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arXiv:2607.04320

Fundamental limits on state preparation for an open qubit

D. A. Abraamian, L. V. Lokutsievskiy, A. N. Pechen

quant-phmath.OCSubmitted Jul 5, 2026• Announced Jul 7, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

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 $x$-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.

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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.
Abstract In this work, we study controllability in the set of all density matrices for a two-level open quantum system driven by coherent and incoherent controls. In Pechen (2011 Phys. Rev. A 84 042106) an approximate controllability, i.e. controllability with some precision, was shown for generic N -level open quantum systems driven by coherent and incoherent controls. However, the explicit formulation of this property, including the behavior of this precision as a function of transition frequencies and decoherence rates of the system, was not known. The present work provides a rigorous analytical study of reachable sets for two-level open quantum systems. First, it is shown that for N = 2 the presence of incoherent control does not affect the reachable set (while incoherent control may affect the time necessary to reach particular state). Second, the reachable set in the Bloch ball is described and it is shown that already just for one coherent control any point in the Bloch ball can be achieved with precision δ ∼ γ / ω , where γ is the decoherence rate and ω is the transition frequency. Typical values are δ ≲ 10 −3 that implies high accuracy of achieving any density matrix. Moreover, we show that most points in the Bloch ball can be exactly reached, except of two lacunae of size ∼ δ . For two coherent controls, the system is shown to be completely controllable in the set of all density matrices. Third, the reachable set as a function of the final time is found and shown to exhibit a non-trivial structure.
The article considers a two-level open quantum system, whose evolution is governed by the Gorini–Kossakowski– Lindblad–Sudarshan master equation with Hamiltonian and dissipation superoperator depending, correspondingly, on piecewise constant coherent and incoherent controls with constrained magnitudes. Additional constraints on controls’ variations are also considered. The problem is analyzed using Bloch parametrization of system’s density matrix. We adapt the section method for obtaining outer parallelepipedal and pointwise estimations of reachable and controllability sets in the Bloch ball via solving a number of problems for optimizing coherent and incoherent controls with respect to some objective criteria. The differential evolution and dual annealing optimization methods are used. The numerical results show how the reachable sets’ estimations depend on distances between the system’s initial states and the Bloch ball’s center point, final times, constraints on controls’ magnitudes and variations.
Existing quantum speed limits for controlled open quantum systems depend on the specified trajectory. For example, lower bounds on quantum annealing times in the presence of dissipation depend explicitly on the chosen annealing schedule. Recently, schedule-independent speed limits have been derived for annealing in the closed quantum system setting (SciPost Phys. 18, 159 (2025)). In this work, we generalize these results to open quantum systems, deriving schedule-independent lower bounds for quantum annealing times in systems described by a Lindblad master equation. We analyze the interplay between coherent control and dissipation in single- and two-qubit examples, demonstrating that the derived lower bounds capture key scaling behavior with respect to the strength of the dissipator. Finally, we apply the bound to thermal state preparation and show that the bound matches the expected asymptotic behavior for an Ising model in the high temperature limit.
Abstract We consider a two-level open quantum system whose dynamics is governed by the Gorini–Kossakowski–Sudarshan–Lindblad equation with Hamiltonian and dissipation superoperator depending, respectively, on coherent and incoherent controls. Results about reachability, controllability, and minimum-time control are obtained in terms of the Bloch parametrization. First, we consider the case when the zero coherent and incoherent controls satisfy the Pontryagin maximum principle in the class of piecewise continuous controls. Second, for zero coherent control and for incoherent control lying in the class of constant functions, the reachability and controllability sets of the system are exactly described and some analytical results on the minimum-time control are found. Third, we consider a series of increasing values of the final time and the corresponding classes of controls with zero incoherent control and with coherent control equal to zero until a switching time instant and to a cosine function after it. The corresponding reachable points in the Bloch ball are numerically obtained and visualized. Fourth, a known method for estimating reachable sets is adapted and used to analyze the situation where the zero coherent and incoherent controls satisfy the Pontryagin maximum principle in the class of piecewise continuous controls while, as shown numerically, are not optimal.
In the control of dissipative quantum systems, the slow relaxation modes usually set the ultimate manipulation timescale. We show that this bottleneck can be bypassed when dissipation itself is used as the engine of the transfer. For a qubit with non-unital, anisotropic Bloch relaxation characterized by the ratio κ=T1/T2>1κ=T_1/T_2>1κ=T1​/T2​>1, coherent control can only rotate the Bloch vector, whereas the bath alone can change its length. The fastest transfer between two thermal states therefore consists in steering the Bloch vector, at every instant, along the direction in which the bath contracts it most rapidly. This direction is obtained in closed form and lies slightly beyond the equatorial plane. With strong pulses, the resulting minimum transfer time is a fraction of T2T_2T2​, instead of several T1T_1T1​ for passive relaxation. With bounded fields, the Pontryagin maximum principle yields a bang--singular--bang synthesis whose singular arc is precisely this fastest-contraction direction, and the minimum time exceeds its strong-pulse limit by a correction inversely proportional to the field amplitude. We also determine the full time--energy Pareto front: moderate accelerations require little energy, and the time optimum lies at its steep, high-energy end. Off-axis targets are treated within the same framework; their only additional benefit is a shorter final rotation. These results apply directly to magnetic-resonance spins, nitrogen-vacancy centers and superconducting qubits, all of which operate deep in the strong-pulse regime.
Precisely characterizing and controlling realistic quantum systems under noises is a challenging frontier in quantum sciences and technologies. In developing reliable controls for open quantum systems, one is often confronted with the problem of the lack of knowledge on the system controllability. The purpose of this paper is to give a numerical approach to this problem, that is, to approximately compute the reachable set of states for coherently controlled quantum Markovian systems. The approximation consists of setting both upper and lower bounds for system's reachable region of states. Furthermore, we apply our reachability analysis to the control of the relaxation dynamics of a two-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance spin system. We implement some experimental tasks of quantum state engineering in this open system at a near optimal performance in view of purity: e.g., increasing polarization and preparing pseudopure states. These results demonstrate the usefulness of our theory and show interesting and promising applications of environment-assisted quantum dynamics.