arXiv subjects

Alain Sarlette

Publications and source records attributed to Alain Sarlette.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Deterministic submanifolds and analytic solution of the stochastic differential master equation describing a qubit

This paper studies the stochastic differential equation (SDE) associated to a two-level quantum system (qubit) subject to Hamiltonian evolution as well as unmonitored and monitored decoherence channels. The latter imply a stochastic evolution of the quantum state (density operator), whose associated probability distribution we characterize. We first show that for two sets of typical experimental settings, corresponding either to weak quantum non demolition measurements or to weak fluorescence measurements, the three Bloch coordinates of the qubit remain confined to a deterministically evolving surface or curve inside the Bloch sphere. We explicitly solve the deterministic evolution, and we provide a closed-form expression for the probability distribution on this surface or curve. Then we relate the existence in general of such deterministically evolving submanifolds to an accessibility question of control theory, which can be answered with an explicit algebraic criterion on the SDE. This allows us to show that, for a qubit, the above two sets of weak measurements are essentially the only ones featuring deterministic surfaces or curves.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Well-posedness and convergence of the Lindblad master equation for a quantum harmonic oscillator with multi-photon drive and damping

We consider the model of a quantum harmonic oscillator governed by a Lindblad master equation where the typical drive and loss channels are multi-photon processes instead of single-photon ones; this implies a dissipation operator of order 2k with integer k>1 for a k-photon process. We prove that the corresponding PDE makes the state converge, for large time, to an invariant subspace spanned by a set of k selected basis vectors; the latter physically correspond to so-called coherent states with the same amplitude and uniformly distributed phases. We also show that this convergence features a finite set of bounded invariant functionals of the state (physical observables), such that the final state in the invariant subspace can be directly predicted from the initial state. The proof includes the full arguments towards the well-posedness of the corresponding dynamics in proper Banach spaces of Hermitian trace-class operators equipped with adapted nuclear norms. It relies on the Hille-Yosida theorem and Lyapunov convergence analysis.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Loss-tolerant parity measurement for distant quantum bits

We propose a scheme to measure the parity of two distant qubits, while ensuring that losses on the quantum channel between them does not destroy coherences within the parity subspaces. This capability enables deterministic preparation of highly entangled qubit states whose fidelity is not limited by the transmission loss. The key observation is that for a probe electromagnetic field in a particular quantum state, namely a superposition of two coherent states of opposite phases, the transmission loss stochastically applies a near-unitary back-action on the probe state. This leads to a parity measurement protocol where the main effect of the transmission losses is a decrease in the measurement strength. By repeating the non-destructive (weak) parity measurement, one achieves a high-fidelity entanglement in spite of a significant transmission loss.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Integral control on nonlinear spaces: two extensions

This paper applies the recently developed framework for integral control on nonlinear spaces to two non-standard cases. First, we show that the property of perfect target stabilization in presence of actuation bias holds also if this bias is state dependent. This might not be surprising, but for practical purposes it provides an easy way to robustly cancel nonlinear dynamics of the uncontrolled plant. We specifically illustrate this for robust stabilization of a pendulum at arbitrary angle, a problem posed as non-trivial by some colleagues. Second, as previous work has been restricted to systems with as many control inputs as configuration dimensions, we here provide results for integral control of a non-holonomic system. More precisely, we design robust steering control of a rigid body under velocity bias.

math.OC↗

arXiv2016

Adiabatic elimination for open quantum systems with effective Lindblad master equations

We consider an open quantum system described by a Lindblad-type master equation with two times-scales. The fast time-scale is strongly dissipative and drives the system towards a low-dimensional decoherence-free space. To perform the adiabatic elimination of this fast relaxation, we propose a geometric asymptotic expansion based on the small positive parameter describing the time-scale separation. This expansion exploits geometric singular perturbation theory and center-manifold techniques. We conjecture that, at any order, it provides an effective slow Lindblad master equation and a completely positive parameterization of the slow invariant sub-manifold associated to the low-dimensional decoherence-free space. By preserving complete positivity and trace, two important structural properties attached to open quantum dynamics, we obtain a reduced-order model that directly conveys a physical interpretation since it relies on effective Lindbladian descriptions of the slow evolution. At the first order, we derive simple formulae for the effective Lindblad master equation. For a specific type of fast dissipation, we show how any Hamiltonian perturbation yields Lindbladian second-order corrections to the first-order slow evolution governed by the Zeno-Hamiltonian. These results are illustrated on a composite system made of a strongly dissipative harmonic oscillator, the ancilla, weakly coupled to another quantum system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Incompatibility boundaries for properties of community partitions

