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arXiv:2606.30073

Cooperative control and geometric amplification in dissipative quantum systems

Robert Weiß, Sandro Wimberger, David Guéry-Odelin

quant-phphysics.atom-phSubmitted Jun 29, 2026• Announced Jun 30, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Jun 29, 2026v2 · Jul 10, 2026v3 · Oct 20, 2026
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Abstract

In the control of dissipative quantum systems, the slow relaxation modes usually set the ultimate manipulation timescale. Here we show that this apparent bottleneck can be bypassed: dissipation itself becomes a control resource when fast relaxation channels are deliberately exploited. We demonstrate this mechanism for a qubit subject to non-unital and anisotropic Bloch relaxation. A short coherent pulse first reorients the Bloch vector onto a fast dissipative eigendirection; the subsequent free relaxation then carries the state close to the target, with at most one final corrective pulse. The resulting bang-drift-bang strategy is cooperative: coherent control selects the dissipative channel, while the bath performs most of the transfer. For axial targets, we obtain a closed-form speedup over passive relaxation by a factor of order $κ=T_1/T_2\gg1$. For out-of-equilibrium non-axial targets, an additional off-axis interception mechanism provides a further geometric amplification, allowing the hitting-time speedup, still normalized to the axial passive-reset time, to exceed the axial $κξ$ benchmark by an extra factor of four to five. The mechanism therefore directly connects to standard Bloch-vector qubit platforms, including magnetic-resonance spins, nitrogen-vacancy centers, and superconducting circuits, with potential relevance for quantum-control and fast-reset protocols.

