Fast trajectory tracking of the steady state of open quantum systems

Abstract

We present a control strategy to speed up the steady-state tracking for open quantum systems governed by a time-dependent Markovian master equation. With this fast trajectory tracking strategy, the quantum state strictly follows the instantaneous steady state of open quantum systems and evolves into the target state without any fidelity loss. A compact expression for the counterdiabatic term is derived in terms of a superoperator formalism in Liouville space. To be specific, we utilize a universal method to transform the counterdiabatic superoperator into the ordinary operator form. It can be seen from the operator form that in addition to the coherent control field, an incoherent control is required for the fast trajectory tracking. The control strategy is successfully applied in two examples: One is a two-level quantum system with a time-dependent Hamiltonian coupling to a heat bath, the other is a two-level system following an isothermal process.