Optimal control of molecular motion expressed through quantum fluid dynamics

A quantum fluid-dynamic (QFD) control formulation is presented for optimally manipulating atomic and molecular systems. In QFD the control quantum system is expressed in terms of the probability density ρ and the quantum current j. This choice of variables is motivated by the generally expected slowly varying spatial-temporal dependence of the fluid-dynamical variables. The QFD approach is illustrated for manipulation of the ground electronic state dynamics of HCl induced by an external electric field.