Information flow and error scaling for fully-quantum control

Abstract: The optimally designed control of quantum systems is playing an increasingly important role to engineer novel and more efficient quantum technologies. Here, in the scenario represented by controlling an arbitrary quantum system via the interaction with an another optimally initialized auxiliary quantum system, we show that the quantum channel capacity sets the scaling behaviour of the optimal control error. Specifically, we prove that the minimum control error is ensured by maximizing the quantum capacity of the channel mapping the initial control state into the target state of the controlled system, i.e., optimizing the quantum information flow from the controller to the system to be controlled. Analytical results, supported by numerical evidences, are provided when the systems and the controller are either qubits or single Bosonic modes and can be applied to a very large class of platforms for controllable quantum devices.