that outputs an εεε-accurate classical description of HHH after querying its dynamics for a total of O~(m/ε)\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(m/ε)O(m/ε) evolution time. The second access model is more conventional, allowing only forward-time evolutions;~our algorithm requires O~(∥H∥3/ε4)\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\|H\|^3/ε^4)O(∥H∥3/ε4) evolution time in this setting. Central to our results is the recently introduced concept of a pseudo-Choi state of HHH. We extend the utility of this learning resource by showing how to use it to learn the Fourier spectrum of HHH, how to achieve nearly Heisenberg-limited scaling with it, and how to prepare it even under our more restricted access models.
Hybrid quantum systems with different particle species are fundamental in quantum materials and quantum information science. In this work, we establish a rigorous theoretical framework proving that, given access to an unknown spin-boson type Hamiltonian, our algorithm achieves Heisenberg-limited estimation for all coupling parameters up to error εεε with a total evolution time O(ε−1){O}(ε^{-1})O(ε−1) using only O(polylog(ε−1)){O}({\rm polylog}(ε^{-1}))O(polylog(ε−1)) measurements. It is also robust against small state preparation and measurement errors. In addition, we provide an alternative algorithm based on distributed quantum sensing, which significantly reduces the evolution time per measurement. To validate our method, we demonstrate its efficiency in hybrid Hamiltonian learning and spectrum learning, with broad applications in AMO, condensed matter and high energy physics. Our results provide a scalable and robust framework for precision Hamiltonian characterization in hybrid quantum platforms.