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Design of Coherent Observers

Shanon L. Vuglar, Nina H. Amini

Published Jan 10, 2014• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Abstract. Quantum versions of control problems are often more difficult than their classical counterparts because of the additional constraints imposed by quantum dynamics. For example, the quantum LQG and quantumH ∞ optimal control problems remain open. To make further progress, new, systematic and tractable methods need to be developed. This paper gives three algorithms for designing coherent observers, i.e., quantum systems that are connected to a quantum plant and their outputs provide information about the internal state of the plant. Importantly, coherent observers avoid measurements of the plant outputs. We compare our coherent observers with a classical (measurement-based) observer by way of an example involving an optical cavity with thermal and vacuum noises as inputs. ar X iv

Related papers

Design of coherent quantum observers for linear quantum systems

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Quantum versions of control problems are often more difficult than their classical counterparts because of the additional constraints imposed by quantum dynamics. For example, the quantum LQG and quantum optimal control problems remain open. To make further progress, new, systematic and tractable methods need to be developed. This paper gives three algorithms for designing coherent quantum observers, i.e., quantum systems that are connected to a quantum plant and their outputs provide information about the internal state of the plant. Importantly, coherent quantum observers avoid measurements of the plant outputs. We compare our coherent quantum observers with a classical (measurement-based) observer by way of an example involving an optical cavity with thermal and vacuum noises as inputs.

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In this paper, we proceed with our research on coherent quantum observers, with a focus on the scenario where there exist unknown inputs to the quantum plant. In our previous studies, we were mainly concerned with linear quantum plants in the absence of unknown inputs. However, when there are unmodeled dynamics or disturbances in quantum systems, the quantum version of Luenberger observers or Kalman filters might not be adequate. Given that no prior knowledge is assumed for the unknown inputs, we take advantage of the Hautus lemma to improve the robustness in observing a quantum system. More precisely, we consider linear quantum stochastic systems with unknown inputs involved whose dynamics correspond to open quantum harmonic oscillators. We show the procedure regarding synthesis of coherent observers for such systems that accomplish the task of simultaneously estimating system variables together with the unknown inputs, which is also illustrated by a simulation example.

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Feedback control of quantum systems : modelling, stabilisation and estimation

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Quantum engineering has seen rapid growth in the past two decades. Physicists, mathematicians and engineers have been working in unison to control a number of diverse systems in the quantum regime. Quantum control involving feedback has become particularly topical, as using information gained from a system can lead to more stable operation of a control protocol. Quantum feedback can be split into two paradigms: measurement based feedback and coherent feedback. Although it is increasingly evident that retaining the coherence of the feedback signal provides an intrinsic advantage over measurement-based feedback, coherent feedback is still a new paradigm. In particular, there are a limited number of options for coherently estimating a state within a feedback loop. As a step towards better understanding and implementation of quantum feedback, this thesis reports on modelling, estimation and control of quantum systems. The first topic is physical realisability of a variety of quantum systems, especially finite level systems and their outgrowths. Bilinear quantum stochastic differential equations (QSDEs) have to be employed to characterise these systems, which is a significant complement to the previous work on linear QSDEs. In light of the fact that direct and indirect couplings play a vital role in quantum network and control, we also provide state-space models for different classes of coupled open quantum systems incorporating both bidirectional and directional interactions. The second topic is coherent observers and optimal filtering. It is well established that classically estimation using the Kalman filter can provide improved performance over direct feedback schemes, and similar demonstrations have been performed for measurement-based quantum feedback. In this thesis I present coherent observers, including least mean squares estimators, which are driven by the coherent output of a specified quantum plant and designed such that some subset of the observer and plant's expectation values converge in the asymptotic limit. Not only can estimators "observe" mean quantities of quantum plant, but also they can "estimate" quantum correlations such as entanglement. This is of much importance to coherent feedback design in the absence of measurement steps without loss of fidelity. Last but not least, several topics regarding stabilisation and control design of quantum systems are discussed in my thesis. To be specific, tools for quantum stability analysis (e.g. Lyapunov conditions) are provided. Both measurement-based feedback and coherent feedback control design are taken into account. A measurement-based optimal controller for opto-mechanical systems aimed at synchronising different mechanical modes is presented, which is application-oriented. Moreover, A general observer-based coherent feedback control framework is studied, and I demonstrate a pole-placement approach via coherent observers that can be applied to various scenarios.

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A Coherent LQG Approach to Quantum Equalization

Rebbecca TY Thien, Shanon L. Vuglar, Ian R. Petersen

We propose a method to design a suboptimal, coherent quantum LQG controller to solve a quantum equalization problem. Our method involves reformulating the problem as a control problem and then designing a classical LQG controller and implementing it as a quantum system. Illustrative examples are included which demonstrate the algorithm for both active and passive systems, i.e., systems where the dynamics are described in terms of both position and momentum operators and systems with dynamics in terms of annihilation operators only.

