Robust control of quantum gates under parameter uncertainty is essential for reliable quantum technologies. While complete knowledge of a Hamiltonian enables accurate control, realistic systems often involve uncertain parameters, making controllability challenging. We investigate two model Hamiltonians with partially unknown continuous parameters and assess their robust controllability using a unified framework that combines both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Theoretical analysis is grounded in a Lie-algebraic framework, complemented by a numerical method based on discretizing the continuous uncertain parameter. Furthermore, we introduce a modified fidelity functional with a penalty term to optimize control pulses, thereby enhancing robustness against parameter uncertainty. Within this framework, we analyze two representative systems, revealing qualitative differences in their controllability.

The Floquet-Magnus expansion is a widely used tool to derive effective descriptions of time-periodic quantum systems by approximating their dynamics with a time-independent Hamiltonian. However, its standard formulation is, strictly speaking, restricted to bounded Hamiltonians. In this work, we extend its definition and analysis to a broad class of time-periodic unbounded Hamiltonians. Our approach is based on an a priori distinct nonperturbative framework for the construction of effective Hamiltonians, which we show to reproduce the Floquet-Magnus expansion. A particular strength of our framework is that it allows us to prove that the resulting effective dynamics approximates the original time evolution propagators to arbitrary order in the high-frequency limit without requiring convergence of the Floquet-Magnus expansion, a condition that is already highly restrictive even in the bounded setting. We illustrate the scope of the method on representative models: the quantum Rabi Hamiltonian in the interaction picture, and the periodically driven quantum harmonic oscillator.

We study a family of Jacobi operators in which the diagonal entries are multiplied by a coupling parameter λ≥0. Under suitable conditions, the operator is self-adjoint for every λ>0, while the formal limit at λ=0 is a symmetric Jacobi operator admitting a one-parameter family of self-adjoint extensions. A central ingredient of our analysis is the derivation of uniform bounds for square-summable generalized eigenvectors in the small-λ regime, which combines discrete WKB methods with Airy-function asymptotics. Using these estimates, we analyze the limiting behavior λ→0 in the strong resolvent sense, proving that for every sequence λj→0 one can extract a subsequence along which the corresponding Jacobi operators converge to some self-adjoint extension of the limiting operator; conversely, every such extension can be obtained in this way. We call this behavior an essentially singular limit, by analogy with essential singularities in complex analysis. 

As an application, we study higher-order squeezing operators arising in quantum optics. Using the connection with Jacobi operators, we show that when the relative strength of the free-field term tends to zero, different self-adjoint extensions of the squeezing operator are selected along different sequences. In particular, this limit does not single out a physically distinguished self-adjoint extension, but instead identifies a distinguished subclass of extensions compatible with the underlying symmetry.

Higher-order squeezing captures non-Gaussian features of quantum light by probing moments of the field beyond the variance, and is associated with operators involving nonlinear combinations of creation and annihilation operators. Here we study a class of operators of the form ξ(a*)ᵏaˡ+ξ*(a*)ˡaᵏ+f(a*a), which arise naturally in the analysis of higher-order quantum fluctuations. The operators are defined on the linear span of Fock states. We show that the essential self-adjointness of these operators depends on the asymptotics of the real-valued function f(n) at infinity. In particular, pure higher-order squeezing operators (k≥3, l=0, and f(n)=0) are not essentially self-adjoint, but adding a properly chosen term f(a*a), like a Kerr term, can have a regularizing effect and restore essential self-adjointness. In the non-self-adjoint regime, we compute the deficiency indices and classify all self-adjoint extensions. Our results provide a rigorous operator-theoretic foundation for modeling and interpreting higher-order squeezing in quantum optics, and reveal interesting connections with the Birkhoff-Trjitzinsky theory of asymptotic expansions for recurrence relations.

