Control and Robustness for Quantum Linear Systems

This paper surveys some recent results on the feedback control of quantum linear systems and the robustness properties of these systems. Quantum linear systems are a class of systems whose dynamics, which are described by the laws of quantum mechanics, take the specific form of a set of linear quantum stochastic differential equations (QSDEs). These systems can also be described in terms of a Hamiltonian operator H and a coupling operator L, which in the case of quantum linear systems have a specific quadratic and linear form respectively. Such systems commonly arise in the area of quantum optics and related disciplines. Systems whose dynamics can be described or approximated by linear QSDEs include interconnections of optical cavities, beam-splitters, phase-shifters, optical parametric amplifiers, optical squeezers, and cavity quantum electrodynamic systems. An important approach to the feedback control of quantum linear systems involves the use of a controller which itself is a quantum linear system. This approach to quantum feedback control, referred to as coherent quantum feedback control, has the advantage that it does not destroy quantum information, is fast, and has the potential for efficient implementation. The paper discusses recent results concerning the synthesis of coherent quantum controllers such as in coherent quantum H-infinity control. Another important issue in the design of quantum feedback controllers is the robustness of the closed loop quantum system to perturbations in the quantum plant dynamics arising from perturbations in the system Hamiltonian H and the system coupling operator L. The paper discusses recent robust stability results for such perturbed quantum systems which take the form of a quantum small gain theorem and a quantum Popov stability criterion. These results are useful when combined with quantum H-infinity control in synthesizing robust quantum feedback controllers.