arXiv subjects

S. C. Hou

Publications and source records attributed to S. C. Hou.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Memory effects in a dynamical decoupling process

We establish a simple quantitative relationship between the environmental memory effects and the characteristics in a dynamical decoupling process. In contrast to previous works, our measures of non-Markovianity are tailored and extended to evaluate the strength of memory effects in dynamical decoupling. We find that if each kick commutes with the dynamical map of the uncontrolled system, then the change of the final dynamical map or the final state brought by the control (called the "effect of control") is upper (lower) bounded by the summation (difference) of the strengths of memory effects with and without control. We propose sufficient conditions for the commutation relation for parity kicks and illustrate our finding with a dissipative quantum Rabi model by numerical simulations where one or many cycles of parity kicks are implemented on the qubit. Besides, the results show that under certain conditions, the effect of control or the increase of performance by the control may be simply proportional to the strength of memory effects with or without control.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Influence of initial states on memory effects: A study of early-time superradiance

The initial state of a quantum system can significantly influence its future dynamics, especially in non-Markovain quantum processes due to the environmental memory effects. Based on a previous work of ours, we propose a method to quantify the memory effects of a non-Markovian quantum process conditioned on a particular system initial state. We apply our method to study the early-time dynamics of a superradiance model where $N$ atoms (the system) interacting with a single-mode vacuum cavity (the environment) with several types of initial states. We find that the value of the memory effects in the early-time regime is half the environmental photon number for the (dephased) Dicke states. Besides, the memory effects, the environmental photon number and the degree of superradiance can be simultaneously enhanced by the coherence or entanglement of some initial states. In our study, the transitions from non-superradiant initial states to superradiant ones are always accompanied by the enhancement of memory effects, showing the importance of memory effects in superradiance.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Quantum metrology enhanced by coherence-induced-driving in a cavity QED setup

We propose a quantum metrology scheme in a cavity QED setup to achieve the Heisenberg limit. In our scheme, a series of identical two-level atoms randomly pass through and interact with a dissipative single-mode cavity. Different from the entanglement based Heisenberg limit metrology scheme, we do not need to prepare the atomic entangled states before they enter into the cavity. We show that the initial atomic coherence will induce an effective driving to the cavity field, whose steady state is an incoherent superposition of orthogonal states, with the superposition probabilities being dependent on the atom-cavity coupling strength. By measuring the average photon number of the cavity in the steady state, we demonstrate that the root-mean-square of the fluctuation of the atom-cavity coupling strength is proportional to $1/N_c^2$ ($N_c$ is the effective atom number interacting with the photon in the cavity during its lifetime). It implies that we have achieved the Heisenberg limit in our quantum metrology process. We also discuss the experimental feasibility of our theoretical proposal. Our findings may find potential applications in quantum metrology technology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Quantum Lyapunov control with machine learning

Quantum state engineering is a central task in Lyapunov-based quantum control. Given different initial states, better performance may be achieved if the control parameters, such as the Lyapunov function, are individually optimized for each initial state, however, at the expense of computing resources. To tackle this issue, we propose an initial-state-adaptive Lyapunov control strategy with machine learning, specifically, artificial neural networks trained through supervised learning. Two designs are presented and illustrated where the feedforward neural network and the general regression neural network are used to select control schemes and design Lyapunov functions, respectively. Since the sample generation and the training of neural networks are carried out in advance, the initial-state-adaptive Lyapunov control can be implemented without much increase of computational resources.

math.OC↗

arXiv2017

Bound state and Localization of excitation in many-body open systems

Bound state and time evolution for single excitation in one dimensional XXZ spin chain within non-Markovian reservoir are studied exactly. As for bound state, a common feature is the localization of single excitation, which means the spontaneous emission of excitation into reservoir is prohibited. Exceptionally the pseudo-bound state can always be found, for which the single excitation has a finite probability emitted into reservoir. We argue that under limit $N\rightarrow \infty$ the pseudo-bound bound state characterizes an equilibrium between the localization in spin chain and spontaneous emission into reservoir. In addition, a critical energy scale for bound states is also identified, below which only one bound state exists and it also is pseudo-bound state. The effect of quasirandom disorder is also discussed. It is found in this case that the single excitation is more inclined to locate at some spin sites. Thus a many-body-localization like behavior can be found. In order to display the effect of bound state and disorder on the preservation of quantum information, the time evolution of single excitation in spin chain studied exactly by numerically solving the evolution equation. A striking observation is that the excitation can be stayed at its initial location with a probability more than 0.9 when the bound state and disorder coexist. However if any one of the two issues is absent, the information of initial state can be erased completely or becomes mixed. Our finding shows that the combination of bound state and disorder can provide an ideal mechanism for quantum memory.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Preparation of edge states by shaking boundaries

Preparing topological states of quantum matter, such as edge states, is one of the most important directions in condensed matter physics. In this work, we present a proposal to prepare edge states in Aubry-Andr$\acute{\textrm{e}}$-Harper (AAH) model with open boundaries, which takes advantage of Lyapunov control to design operations. We show that edge states can be obtained with almost arbitrary initial states. A numerical optimalization for the control is performed and the dependence of control process on the system size is discussed. The merit of this proposal is that the shaking exerts only on the boundaries of the model. As a by-product, a topological entangled state is achieved by elaborately designing the shaking scheme.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Non-Markovianity and memory effects in quantum open systems