The indirect estimation of couplings in quantum dynamics relies on the measurement of the spectrum and the overlap of eigenvectors with some reference states. These data can be obtained by local measurements on some sites and eliminate the need for full Hamiltonian tomography. For a one-dimensional (1D) chain, access to only one edge site is sufficient to compute all the couplings between the adjacent sites, and consequently to reconstruct the full Hamiltonian. However, its robustness in the presence of perturbations remains a critical question, particularly when sites interact with other lattice sites beyond nearest neighbors. Our work studies the applicability of schemes designed for 1D chains to topologies with interactions beyond nearest neighbor. We treat interactions between the next-nearest sites as perturbation of strength ɛ and show that the error in estimation of couplings scales linearly with ɛ in the presence of such interactions. Further, we show that, on average, the existence of couplings between sites beyond the next-nearest neighbor results in higher error. We also study the length of the chain that can be estimated (up to a fixed precision) as a function of ɛ, in the presence of next-nearest-neighbor interactions. Typically, for weak interactions, chains of 30 sites can be estimated within reasonable error. Thus, we study the robustness of estimation scheme designed for a 1D chain when exposed to such multisite perturbations, offering valuable insights into its applicability and limitations.

This paper introduces the concept of the wandering range of a robust symmetry S of a Hamiltonian H. This quantity measures how the perturbed time evolution exp(it(H+εV))S exp(-it(H+εV)) deviates from its unperturbed counterpart exp(itH)S exp(-itH). Although the wandering range does not necessarily scale linearly with the perturbation strength ε, we identify conditions under which this linear behavior is recovered and we obtain explicit nonperturbative bounds. 

We derive a nonperturbative bound on the distance between evolutions of open quantum systems described by time-dependent generators. We show how this result can be employed to provide an explicit upper bound on the error of the rotating-wave approximation in the presence of dissipation and decoherence. We apply the derived bound to the strong-coupling limit in open quantum systems and to the secular approximation used to obtain a master equation from the Redfield equation. 

A quantum particle on a circle in a quadratic potential exhibits a spectrum that is not harmonic, despite having all algebraic properties of the quantum harmonic oscillator. This raises the question where the usual algebraic argument — implying integer gaps — fails. The answer is illuminating and covers a surprisingly rich range of physical phenomena for such a simple model. 

In quantum control, quantum speed limits provide fundamental lower bounds on the time that is needed to implement certain unitary transformations. Using Lie algebraic methods, we link these speed limits to symmetries of the control Hamiltonians and provide quantitative bounds that can be calculated without solving the controlled system dynamics. In particular we focus on two scenarios: On one hand, we provide bounds on the time that is needed for a control system to implement a given target unitary U and on the other hand we bound the time to implement the most difficult to reach evolution exp(iθHₛ) of a target Hamiltonian Hₛ. We apply our abstract bounds on physically relevant systems like coupled qubits, spin chains, globally controlled Rydberg atoms and NMR molecules and compare our results to the existing literature. We hope that our bounds can aid experimentalists to identify bottlenecks and design faster quantum control systems.

We introduce a resource monotone, the completeness stability, to quantify the quality of quantum measurements within a resource-theoretic framework. By viewing a quantum measurement as a frame, the minimum eigenvalue of a frame operator emerges as a significant monotone. It captures bounds on estimation errors and the numerical stability of inverting the frame operator to calculate the optimal dual for state reconstruction. Maximizing this monotone identifies a well-characterized class of quantum measurements forming weighted complex projective 2-designs, which includes well-known examples such as SIC-POVMs. Our results provide a principled framework for comparing and optimizing quantum measurements for practical applications.

We show unexpected behaviour in simulations of generalized squeezing performed with finite-dimensional truncations of the Fock space: even for extremely large dimension of the state space, the results depend on whether the truncation dimension is even or odd. This situation raises the question whether the simulation results are physically meaningful. We demonstrate that, in fact, the two truncation schemes correspond to two well-defined, distinct unitary evolutions whose generators are defined on different subsets of the infinite-dimensional Fock space. This is a consequence of the fact that the generalized squeezing Hamiltonian is not self-adjoint on states with finite excitations, but possesses multiple self-adjoint extensions. Furthermore, we present results on the spectrum of the squeezing operators corresponding to even and odd truncation size that elucidate the properties of the two different self-adjoint extensions corresponding to the even and odd truncation scheme. To make the squeezing operator applicable to a physical system, we must regularize it by other terms that depend on the specifics of the experimental implementation. We show that the addition of a Kerr interaction term in the Hamiltonian leads to uniquely converging simulations, with no dependence on the parity of the truncation size, and demonstrate that the Kerr term indeed renders the Hamiltonian self-adjoint and thus physically interpretable.

