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Two applications of geometric optimal control to the dynamics of spin particle

Bernard Bonnard A, Monique Chyba

Published Jan 1, 2013• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the application of methods from geometric optimal control to two problems in the dynamics of spin particles. First, we consider the saturation problem for a single spin system and second, the control of a linear chain of spin particles with Ising couplings. For both problems the minimizers are parameterized using Pontryagin Maximum Principle and the optimal solution is found by a careful analysis of the corresponding equations.

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The purpose of this article is to present the application of methods from geometric optimal control to two problems in the dynamics of spin particles. First, we consider the saturation problem for a single spin system and second, the control of a linear chain of spin particles with Ising couplings. For both problems the minimizers are parameterized using Pontryagin Maximum Principle and the optimal solution is found by a careful analysis of the corresponding equations.
We analyze the saturation of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal using optimal magnetic fields. We consider both the problems of minimizing the duration of the control and its energy for a fixed duration. We solve the optimal control problems by using geometric methods and a purely numerical approach, the grape algorithm, the two methods being based on the application of the Pontryagin maximum principle. A very good agreement is obtained between the two results. The optimal solutions for the energy-minimization problem are finally implemented experimentally with available NMR techniques.
Optimal control provides powerful tools and concepts that can be applied to control quantum systems. It has been used extensively to improve the performance of quantum processes in a variety of active areas in quantum technologies. This paper reviews the necessary conditions of optimality in the form of a Pontryagin Maximum Principle (PMP), and introduces its formulations for quantum systems. After formulating an optimal control problem for a two-level quantum system, we then study the application of PMP to obtain an optimal control strategy.
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).
Optimal Control Theory is a powerful mathematical tool, which has known a rapid development since the 1950s, mainly for engineering applications. More recently, it has become a widely used method to improve process performance in quantum technologies by means of highly efficient control of quantum dynamics. This tutorial aims at providing an introduction to key concepts of optimal control theory which is accessible to physicists and engineers working in quantum control or in related fields. The different mathematical results are introduced intuitively, before being rigorously stated. This tutorial describes modern aspects of optimal control theory, with a particular focus on the Pontryagin Maximum Principle, which is the main tool for determining open-loop control laws without experimental feedback. The different steps to solve an optimal control problem are discussed, before moving on to more advanced topics such as the existence of optimal solutions or the definition of the different types of extremals, namely normal, abnormal, and singular. The tutorial covers various quantum control issues and describes their mathematical formulation suitable for optimal control. The connection between the Pontryagin Maximum Principle and gradient-based optimization algorithms used for high-dimensional quantum systems is described. The optimal solution of different low-dimensional quantum systems is presented in detail, illustrating how the mathematical tools are applied in a practical way.
In this article, we study optimal control of dynamics of a linear chain of three spin 1∕21∕21∕2, weakly coupled with unequal Ising couplings. We address the problem of time-optimal synthesis of multiple spin quantum coherences. We derive time-optimal pulse sequences for creating desired spin order by computing geodesics on a sphere under a special metric. The solution to the geodesic equation is related to the nonlinear oscillator equation and the minimum time to create multiple spin order can be expressed in terms of an elliptic integral. These techniques are used for efficient creation of multiple spin coherences in Ising spin chains with unequal couplings.