Quantum Optimally Controlled Transition Landscapes

A large number of experimental studies and simulations show that it is surprisingly easy to find excellent quality control over broad classes of quantum systems. We now prove that for controllable quantum systems with no constraints placed on the controls, the only allowed extrema of the transition probability landscape correspond to perfect control or no control. Under these conditions, no suboptimal local extrema exist as traps that would impede the search for an optimal control. The identified landscape structure is universal for all controllable quantum systems of the same dimension when seeking to maximize the same transition probability, regardless of the detailed nature of the system Hamiltonian. The presence of weak control field noise or environmental decoherence is shown to preserve the general structure of the control landscape, but at lower resolution.