When numerically simulating the unitary time evolution of an infinite-dimensional quantum system, one is usually led to treat the Hamiltonian H as an ''infinite-dimensional matrix'' by expressing it in some orthonormal basis of the Hilbert space, and then truncate it to some finite dimensions. However, the solutions of the Schrödinger equations generated by the truncated Hamiltonians need not converge, in general, to the solution of the Schrödinger equation corresponding to the actual Hamiltonian.

In this paper we demonstrate that, under mild assumptions, they converge to the solution of the Schrödinger equation generated by a specific Hamiltonian which crucially depends on the particular choice of basis: the Friedrichs extension of the restriction of H to the space of finite linear combinations of elements of the basis. Importantly, this is generally different from H itself; in all such cases, numerical simulations will unavoidably reproduce the wrong dynamics in the limit, and yet there is no numerical test that can reveal this failure, unless one has the analytical solution to compare with.

As a practical demonstration of such results, we consider the quantum particle in the box, and we show that, for a wide class of bases (which include associated Legendre polynomials as a concrete example) the dynamics generated by the truncated Hamiltonians will always converge to the one corresponding to the particle with Dirichlet boundary conditions, regardless the initial choice of boundary conditions. Other such examples are discussed.

We analytically find quantitative, non perturbative bounds to the validity of the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) for the multi-atom generalization of the quantum Rabi model: the Dicke model. Precisely, we bound the norm of the difference between the evolutions of states generated by the Dicke model and its rotating-wave approximated counterpart, that is, the Tavis–Cummings model. The intricate role of the parameters of the model in determining the bounds is discussed and compared with numerical results. Our bounds are intrinsically state-dependent and, in particular, are significantly different in the cases of entangled and non-entangled states; this behaviour also seems to be confirmed by the numerics.

Informationally complete measurements form the foundation of universal quantum state reconstruction, while quantum parameter estimation is based on the local structure of the manifold of quantum states. Here we establish a general link between these two aspects, in the context of a single informationally complete measurement, by employing a suitably adapted operator frame theory. In particular, we bound the ratio between the classical and quantum Fisher information in terms of the spectral decomposition of the associated frame operator, and connect these bounds to the optimal and least optimal directions for parameter encoding. The geometric and operational characterization of information extraction thus obtained reveals the fundamental tradeoff imposed by informational completeness on local quantum parameter estimation. 

We develop squeezing protocols to enhance cross-Kerr interactions. We show that through alternating between squeezing along different quadratures of a single photonic mode, the cross-Kerr interaction strength can be generically amplified. As an application of the squeezing protocols, we discuss speeding up the deterministic implementation of controlled phase gates in photonic quantum computing architectures. We develop bounds that characterize how fast and strong single-mode squeezing has to be applied to achieve a desired gate error and show that the protocols can overcome photon losses. Finally, we discuss experimental realizations of the squeezing strategies in optical fibers and nanophotonic waveguides.

When does a variational quantum algorithm converge to a globally optimal solution? Despite the large literature around variational approaches to quantum computing, the answer is largely unknown. We address this open question by developing a convergence theory for the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE). By leveraging the terminology of quantum control landscapes, we prove a sufficient criterion that characterizes when convergence to a ground state of a Hamiltonian can be guaranteed for almost all initial parameter settings. More specifically, we show that if (i) a parameterized unitary transformation allows for moving in all tangent-space directions (local surjectivity) in a bounded manner and (ii) the gradient descent used for the parameter update terminates, then the VQE converges to a ground state almost surely. We develop constructions that satisfy both aspects of condition (i) and analyze two commonly employed families of quantum circuit ansätze. Finally, we discuss regularization techniques for guaranteeing gradient descent to terminate, as for condition (ii), and draw connections to the halting problem. 