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In the control of dissipative quantum systems, the slow relaxation modes usually set the ultimate manipulation timescale. Here we show that this apparent bottleneck can be bypassed: dissipation itself becomes a control resource when fast relaxation channels are deliberately exploited. We demonstrate this mechanism for a qubit subject to non-unital and anisotropic Bloch relaxation. A short coherent pulse first reorients the Bloch vector onto a fast dissipative eigendirection; the subsequent free relaxation then carries the state close to the target, with at most one final corrective pulse. The resulting bang-drift-bang strategy is cooperative: coherent control selects the dissipative channel, while the bath performs most of the transfer. For axial targets, we obtain a closed-form speedup over passive relaxation by a factor of order κ=T1/T2≫1κ=T_1/T_2\gg1κ=T1​/T2​≫1. For out-of-equilibrium non-axial targets, an additional off-axis interception mechanism provides a further geometric amplification, allowing the hitting-time speedup, still normalized to the axial passive-reset time, to exceed the axial κξκξκξ benchmark by an extra factor of four to five. The mechanism therefore directly connects to standard Bloch-vector qubit platforms, including magnetic-resonance spins, nitrogen-vacancy centers, and superconducting circuits, with potential relevance for quantum-control and fast-reset protocols.
In this paper we investigate the application of optimal control of a single qubit coupled to an ohmic heat bath. For the weak bath coupling regime, we derive a Bloch-Redfield master equation describing the evolution of the qubit state parametrized by vectors in the Bloch sphere. By use of the optimal control methodology we determine the field that generates an arbitrary single qubit rotation in minimum time. In particular we develop an efficient method for solving the time-optimal control problem, namely the implementation of XXX gate, which consists of a rotation about the $\stackrel{P\vec}{ox}$ axis through angle $\ensuremath{\pi}$. The time-optimal control problem requires a bounded control. If upper and lower bounds are imposed for the external control, the optimal solution is of bang-bang type and switches from the upper to the lower values of the control bounds. We compare our results using the techniques of automatic differentiation to compute the gradient for the cost functional with some known results using Pontryagin's minimum principle. We use an alternative numerical approach for the optimization strategy.
A formalism based on Pontryagin's maximum principle is applied to determine the time-optimal protocol that drives a general initial state to a target state by a Hamiltonian with limited control, i.e., there is a single control field with bounded amplitude. The coupling between the bath and the qubit is modeled by a Lindblad master equation. Dissipation typically drives the system to the maximally mixed state; consequently, there generally exists an optimal evolution time beyond which the decoherence prevents the system from getting closer to the target state. For some specific dissipation channel, however, the optimal control can keep the system from the maximum entropy state for infinitely long. The conditions under which this specific situation arises are discussed in detail. The numerical procedure to construct the time-optimal protocol is described. In particular, the formalism adopted here can efficiently evaluate the time-dependent singular control which turns out to be crucial in controlling either an isolated or a dissipative qubit.
Passive qubit reset is a key primitive for quantum information processing, whereby qubits are initialized by allowing them to relax to their ground state through natural dissipation, without the need for active control or feedback. However, passive reset occurs on timescales that are much longer than those of gate operations and measurements, making it a significant bottleneck for algorithmic execution. Here, we show that this limitation can be overcome by exploiting the Mpemba effect, originally indicating the faster cooling of hot systems compared to cooler ones. Focusing on the regime where coherence times exceed energy relaxation times (T2>T1T_2 > T_1T2​>T1​), we propose a simple protocol based on a single entangling two-qubit gate that converts local single-qubit coherences into fast-decaying global two-qubit coherences. This removes their overlap with the slowest decaying Liouvillian mode and enables a substantially faster relaxation to the ground state. For realistic parameters, we find that our protocol can reduce reset times by up to 50%50\%50% compared to standard passive reset. We analyze the robustness of the protocol under non-Markovian noise, imperfect coherent control and finite temperature, finding that the accelerated reset persists across a broad range of realistic error sources. Finally, we present an experimental implementation of our protocol on an IQM superconducting quantum processor. Our results demonstrate how Mpemba-like accelerated relaxation can be harnessed as a practical tool for fast and accurate qubit initialization.
We study time-minimum optimal control for a class of quantum two-dimensional dissipative systems whose dynamics are governed by the Lindblad equation and where control inputs acts only in the Hamiltonian. The dynamics of the control system are analyzed as a bi-linear control system on the Bloch ball after a decoupling of such dynamics into intra- and inter-unitary orbits. The (singular) control problem consists of finding a trajectory of the state variables solving a radial equation in the minimum amount of time, starting at the completely mixed state and ending at the state with the maximum achievable purity.The boundary value problem determined by the time-minimum singular optimal control problem is studied numerically. If controls are unbounded, simulations show that multiple local minimal solutions might exist. To find the unique globally minimal solution, we must repeat the algorithm for various initial conditions and find the best solution out of all of the candidates. If controls are bounded, optimal controls are given by bang-bang controls using the Pontryagin minimum principle. Using a switching map we construct optimal solutions consisting of singular arcs. If controls are bounded, the analysis of our model also implies classical analysis done previously for this problem.
We apply the theory of optimal control to the dynamics of two ``gmon'' qubits, with the goal of preparing a desired entangled ground state from an initial unentangled one. Given an initial state, a target state, and a Hamiltonian with a set of permissible controls, can we reach the target state with coherent quantum evolution, and, in that case, what is the minimum time required? The adiabatic theorem provides a far from optimal solution in the presence of a spectral gap. Optimal control yields the fastest possible way of reaching the target state and helps identify unreachable states. In the context of a simple quantum system, we provide examples of both reachable and unreachable target ground states, and show that the unreachability is due to a symmetry. We find the optimal protocol in the reachable case using three different approaches: (i) a brute-force numerical minimization, (ii) an efficient numerical minimization using the bang-bang ansatz expected from the Pontryagin minimum principle, and (iii) direct solution of the Pontryagin boundary value problem, which yields an analytical understanding of the numerically obtained optimal protocols. Interestingly, our system provides an example of singular control, where the Pontryagin theorem does not guarantee bang-bang protocols. Nevertheless, all three approaches give the same bang-bang protocol.
We analytically determine the ultimate limits of state preparation in two-level open quantum systems driven by coherent control. For a dissipative qubit governed by a GKSL master equation, we give an exact characterization of the reachable set in the Bloch ball. Dissipation excludes a region of states in the Bloch ball which cannot be approached even under arbitrarily strong coherent driving, and we prove that this region has a nontrivial geometry whose boundary is a surface of revolution around the xxx-axis which is analytic except for two conical singularities. We derive a closed-form control protocol for moving on this boundary, and construct an explicit protocol that steers the system arbitrarily close to any prescribed boundary state. These results provide a complete geometric constructive description of reachable qubit states in the standard dissipative environment, establishing fundamental bounds on controllability and state-preparation fidelity for open two-level quantum systems.