Approximate stabilization of an infinite dimensional quantum stochastic system

Abstract : We study the state feedback stabilization of a quantum harmonic oscillator near a pre-specified Fock state (photon number state). Such a state feedback controller has been recently implemented on a quantized electromagnetic field in an almost lossless cavity. Such open quantum systems are governed by a controlled discrete-time Markov chain in the unit ball of an infinite dimensional Hilbert space. The control design is based on an unbounded Lyapunov function that is minimized at each time-step by feedback. This ensures (weak-*) convergence of probability measures to a final measure concentrated on the target Fock state with a pre-specified probability. This probability may be made arbitrarily close to 1 by choosing the feedback parameters and the Lyapunov function. They are chosen so that the stochastic flow that describes the Markov process may be shown to be tight (concentrated on a compact set with probability arbitrarily close to 1). Convergence proof uses Prohorov's theorem and specific properties of this Lyapunov function.