We provide a rigorous construction of a large class of generalized spin–boson models with ultraviolet-divergent form factors. This class comprises various models of many possibly non-identical atoms with arbitrary but finite numbers of levels, interacting with a boson field. Ultraviolet divergences are assumed to be mild, such that no self-energy renormalization is necessary. Our construction is based on recent results by A. Posilicano, which also allow us to state an explicit formula for the domain of self-adjointness for our Hamiltonians. 

This study looks at the finite-dimensional adiabatic evolution influenced by weak perturbations, extending the analysis to the asymptotic time limit. Beginning with the fundamentals of adiabatic transformations and time-dependent effective Hamiltonians, we intuitively derive the Bloch equation. Our investigation of the solutions of the Bloch equation underscores the critical role of initial conditions and the assured existence of solutions, revealing the intricate link between leakage phenomena and the Bloch transformation. Numerical and analytical evaluations demonstrate that the leakage can remain small eternally. That is, a system that starts in a particular eigenspace of the strong generator remains in the same respective eigenspace for arbitrary long times with an error of O(ɣ⁻1), where ɣ describes the ratio between the strength of the system's strong Hamiltonian and the perturbation.

We provide a rigorous construction of generalized spin--boson models with commuting transition matrices and form factors exhibiting critical ultraviolet (UV) divergences. That is, we cover all divergences where a self-energy renormalization, but no non-Fock representation, is required. Our method is based on a direct definition of the renormalized Hamiltonian on a sufficiently large test domain, followed by a Friedrichs extension. We then prove that this Hamiltonian coincides with the one obtained by cut-off renormalization. Furthermore, we show that for specific supercritical cases, i.e., when a non-Fock representation is required, the renormalized Hamiltonian is trivial. 

A quantum system subject to an external perturbation can experience leakage between uncoupled regions of its energy spectrum separated by a gap. To quantify this phenomenon, we present two complementary results. First, we establish time-independent bounds on the distances between the true dynamics and the dynamics generated by block-diagonal effective evolutions constructed via the Schrieffer-Wolff and Bloch methods. Second, we prove that, under the right conditions, this leakage remains small eternally. That is, we derive a time-independent bound on the leakage itself, expressed in terms of the spectral gap of the unperturbed Hamiltonian and the norm of the perturbation, ensuring its validity for arbitrarily large times. Our approach only requires a finite spectral gap, thus accommodating continuous and unbounded spectra. Finally, we apply our bounds to specific systems of practical interest.

Dynamical decoupling is a technique aimed at suppressing the interaction between a quantum system and its environment by applying frequent unitary operations on the system alone. In the present paper, we analytically study the dynamical decoupling of a two-level system coupled with a structured bosonic environment initially prepared in a thermal state. We find sufficient conditions under which dynamical decoupling works for such systems, and, most importantly, we find bounds for the convergence speed of the procedure. Our analysis is based on a new Trotter theorem for multiple Hamiltonians and involves a rigorous treatment of the evolution of mixed quantum states via unbounded Hamiltonians. A comparison with numerical experiments shows that our bounds reproduce the correct scaling in various relevant system parameters. Furthermore, our analytical treatment allows for quantifying the decoupling efficiency for boson baths with infinitely many modes, in which case a numerical treatment is unavailable.

We propose an exercise in which one attempts to deduce the formalism of quantum mechanics solely from phenomenological observations. The only assumed inputs are the multi-time probability distributions estimated from the results of sequential measurements of quantum observables; no presuppositions about the underlying mathematical structures are permitted. In the concluding Part II of the paper, we carry out the deduction of the formalism from the phenomenological inputs described in Part I. We show that the resulting formalism exhibits an affinity with Hilbert spaces, and we derive an explicit representation in terms of those mathematical structures. Analogues of the obtained elementary building blocks -- such as projection operators -- are readily identifiable within the standard formalism. However, once these building blocks are assembled according to the blueprint of the deduced bi-trajectory formalism, it becomes evident that the new and the standard formalisms differ substantially at the conceptual level. These differences do not negate the fact that both formalisms are in perfect agreement with respect to empirically testable predictions. Rather, the emergence of a novel, non-standard formulation should be seen as a relatively rare opportunity to reassess, from a fresh perspective, some of the long-standing foundational issues in the theory. The hope is that the new approach may prove more successful in addressing problems that have resisted resolution within the established theoretical framework. 