We prove the incompatibility of certain desirable properties of community partition quality functions. Our results generalize the impossibility result of [Kleinberg 2003] by considering sets of weaker properties. In particular, we use an alternative notion to solve the central issue of the consistency property. (The latter means that modifying the graph in a way consistent with a partition should not have counterintuitive effects). Our results clearly show that community partition methods should not be expected to perfectly satisfy all ideally desired properties. We then proceed to show that this incompatibility no longer holds when slightly relaxed versions of the properties are considered, and we provide in fact examples of simple quality functions satisfying these relaxed properties. An experimental study of these quality functions shows a behavior comparable to established methods in some situations, but more debatable results in others. This suggests that defining a notion of good partition in communities probably requires imposing additional properties.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2015

Quantum state tomography with non-instantaneous measurements, imperfections and decoherence

Tomography of a quantum state is usually based on positive operator-valued measure (POVM) and on their experimental statistics. Among the available reconstructions, the maximum-likelihood (MaxLike) technique is an efficient one. We propose an extension of this technique when the measurement process cannot be simply described by an instantaneous POVM. Instead, the tomography relies on a set of quantum trajectories and their measurement records. This model includes the fact that, in practice, each measurement could be corrupted by imperfections and decoherence, and could also be associated with the record of continuous-time signals over a finite amount of time. The goal is then to retrieve the quantum state that was present at the start of this measurement process. The proposed extension relies on an explicit expression of the likelihood function via the effective matrices appearing in quantum smoothing and solutions of the adjoint quantum filter. It allows to retrieve the initial quantum state as in standard MaxLike tomography, but where the traditional POVM operators are replaced by more general ones that depend on the measurement record of each trajectory. It also provides, aside the MaxLike estimate of the quantum state, confidence intervals for any observable. Such confidence intervals are derived, as the MaxLike estimate, from an asymptotic expansion of multi-dimensional Laplace integrals appearing in Bayesian Mean estimation. A validation is performed on two sets of experimental data: photon(s) trapped in a microwave cavity subject to quantum non-demolition measurements relying on Rydberg atoms; heterodyne fluorescence measurements of a superconducting qubit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Adding a single state memory optimally accelerates symmetric linear maps

Previous papers have proposed to add memory registers to the dynamics of discrete-time linear systems in order to accelerate their convergence. In particular, it has been proved that adding one memory slot per agent allows faster convergence towards average consensus. We here prove that this situation \emph{cannot} be improved by adding more memory slots, when the knowledge about the self-adjoint linear map to be accelerated reduces to bounds on its extreme eigenvalues.

math.OC↗

arXiv2015

Extending robustness & randomization from Consensus to Symmetrization Algorithms

This work interprets and generalizes consensus-type algorithms as switching dynamics leading to symmetrization of some vector variables with respect to the actions of a finite group. We show how the symmetrization framework we develop covers applications as diverse as consensus on probability distributions (either classical or quantum), uniform random state generation, and open-loop disturbance rejection by quantum dynamical decoupling. Robust convergence results are explicitly provided in a group-theoretic formulation, both for deterministic and for randomized dynamics. This indicates a way to directly extend the robustness and randomization properties of consensus-type algorithms to more fields of application.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Convergence and adiabatic elimination for a driven dissipative quantum harmonic oscillator

We prove that a harmonic oscillator driven by Lindblad dynamics where the typical drive and loss channels are two-photon processes instead of single-photon ones, converges to a protected subspace spanned by two coherent states of opposite amplitude. We then characterize the slow dynamics induced by a perturbative single-photon loss on this protected subspace, by performing adiabatic elimination in the Lindbladian dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Accelerating Consensus by Spectral Clustering and Polynomial Filters

It is known that polynomial filtering can accelerate the convergence towards average consensus on an undirected network. In this paper the gain of a second-order filtering is investigated. A set of graphs is determined for which consensus can be attained in finite time, and a preconditioner is proposed to adapt the undirected weights of any given graph to achieve fastest convergence with the polynomial filter. The corresponding cost function differs from the traditional spectral gap, as it favors grouping the eigenvalues in two clusters. A possible loss of robustness of the polynomial filter is also highlighted.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2015

Integral Control on Lie Groups

In this paper, we extend the popular integral control technique to systems evolving on Lie groups. More explicitly, we provide an alternative definition of "integral action" for proportional(-derivative)-controlled systems whose configuration evolves on a nonlinear space, where configuration errors cannot be simply added up to compute a definite integral. We then prove that the proposed integral control allows to cancel the drift induced by a constant bias in both first order (velocity) and second order (torque) control inputs for fully actuated systems evolving on abstract Lie groups. We illustrate the approach by 3-dimensional motion control applications.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2013

