Authors: Pierre Rouchon ¹

• 1 Centre Automatique et Systèmes

This paper describes several methods used by physicists for manipulations of quantum states. For each method, we explain the model, the various time-scales, the performed approximations and we propose an interpretation in terms of control theory. These various interpretations underlie open questions on controllability, feedback and estimations. For 2-level systems we consider: the Rabi oscillations in connection with averaging; the Bloch-Siegert corrections associated to the second order terms; controllability versus parametric robustness of open-loop control and an interesting controllability problem in infinite dimension with continuous spectra. For 3-level systems we consider: Raman pulses and the second order terms. For spin/spring systems we consider: composite systems made of 2-level sub-systems coupled to quantized harmonic oscillators; multi-frequency averaging in infinite dimension; controllability of 1D partial differential equation of Shrödinger type and affine versus the control; motion planning for quantum gates. For open quantum systems subject to decoherence with continuous measures we consider: quantum trajectories and jump processes for a 2-level system; Lindblad-Kossakovsky equation and their controllability.