We show that the spectrum of orbital angular momentum in quantum mechanics consists of two parts when the underlying space has periodic boundaries. While the first part consists of the usual textbook integer quantized values, the second is a continuous band arising from regions at the edge of space with respect to the center of rotation. The spectrum thus contains not only half-integer values, previously thought impossible for orbital angular momentum, but even irrational ones. Remarkably, this effect is independent of the size of space. While these spectral components remain undetectable in laboratory experiments, they could still produce observable effects on cosmological scales, for instance in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. 

We present a general, nonperturbative method for deriving effective Hamiltonians of arbitrary order for periodically driven systems based on an iterated integration-by-parts technique. The resulting family of effective Hamiltonians reproduces the well-known Floquet-Magnus expansion, now enhanced with explicit error bounds that quantify the distance between the exact and approximate dynamics at each order, even in cases where the Floquet-Magnus series fails to converge. We apply the method to the semiclassical Rabi model and provide explicit error bounds for both the Bloch-Siegert Hamiltonian and its third-order refinement. Our analysis shows that, while the rotating-wave approximation more accurately captures the true dynamics than the Bloch-Siegert Hamiltonian in most regimes, the third-order approximation ultimately outperforms both.

In this work we study the validity of the rotating wave approximation of an ideal system composed of two harmonic oscillators evolving with a quadratic Hamiltonian and arbitrarily strong interaction. We prove its validity for arbitrary states by bounding the error introduced. We then restrict ourselves to the dynamics of Gaussian states and are able to fully quantify the deviation of arbitrary pure Gaussian states that evolve through different dynamics from a common quantum state. We show that this distance is fully determined by the first and second moments of the statistical distribution of the number of excitations created from the vacuum during an appropriate effective time-evolution. We use these results to completely control the dynamics for this class of states, therefore providing a toolbox to be used in quantum optics and quantum information. Applications and potential physical implementations are also discussed.

 provide sufficient conditions for the approximate controllability of infinite-dimensional quantum control systems corresponding to form perturbations of the drift Hamiltonian modulated by a control function. We rely on previous results on controllability of quantum bilinear control systems and obtain a priori 𝐿¹-bounds of the controls for generic initial and target states. We apply a stability result for the nonautonomous Schrödinger equation to extend the results to systems defined by form perturbations, including singular perturbations. As an application of our results, we prove approximate controllability of a quantum particle in a one-dimensional box with a point-interaction with tuneable strength at the center of the box.

Quantum algorithms for simulation of Hamiltonian evolution are often based on product formulae. The fractal methods give a systematic way to find arbitrarily high-order product formulae, but result in a large number of exponentials. On the other hand, product formulae with fewer exponentials can be found by numerical solution of simultaneous non-linear equations. It is also possible to reduce the cost of long-time simulations by processing, where a kernel is repeated and a processor need only be applied at the beginning and end of the simulation. In this work, we found thousands of new product formulae, and numerically tested these formulae, together with many formulae from prior literature. We provide methods to fairly compare product formulae of different lengths and different orders. For the case of 8th order, we have found new product formulae with exceptional performance, about two orders of magnitude better accuracy than prior work, both in the processed and non-processed cases. The processed product formula provides the best performance due to being shorter than the non-processed product formula. It outperforms all other tested product formulae over a range of many orders of magnitude in system parameters T (time) and ϵ (allowable error). That includes reasonable combinations of parameters to be used in quantum algorithms, where the size of the simulation is large enough to be classically intractable, but not so large it takes an impractically long time on a quantum computer.

In analog and digital simulations of practically relevant quantum systems, the target dynamics can only be implemented approximately. The Trotter product formula is the most common approximation scheme as it is a generic method which allows tuning accuracy. The Trotter simulation precision will always be inexact for noncommuting operators, but it is currently unknown what the minimum possible error is. This is an important quantity because upper bounds for the Trotter error are known to often be vast overestimates. Here we present explicit lower bounds on the error, in norm and on states, allowing to derive minimum resource requirements. Numerical comparison with the true error shows that our bounds offer accurate and tight estimates.