Control limitations from distributed sensing: theory and Extremely Large Telescope application

We investigate performance bounds for feedback control of distributed plants where the controller can be centralized (i.e. it has access to measurements from the whole plant), but sensors only measure differences between neighboring subsystem outputs. Such "distributed sensing" can be a technological necessity in applications where system size exceeds accuracy requirements by many orders of magnitude. We formulate how distributed sensing generally limits feedback performance robust to measurement noise and to model uncertainty, without assuming any controller restrictions (among others, no "distributed control" restriction). A major practical consequence is the necessity to cut down integral action on some modes. We particularize the results to spatially invariant systems and finally illustrate implications of our developments for stabilizing the segmented primary mirror of the European Extremely Large Telescope.

math.OC↗

arXiv2013

Quantum filtering using POVM measurements

The objective of this work is to develop a recursive, discrete time quantum filtering equation for a system that interacts with a probe, on which measurements are performed according to the Positive Operator Valued Measures (POVMs) framework. POVMs are the most general measurements one can make on a quantum system and although in principle they can be reformulated as projective measurements on larger spaces, for which filtering results exist, a direct treatment of POVMs is more natural and can simplify the filter computations for some applications. Hence we formalize the notion of strongly commuting (Davies) instruments which allows one to develop joint measurement statistics for POVM type measurements. This allows us to prove the existence of conditional POVMs, which is essential for the development of a filtering equation. We demonstrate that under generally satisfied assumptions, knowing the observed probe POVM operator is sufficient to uniquely specify the quantum filtering evolution for the system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Consensus for Quantum Networks: From Symmetry to Gossip Iterations

This paper extends the consensus framework, widely studied in the literature on distributed computing and control algorithms, to networks of quantum systems. We define consensus situations on the basis of invariance and symmetry properties, finding four different probabilistic generalizations of classical consensus states. We then extend the gossip consensus algorithm to the quantum setting and prove its convergence properties, showing how it converges to symmetric states while preserving the expectation of permutation-invariant global observables.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Contraction and stability analysis of steady-states for open quantum systems described by Lindblad differential equations

For discrete-time systems, governed by Kraus maps, the work of D. Petz has characterized the set of universal contraction metrics. In the present paper, we use this characterization to derive a set of quadratic Lyapunov functions for continuous-time systems, governed by Lindblad differential equations, that have a steady-state with full rank. An extremity of this set is given by the Bures metric, for which the quadratic Lyapunov function is obtained by inverting a Sylvester equation. We illustrate the method by providing a strict Lyapunov function for a Lindblad equation designed to stabilize a quantum electrodynamic "cat" state by reservoir engineering. In fact we prove that any Lindblad equation on the Hilbert space of the (truncated) harmonic oscillator, which has a full-rank equilibrium and which has, among its decoherence channels, a channel corresponding to the photon loss operator, globally converges to that equilibrium.

math.OC↗

arXiv2012

Robust open-loop stabilization of Fock states by time-varying quantum interactions

A quantum harmonic oscillator (spring subsystem) is stabilized towards a target Fock state by reservoir engineering. This passive and open-loop stabilization works by consecutive and identical Hamiltonian interactions with auxiliary systems, here three-level atoms (the auxiliary ladder subsystem), followed by a partial trace over these auxiliary atoms. A scalar control input governs the interaction, defining which atomic transition in the ladder subsystem is in resonance with the spring subsystem. We use it to build a time-varying interaction with individual atoms, that combines three non-commuting steps. We show that the resulting reservoir robustly stabilizes any initial spring state distributed between 0 and 4n+3 quanta of vibrations towards a pure target Fock state of vibration number n. The convergence proof relies on the construction of a strict Lyapunov function for the Kraus map induced by this reservoir setting on the spring subsystem. Simulations with realistic parameters corresponding to the quantum electrodynamics setup at Ecole Normale Superieure further illustrate the robustness of the method.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Non-classical field state stabilization in a cavity by reservoir engineering

We propose an engineered reservoir inducing the relaxation of a cavity field towards non-classical states. It is made up of two-level atoms crossing the cavity one at a time. Each atom-cavity interaction is first dispersive, then resonant, then dispersive again. The reservoir pointer states are those produced by an effective Kerr Hamiltonian acting on a coherent field. We thereby stabilize squeezed states and quantum superpositions of multiple coherent components in a cavity having a finite damping time. This robust method could be implemented in state-of-the-art experiments and lead to interesting insights into mesoscopic quantum state superpositions and into their protection against decoherence.

quant-ph↗