Mutual influence of locality and chaotic dynamics on quantum controllability

Abstract

Quantum control tasks are classified either as classical-like or as quantum requiring interference of pathways. We study the generation of interference pathways and relate them to the fidelity of the control target at a fixed time for various tasks. The model drift Hamiltonian studied is the two-dimensional Henon-Heiles (HH) potential. This system shows regular classical dynamics for low energies and chaotic dynamics for higher energies. A control operator supported by the whole momentum space and therefore connecting the entire Hilbert phase space is a random spiky potential. The other extreme is a smooth control potential. Intermediate cases are obtained by filtering the random spiky potential in momentum space. The fidelity of achieving a control task was related to the connectivity in phase space of the control operators. Typical quantum tasks such as generating a superposition of generalized coherent states rely on interfering pathways. For these cases the nonlinearity in the drift or control Hamiltonian is a necessary requirement for creating interferences. Control over rapidly diverging components of the wave function is achieved by the use of highly nonlocal control operators. Quantum control under chaotic drift was found to give a better yield than control under regular dynamics for such cases. For classical tasks we study the transformation of an initial generalized coherent state to another one. The best fidelity is obtained for regular or harmonic regions of the potential and smooth control operators. The approach to the classical limit is checked by decreasing the effective value of $\ensuremath{\hbar}$. Control under both quantum and classical tasks suffered from the decrease of $\ensuremath{\hbar}$ and the approach to classical proximity. Classical control tasks which rely heavily on maintaining a generalized coherent state throughout the evolution were found to be dysfunctional and lead to a completely uncontrolled situation once the classical chaos starts to appear.