Bang–bang dynamical decoupling protects an open quantum system from decoherence due to its interaction with the surrounding bath/environment. In its standard form, this is achieved by strongly kicking the system with cycles of unitary operations, which average out the interaction Hamiltonian. In this paper, we generalize the notion of dynamical decoupling to repeated kicks with a quantum channel, which is applied to the bath. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions on the employed quantum channel and find that bath dynamical decoupling works if and only if the kick is ergodic. Furthermore, we study in which circumstances completely positive trace-preserving (CPTP) kicks on a mono-partite quantum system induce quantum Zeno dynamics with its Hamiltonian cancelled out. This does not require the ergodicity of the kicks, and the absence of decoherence-free subsystems is both necessary and sufficient. While the standard unitary dynamical decoupling is essentially the same as the quantum Zeno dynamics, our investigation implies that this is no longer true in the case of CPTP kicks. To derive our results, we prove some spectral properties of ergodic quantum channels, that might be of independent interest. Our approach establishes an enhanced and unified mathematical understanding of several recent experimental demonstrations and might form the basis of new dynamical decoupling schemes that harness environmental noise degrees of freedom.

The surface code is a stabilizer code whose ground space degeneracy depends on defects in the lattice. The protocols developed to create defects in the system have previously relied on adiabatic dynamics. In this work we use techniques of quantum optimal control to overcome the requirement for adiabaticity and achieve defect creation and implemention of other important operations required for topological quantum computation at much faster timescales.

The evolution of mixed states of a closed quantum system is described by a group of evolution superoperators whose infinitesimal generator (the quantum Liouville superoperator, or Liouvillian) determines the mixed-state counterpart of the Schrödinger equation: the Liouville–von Neumann equation. When the state space of the system is infinite-dimensional, the Liouville superoperator is unbounded whenever the corresponding Hamiltonian is. In this paper, we provide a rigorous, pedagogically-oriented, and self-contained introduction to the quantum Liouville formalism in the presence of unbounded operators. We present and discuss a characterization of the domain of the Liouville superoperator originally due to M. Courbage; starting from that, we develop some simpler characterizations of the domain of the Liouvillian and its square. We also provide, with explicit proofs, some domains of essential self-adjointness (cores) of the Liouvillian.

We propose an exercise in which one attempts to deduce the formalism of quantum mechanics solely from phenomenological observations. The only assumed inputs are obtained through sequential probing of quantum systems; no presuppositions about the underlying mathematical structures are permitted. We demonstrate that it is indeed possible to derive, on this basis, a complete and fully functional formalism rooted in the structures of Hilbert spaces. However, the resulting formalism--the bi-trajectory formalism--differs significantly from the standard state-focused formulation. In Part I of the paper, we analyze the outcomes of various experiments involving sequential measurements of quantum observables. These outcomes are quantitatively described by phenomenological multi-time probability distributions, estimated from experimental data. Our first conclusion is that the theory describing these experiments must be non-classical: the measured sequences cannot be interpreted as sampling of a uni-trajectory representing the system's observable. The non-classical nature of the investigated systems manifests in a range of observed phenomena, including quantum interference, the quantum Zeno effect, and uncertainty relations between the measured observables. 

The product of two unitaries can normally be expressed as a single exponential through the famous Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula. We present here a counterexample in quantum optics, by showing that an expression in terms of a single exponential is possible only at the expense of the introduction of a new element (a central extension of the algebra), implying that there will be unitaries, generated by a sequence of gates, that cannot be generated by any time-independent quadratic Hamiltonian. A quantum-optical experiment is proposed that brings to light this phenomenon.

The multitime probability distributions obtained by repeatedly probing a quantum system via the measurement of an observable generally violate Kolmogorov's consistency property. Therefore, one cannot interpret such distributions as the result of the sampling of a single trajectory. We show that, nonetheless, they do result from the sampling of one pair of trajectories. In this sense, rather than give up on trajectories, quantum mechanics requires to double down on them. To this purpose, we prove a generalization of the Kolmogorov extension theorem that applies to families of complex-valued bi-probability distributions (that is, defined on pairs of elements of the original sample spaces), and we employ this result in the quantum mechanical scenario. We also discuss the relation of our results with the quantum comb formalism. 

