Quantum controllers for quantum systems

Seth Lloyd

Published 1997-03-23Version 1

This paper discusses fully coherent quantum feedback control, in which the sensors, controller, and actuators are quantum systems and interact coherently with the system to be controlled: as a result, the entire feedback loop is coherent. Unlike conventional semiclassical feedback control of quantum systems, feedback control by quantum controllers is not stochastic, preserves the initial state of the controlled system, and can control quantum systems in ways that are not possible using conventional, incoherent feedback control. In particular, the target state to which the quantum controller drives the system can be entangled with another quantum system. This paper investigates quantum controllers and states necessary and sufficient conditions for a Hamiltonian quantum system to be observable and controllable by a quantum controller.