1305.6403 (Gerhard C. Hegerfeldt)

Driving at the quantum speed limit: Optimal control of a two-level
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Gerhard C. Hegerfeldt

A remarkably simple result is derived for the minimal time $T_{\rm min}$ required to drive a general initial state to a final target state by a Landau-Zener type Hamiltonian or, equivalently, by time-dependent laser driving. The associated protocol is also derived. A surprise arises when the interaction strength is assumed to be bounded by a constant $c$. Then, for large $c$, the optimal driving is of type bang-off-bang and for increasing $c$ one recovers the unconstrained result. However, for smaller $c$ the optimal driving can suddenly switch to bang-bang type. We discuss the notion of quantum speed limit time.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.6403