arXiv:2304.01413•IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)•Dec 13, 2023•1 citation
Abstract. Quantum versions of control problems are often more difficult than their classical counterparts because of the additional constraints imposed by quantum dynamics. For example, the quantum LQG and quantumH ∞ optimal control problems remain open. To make further progress, new, systematic and tractable methods need to be developed. This paper gives three algorithms for designing coherent observers, i.e., quantum systems that are connected to a quantum plant and their outputs provide information about the internal state of the plant. Importantly, coherent observers avoid measurements of the plant outputs. We compare our coherent observers with a classical (measurement-based) observer by way of an example involving an optical cavity with thermal and vacuum noises as inputs. ar X iv
Quantum versions of control problems are often more difficult than their classical counterparts because of the additional constraints imposed by quantum dynamics. For example, the quantum LQG and quantum optimal control problems remain open. To make further progress, new, systematic and tractable methods need to be developed. This paper gives three algorithms for designing coherent quantum observers, i.e., quantum systems that are connected to a quantum plant and their outputs provide information about the internal state of the plant. Importantly, coherent quantum observers avoid measurements of the plant outputs. We compare our coherent quantum observers with a classical (measurement-based) observer by way of an example involving an optical cavity with thermal and vacuum noises as inputs.
In this paper, we proceed with our research on coherent quantum observers, with a focus on the scenario where there exist unknown inputs to the quantum plant. In our previous studies, we were mainly concerned with linear quantum plants in the absence of unknown inputs. However, when there are unmodeled dynamics or disturbances in quantum systems, the quantum version of Luenberger observers or Kalman filters might not be adequate. Given that no prior knowledge is assumed for the unknown inputs, we take advantage of the Hautus lemma to improve the robustness in observing a quantum system. More precisely, we consider linear quantum stochastic systems with unknown inputs involved whose dynamics correspond to open quantum harmonic oscillators. We show the procedure regarding synthesis of coherent observers for such systems that accomplish the task of simultaneously estimating system variables together with the unknown inputs, which is also illustrated by a simulation example.
The paper is concerned with a problem of coherent (measurement-free) filtering for physically realizable (PR) linear quantum plants. The state variables of such systems satisfy canonical commutation relations and are governed by linear quantum stochastic differential equations, dynamically equivalent to those of an open quantum harmonic oscillator. The problem is to design another PR quantum system, connected unilaterally to the output of the plant and playing the role of a quantum filter, so as to minimize a mean square discrepancy between the dynamic variables of the plant and the output of the filter. This coherent quantum filtering (CQF) formulation is a simplified feedback-free version of the coherent quantum LQG control problem which remains open despite recent studies. The CQF problem is transformed into a constrained covariance control problem which is treated by using the Frechet differentiation of an appropriate Lagrange function with respect to the matrices of the filter.
Quantum engineering has seen rapid growth in the past two decades. Physicists, mathematicians and engineers have been working in unison to control a number of diverse systems in the quantum regime. Quantum control involving feedback has become particularly topical, as using information gained from a system can lead to more stable operation of a control protocol. Quantum feedback can be split into two paradigms: measurement based feedback and coherent feedback. Although it is increasingly evident that retaining the coherence of the feedback signal provides an intrinsic advantage over measurement-based feedback, coherent feedback is still a new paradigm. In particular, there are a limited number of options for coherently estimating a state within a feedback loop. As a step towards better understanding and implementation of quantum feedback, this thesis reports on modelling, estimation and control of quantum systems. The first topic is physical realisability of a variety of quantum systems, especially finite level systems and their outgrowths. Bilinear quantum stochastic differential equations (QSDEs) have to be employed to characterise these systems, which is a significant complement to the previous work on linear QSDEs. In light of the fact that direct and indirect couplings play a vital role in quantum network and control, we also provide state-space models for different classes of coupled open quantum systems incorporating both bidirectional and directional interactions. The second topic is coherent observers and optimal filtering. It is well established that classically estimation using the Kalman filter can provide improved performance over direct feedback schemes, and similar demonstrations have been performed for measurement-based quantum feedback. In this thesis I present coherent observers, including least mean squares estimators, which are driven by the coherent output of a specified quantum plant and designed such that some subset of the observer and plant's expectation values converge in the asymptotic limit. Not only can estimators "observe" mean quantities of quantum plant, but also they can "estimate" quantum correlations such as entanglement. This is of much importance to coherent feedback design in the absence of measurement steps without loss of fidelity. Last but not least, several topics regarding stabilisation and control design of quantum systems are discussed in my thesis. To be specific, tools for quantum stability analysis (e.g. Lyapunov conditions) are provided. Both measurement-based feedback and coherent feedback control design are taken into account. A measurement-based optimal controller for opto-mechanical systems aimed at synchronising different mechanical modes is presented, which is application-oriented. Moreover, A general observer-based coherent feedback control framework is studied, and I demonstrate a pole-placement approach via coherent observers that can be applied to various scenarios.
Coherent feedback control of quantum systems has demonstrable advantages over measurement-based control, but so far there has been little work done on coherent estimators and more specifically coherent observers. Coherent observers are input the coherent output of a specified quantum plant and are designed such that some subset of the observer's and plant's expectation values converge in the asymptotic limit. We previously developed a class of mean tracking (MT) observers for open harmonic oscillators that only converged in mean position and momentum; here we develop a class of covariance matrix tracking (CMT) coherent observers that track both the mean and the covariance matrix of a quantum plant. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a CMT observer and find that there are more restrictions on a CMT observer than there are on a MT observer. We give examples where we demonstrate how to design a CMT observer and show that it can be used to track properties like the entanglement of a plant. As the CMT observer provides more quantum information than a MT observer, we expect it will have greater application in future coherent feedback schemes mediated by coherent observers. Investigation of coherent quantum estimators and observers is important in the ongoing discussion of quantum measurement because they provide an estimation of a system's quantum state without explicit use of the measurement postulate in their derivation.
We propose a method to design a suboptimal, coherent quantum LQG controller to solve a quantum equalization problem. Our method involves reformulating the problem as a control problem and then designing a classical LQG controller and implementing it as a quantum system. Illustrative examples are included which demonstrate the algorithm for both active and passive systems, i.e., systems where the dynamics are described in terms of both position and momentum operators and systems with dynamics in terms of annihilation operators only.