title: Optimal protocols for slowly driven quantum systems.
abstract: The design of efficient quantum information processing will rely on optimal nonequilibrium transitions of driven quantum systems. Building on a recently developed geometric framework for computing optimal protocols for classical systems driven in finite time, we construct a general framework for optimizing the average information entropy for driven quantum systems. Geodesics on the parameter manifold endowed with a positive semidefinite metric correspond to protocols that minimize the average information entropy production in finite time. We use this framework to explicitly compute the optimal entropy production for a simple two-state quantum system coupled to a heat bath of bosonic oscillators, which has applications to quantum annealing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Department of Mathematics, Berkeley City College, Berkeley, California 94704, USA and Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Zulkowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: DeWeese
mesh_terms: D019277:Entropy; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010507:Periodicity; D011789:Quantum Theory