Dissipation-induced continuous quantum error correction for superconducting circuits

Quantum error correction (QEC) is a crucial step towards long coherence times required for efficient quantum information processing (QIP). One major challenge in this direction concerns the fast real-time analysis of error syndrome measurements and the associated feedback control. Recent proposals on autonomous QEC (AQEC) have opened new perspectives to overcome this difficulty. Here, we design an AQEC scheme based on quantum reservoir engineering adapted to superconducting qubits. We focus on a three-qubit bit-flip code, where three transmon qubits are dispersively coupled to a few low-Q resonator modes. By applying only continuous-wave drives of fixed but well-chosen frequencies and amplitudes, we engineer an effective interaction Hamiltonian to evacuate the entropy created by eventual bit-flip errors. We provide a full analytical and numerical study of the protocol, while introducing the main limitations on the achievable error correction rates.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Singular perturbations and Lindblad-Kossakowski differential equations

We consider an ensemble of quantum systems whose average evolution is described by a density matrix, solution of a Lindblad-Kossakowski differential equation. We focus on the special case where the decoherence is only due to a highly unstable excited state and where the spontaneously emitted photons are measured by a photo-detector. We propose a systematic method to eliminate the fast and asymptotically stable dynamics associated to the excited state in order to obtain another differential equation for the slow part. We show that this slow differential equation is still of Lindblad-Kossakowski type, that the decoherence terms and the measured output depend explicitly on the amplitudes of quasi-resonant applied field, i.e., the control. Beside a rigorous proof of the slow/fast (adiabatic) reduction based on singular perturbation theory, we also provide a physical interpretation of the result in the context of coherence population trapping via dark states and decoherence-free subspaces. Numerical simulations illustrate the accuracy of the proposed approximation for a 5-level systems.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Distributed source identification for wave equations: an observer-based approach

In this paper, we consider a wave equation on a bounded interval where the initial conditions are known (are zero) and we are rather interested in identifying an unknown source term $q(x)$ thanks to the measurement output $y$ which is the Neumann derivative on one of the boundaries. We use a back-and-forth iterative procedure and construct well-chosen observers which allow to retrieve $q$ from $y$ in the minimal observation time.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, MTNS 201

Feedback generation of quantum Fock states by discrete QND measures

A feedback scheme for preparation of photon number states in a microwave cavity is proposed. Quantum Non Demolition (QND) measurement of the cavity field provides information on its actual state. The control consists in injecting into the cavity mode a microwave pulse adjusted to maximize the population of the desired target photon number. In the ideal case (perfect cavity and measures), we present the feedback scheme and its detailed convergence proof through stochastic Lyapunov techniques based on super-martingales and other probabilistic arguments. Quantum Monte-Carlo simulations performed with experimental parameters illustrate convergence and robustness of such feedback scheme.Comment: submitted, update version with feedback law of arXiv:0905.0114 [quant-ph

Stabilizing feedback controls for quantum systems

No quantum measurement can give full information on the state of a quantum system; hence any quantum feedback control problem is neccessarily one with partial observations, and can generally be converted into a completely observed control problem for an appropriate quantum filter as in classical stochastic control theory. Here we study the properties of controlled quantum filtering equations as classical stochastic differential equations. We then develop methods, using a combination of geometric control and classical probabilistic techniques, for global feedback stabilization of a class of quantum filters around a particular eigenstate of the measurement operator

On stability of continuous-time quantum-filters

We prove that the fidelity between the quantum state governed by a continuous time stochastic master equation driven by a Wiener process and its associated quantum-filter state is a sub-martingale. This result is a generalization to non-pure quantum states where fidelity does not coincide in general with a simple Frobenius inner product. This result implies the stability of such filtering process but does not necessarily ensure the asymptotic convergence of such quantum-filters

Design of Strict Control-Lyapunov Functions for Quantum Systems with QND Measurements

We consider discrete-time quantum systems subject to Quantum Non-Demolition (QND) measurements and controlled by an adjustable unitary evolution between two successive QND measures. In open-loop, such QND measurements provide a non-deterministic preparation tool exploiting the back-action of the measurement on the quantum state. We propose here a systematic method based on elementary graph theory and inversion of Laplacian matrices to construct strict control-Lyapunov functions. This yields an appropriate feedback law that stabilizes globally the system towards a chosen target state among the open-loop stable ones, and that makes in closed-loop this preparation deterministic. We illustrate such feedback laws through simulations corresponding to an experimental setup with QND photon counting

Approximate stabilization of an infinite dimensional quantum stochastic system

We propose a feedback scheme for preparation of photon number states in a microwave cavity. Quantum Non-Demolition (QND) measurements of the cavity field and a control signal consisting of a microwave pulse injected into the cavity are used to drive the system towards a desired target photon number state. Unlike previous work, we do not use the Galerkin approximation of truncating the infinite-dimensional system Hilbert space into a finite-dimensional subspace. We use an (unbounded) strict Lyapunov function and prove that a feedback scheme that minimizes the expectation value of the Lyapunov function at each time step stabilizes the system at the desired photon number state with (a pre-specified) arbitrarily high probability. Simulations of this scheme demonstrate that we improve the performance of the controller by reducing "leakage" to high photon numbers.Comment: Submitted to CDC 201