Although a number of measures for quantum non-Markovianity have been proposed recently, it is still an open question whether these measures directly characterize the memory effect of the environment, i.e., the dependence of a quantum state on its past in a time evolution. In this paper, we present a criterion and propose a measure for non-Markovianity with clear physical interpretations of the memory effect. The non-Markovianity is defined by the inequality $T(t_2,t_0)\neq T(t_2,t_1)T(t_1,t_0)$ in terms of memoryless dynamical map $T$ introduced in this paper. This definition is conceptually distinct from that based on divisibility used by Rivas et al (Phys. Rev. Lett 105, 050403 (2010)), whose violation is manifested by non-complete positivity of the dynamical map. We demonstrate via a typical quantum process that without Markovian approximation, nonzero memory effects (non-Markovianity) always exist even if the non-Markovianity is zero by the other non-Marovianity measures.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Realization of quantum gates by Lyapunov control

We propose a Lyapunov control design to achieve specific (or a family of) unitary time-evolution operators, i.e., quantum gates in the Schrödinger picture by tracking control. Two examples are presented. In the first, we illustrate how to realize the Hadamard gate in a single-qubit system, while in the second, the controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate is implemented in two-qubit systems with the Ising and Heisenberg interactions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the control can drive the time-evolution operator into the local equivalence class of the CNOT gate and the operator keeps in this class forever with the existence of Ising coupling.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Optimal Lyapunov quantum control on two-level systems: convergence and extended techniques

Taking a two-level system as an example, we show that a strong control field may enhance the efficiency of optimal Lyapunov quantum control in [Hou et al., Phys. Rev. A \textbf{86}, 022321 (2012)] but could decrease its control fidelity. A relationship between the strength of the control field and the control fidelity is established. An extended technique, which combines free evolution and external control, is proposed to improve the control fidelity. We analytically demonstrate that the extended technique can be used to design a control law for steering a two-level system exactly to the target state. In such a way, the convergence of the extended optimal Lyapunov quantum control can be guaranteed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Single photon reflection and transmission in optomechanical system

Cavity Optomechanical system is speedily approaching the regime where the radiation pressure of a single photon displaces the moving mirror. In this paper, we consider a cavity optomechanical system where the cavity field is driven by an external field. In the limit of weak mirror-cavity couplings, we calculate analytically the reflection and transmission rates for cavity field and discuss the effects of mirror-cavity coupling on the reflection and transmission.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Optimal Lyapunov-based quantum control for quantum systems

Quantum Lyapunov control was developed in order to transform a quantum system from arbitrary initial states to a target state. The idea is to find control fields that steer the Lyapunov function to zero as $t\rightarrow \infty$, meanwhile the quantum system is driven to the target state. In order to shorten the time required to reach the target state, we propose two designs to optimize Lyapunov control in this paper. The first design makes the Lyapunov function decrease as fast as possible with a constraint on the total power of control fields, and the second design has the same purpose but with a constraint on each control field. Examples of a three-level system demonstrate that the evolution time for Lyapunov control can be significantly shortened, especially when high control fidelity is required. Besides, this optimal Lyapunov-based quantum control is robust against uncertainties in the free Hamiltonian and decoherence in the system compared to conventional Lyapunov control.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Singularity of dynamical maps

For a dynamical map $Λ(t,0)$, which sends a state $ρ(0)$ of quantum open system to a state $ρ(t)=Λ(t,0)ρ(0)$, the decomposition law $Λ(t,0)=Λ(t,t_c)Λ(t_c,0)$ may break down at a specific time $t_c$. In this paper, we present a method to find the singular points $t_c$ and propose a measure for the singularity of the dynamical map. Two examples are portrayed to illustrate the method, the measure of singularity for these singular points is calculated and discussed. An extension to high-dimensional system is presented.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

An alternative non-Markovianity measure by divisibility of dynamical map

Identifying non-Markovianity with non-divisibility, we propose a measure for non-Markovinity of quantum process. Three examples are presented to illustrate the non-Markovianity, measure for non-Markovianity is calculated and discussed. Comparison with other measures of non-Markovianity is made. Our non-Markovianity measure has the merit that no optimization procedure is required and it is finite for any quantum process, which greatly enhances the practical relevance of the proposed measure.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Suppressing decoherence and improving entanglement by quantum-jump-based feedback control in two-level systems

We study the quantum-jump-based feedback control on the entanglement shared between two qubits with one of them subject to decoherence, while the other qubit is under the control. This situation is very relevant to a quantum system consisting of nuclear and electron spins in solid states. The possibility to prolong the coherence time of the dissipative qubit is also explored. Numerical simulations show that the quantum-jump-based feedback control can improve the entanglement between the qubits and prolong the coherence time for the qubit subject directly to decoherence.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Adiabatic evolution under quantum control

One of the difficulties in adiabatic quantum computation is the limit on the computation time. Here we propose two schemes to speed-up the adiabatic evolution. To apply this controlled adiabatic evolution to adiabatic quantum computation, we design one of the schemes without any prior knowledge of the instantaneous eigenstates of the final Hamiltonian. Whereas in another scheme, the control is constructed with the instantaneous eigenstate that is the target state of the control. As an illustration, we study a two-level system driven by a time-dependent magnetic field under the control. The physics behind the control scheme is explained.

quant-ph↗