Universal quantum control by non-Hermitian Hamiltonian

Abstract: Conventional manipulations over quantum system, e.g., coherent population trapping and unidirectional transfer, focus on the Hamiltonian engineering while regarding the system's manifold geometry and constraint equation as secondary causes. Here we treat them on equal footing in controlling a finite-dimensional quantum system under a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, which is inspired by the d'Alembert's principle for the active force, the constraint force, and the inertial force. The non-Hermitian Hamiltonian could be triangularized in a constraint picture spanned by a set of completed and orthonormal basis states, that is found to be a sufficient condition to construct at least one universal nonadiabatic passage in both bra and ket spaces. The passage ends up with a desired target state that is automatically normalized with no artificial normalization used in the existing treatments for non-Hermitian quantum systems. Our construction is explicitly demonstrated for the perfect population transfer in the two-level system and the cyclic population transfer in the three-level system. This theory substantially generalizes our framework of universal quantum control to the regime of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics.