SPACE-TIME EVOLUTION OF WAVE FUNCTIONS; CONTROL OF QUANTUM DYNAMICS WITH THE HELP OF COHERENT PROCESSES
Jessica Swoboda
Abstract
Given a compact, connected Lie group G with Lie algebra � . We discuss time-optimal control of bilinear systems of the form (I) where H d , H j ∈ � , U ∈ G , and the v j act as control variables. The case G = SU (2 n ) has found interesting appli- cations to questions of time-optimal control of spin systems. In this context Eq. (I) describes the dynamics of an n -particle system with fixed drift Hamiltonian H d , which is to be controlled by a number of exterior magnetic fields of variable strength, proportional to the parameters v j . The question of interest here is to transfer the sys- tem from a given initial state U 0 to a prescribed final state U 1 in least possible time. Denote bythe Lie algebra spanned by H 1 , …, H m , and by K the corresponding Lie subgroup of G. After reformulating the optimal control problem for system (I) in terms of an equivalent problem on the homogeneous space G / K we discuss in detail time-optimal control strategies for system (I) in the case where G / K carries the structure of a Riemannian sym- metric space.