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Proceedings of the ... American Control Conference/Proceedings of the American Control Conference

Optimal control of two-level quantum systems

Domenico D’Alessandro, M. Dahleh

Published Jan 1, 2000• 32 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the manipulation of two-level quantum systems. This research is motivated by the design of quantum mechanical logic gates which perform prescribed logic operations on a two-level quantum system, a quantum bit. We consider the problem of driving the evolution operator to a desired state, while minimizing the energy-type cost. Mathematically, this problem translates into an optimal control problem for systems varying on the Lie group of special unitary matrices, with cost that is quadratic in the control. We develop a comprehensive theory of optimal control for two-level quantum systems. In particular, we prove the 'normality' of the given problem and the 'regularity' of the optimal control functions. The impact of the results of the paper on nuclear magnetic resonance experiments and quantum computation is discussed.

DOI
10.1109/acc.2000.876952

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We study the manipulation of two-level quantum systems. This research is motivated by the design of quantum mechanical logic gates which perform prescribed logic operations on a two-level quantum system, a quantum bit. We consider the problem of driving the evolution operator to a desired state, while minimizing the energy-type cost. Mathematically, this problem translates into an optimal control problem for systems varying on the Lie group of special unitary matrices, with cost that is quadratic in the control. We develop a comprehensive theory of optimal control for two-level quantum systems. In particular, we prove the 'normality' of the given problem and the 'regularity' of the optimal control functions. The impact of the results of the paper on nuclear magnetic resonance experiments and quantum computation is discussed.
We study the manipulation of two-level quantum systems. This research is motivated by the design of quantum mechanical logic gates which perform prescribed logic operations on a two-level quantum system, a quantum bit. We consider the problem of driving the evolution operator to a desired state, while minimizing an energy-type cost. Mathematically, this problem translates into an optimal control problem for systems varying on the Lie group of special unitary matrices of dimension two, with cost that is quadratic in the control. We develop a comprehensive theory of optimal control for two-level quantum systems. This includes, in particular, a classification of normal and abnormal extremals and a proof of regularity of the optimal control functions. The impact of the results of the paper on nuclear magnetic resonance experiments and quantum computation is discussed.
We study the manipulation of a two level quantum mechanical system which is the basic unit of representing data in quantum information science, a qubit. This research is motivated by the design of the quantum Hadamard gate for solid state spin qubits. We consider the problem of driving the initial state of a qubit into a desired final state in a specified time, while minimizing the energies of the control fields. Optimal control theory is employed to define optimum control fields which satisfy both dynamical constraints and optimality conditions. Time evolution of the system is calculated within the Schrödinger equation and a gradient method is used for tailoring optimal control fields.
In this paper we have synthesized optimal control of multi-level quantum system by representing unitary operator in terms of the projection operators of the Hamiltonian of the system. We have solved the steering problem for multi-level quantum systems minimizing energy cost functional of the control. The optimal control problem of the time evolution of quantum spin of Pauli two-level system subjected to an external field with the minimum energy function is also illustrated and formulated in terms of the quantum spin up and spin down states of the Pauli two-level system.
This thesis is concerned with the control and filtering problems for quantum systems. Two kinds of control problems are considered for a class of quantum systems: optimal control and trajectory tracking control. Filtering of a class of linear quantum systems is also investigated. \n \nFor the optimal control of quantum systems, the system in question evolves on a manifold inR^3 and is modeled as a bilinear control form whose states are represented as coherence vectors. An associated matrix Lie group system with state space S O(3) is introduced in order to facilitate solving the given problem. The controllability as well as the reachable set of the system is analyzed in detail. The maximum principle is applied to the optimal control for systems evolving on the Lie group of special orthogonal matrices of dimension 3, with cost that is quadratic in the control input. Controlling the evolutions of coherence vector is equivalent to controlling the states of an associated matrix Lie group system. Thus, the optimal control problem for single spin-1/2 systems can be transformed to steer state of the matrix Lie group system from the identity matrix to a final matrix corresponding to a target state of single spin-1/2 systems in an optimal fashion. The obtained result is employed to perform a reversible logic quantum operation NOT on single spin-1/2 systems. Explicit expressions for the optimal control are given which are linked to the initial state of the system. The main contribution of the result is to extend the existing result to a larger class of systems, generalizing existing wave-function-based results to single spin-1/2 systems whose states are represented by density matrices such that it allows the inclusion of mixed states. \n \nFor the tracking control problem of closed single spin-1/2 quantum ensembles, based on the Liouville-von Neumann equation, mathematical model of dynamics for single spin-1/2 quantum ensembles are formulated as a bilinear form with states evolving on Bloch sphere. For a typical setting in NMR, one in general would not cancel the applied electromagnetic field along a specified direction, thus leading to the dynamics in a plane perpendicular to that direction on the Bloch sphere. One natural question arises that how can one design a feedback controller such that given an initial condition for quantum ensembles, the system evolutions can be steered to the pre-determined trajectory. An associated matrix Lie group differential equation describing transfers from the initial state being an identity matrix is naturally introduced. The tracking problem for the system of interest is transformed to a stabilization problem such that the control techniques are able to be used. A distance function as well as a distance vector defined on the Lie group SO(3) are introduced, which can be used to construct a Lyapunov function to deal with the tracking problem. In order to deal with the tracking problem, the Lyapunov-based feedback design method is employed to obtain the feedback control such that the dynamics of system can converge to the reference trajectory. \n \nFor filtering of quantum systems, the filter problem of a class of linear quantum stochastic systems with quantum noise is investigated. The quantum system model is first analyzed, then the necessary conditions of nondemolition are obtained by applying the observation principle. The relations between the input and output noise are necessary for the nondemolition measurement of the quantum output channels. Given prescribed quantum system, the filter of the system is derived using those necessary conditions.
We study a quantum spin system acting on a single quantum bit. The evolution of this system is governed by the Schrodinger equation which takes the form of a right-invariant system on the special unitary group SU(2) with two control inputs. Using a suitable version of Pontryagin's Principle which is tailor-made for control problems on Lie groups, the optimal controls are derived in two cases: the energy-optimal case (in which the control effort is minimized for a specified end time) and the time-optimal case (in which the control duration is minimized for given constraints on the size of the controls).
There is a strong interest in optimal manipulating of quantum systems by external controls. Traps are controls which are optimal only locally but not globally. If they exist, they can be serious obstacles to the search of globally optimal controls in numerical and laboratory experiments, and for this reason the analysis of traps attracts considerable attention. In this paper we prove that for a wide range of control problems for two-level quantum systems all locally optimal controls are also globally optimal. Hence we conclude that two-level systems in general are trap-free. In particular, manipulating qubits—two-level quantum systems forming a basic building block for quantum computation—is free of traps for fundamental problems such as the state preparation and gate generation.