We provide sufficient conditions for the approximate controllability of infinite-dimensional quantum control systems corresponding to form perturbations of the drift Hamiltonian modulated by a control function. We rely on previous results on controllability of quantum bilinear control systems and obtain a priori L1-bounds of the controls for generic initial and target states. We apply a stability result for the non-autonomous Schrödinger equation to extend the results to systems defined by form perturbations, including singular perturbations. As an application of our results, we prove approximate controllability of a quantum particle in a one-dimensional box with a point-interaction with tuneable strength at the centre of the box.

Efficient error estimates for the Trotter product formula are central in quantum computing, mathematical physics, and numerical simulations. However, the Trotter error's dependency on the input state and its application to unbounded operators remains unclear. Here, we present a general theory for error estimation, including higher-order product formulas, with explicit input state dependency. Our approach overcomes two limitations of the existing operator-norm estimates in the literature. First, previous bounds are too pessimistic as they quantify the worst-case scenario. Second, previous bounds become trivial for unbounded operators and cannot be applied to a wide class of Trotter scenarios, including atomic and molecular Hamiltonians. Our method enables analytical treatment of Trotter errors in chemistry simulations, illustrated through a case study on the hydrogen atom. Our findings reveal: (i) for states with fat-tailed energy distribution, such as low-angular-momentum states of the hydrogen atom, the Trotter error scales worse than expected (sublinearly) in the number of Trotter steps; (ii) certain states do not admit an advantage in the scaling from higher-order Trotterization, and thus, the higher-order Trotter hierarchy breaks down for these states, including the hydrogen atom's ground state; (iii) the scaling of higher-order Trotter bounds might depend on the order of the Hamiltonians in the Trotter product for states with fat-tailed energy distribution. Physically, the enlarged Trotter error is caused by the atom's ionization due to the Trotter dynamics. Mathematically, we find that certain domain conditions are not satisfied by some states so higher moments of the potential and kinetic energies diverge. Our analytical error analysis agrees with numerical simulations, indicating that we can estimate the state-dependent Trotter error scaling genuinely. 

The quantum harmonic oscillator is one of the most fundamental objects in physics. We consider the case where it is extended to an arbitrary number modes and includes all possible terms that are bilinear in the annihilation and creation operators, and assume we also have an arbitrary time-dependent drive term that is linear in those operators. Such a Hamiltonian is very general, covering a broad range of systems including quantum optics, superconducting circuit QED, quantum error correcting codes, Bose-Einstein condensates, atomic wave packet transport beyond the adiabatic limit and many others. We examine this situation from the point of view of quantum control, making use of optimal control theory to determine what can be accomplished, both when the controls are arbitrary and when they must minimize some cost function. In particular we develop a class of analytical pulses. We then apply our theory to a number of specific topical physical systems to illustrate its use and provide explicit control functions, including the case of the continuously driven conditional displacement gate.

The interaction between light and matter is one of the oldest research areas of quantum mechanics, and a field that just keeps on delivering new insights and applications. With the arrival of cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamics we can now achieve strong light-matter couplings which form the basis of most implementations of quantum technology. But quantum information processing also has high demands requiring total error rates of fractions of percentage in order to be scalable (fault-tolerant) to useful applications. Since errors can also arise from modelling, this has brought into center stage one of the key approximations of quantum theory, the Rotating Wave Approximation (RWA) of the quantum Rabi model, leading to the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. While the RWA is often very good and incredibly useful to understand light-matter interactions, there is also growing experimental evidence of regimes where it is a bad approximation. Here, we ask and answer a harder question: for which experimental parameters is the RWA, although perhaps qualitatively adequate, already not good enough to match the demands of scalable quantum technology? For example, when is the error at least, and when at most, 1\%? To answer this, we develop rigorous non-perturbative bounds taming the RWA.
We find that these bounds not only depend, as expected, on the ratio of the coupling strength and the oscillator frequency, but also on the average number of photons in the initial state. This confirms recent experiments on photon-dressed Bloch-Siegert shifts. We argue that with experiments reporting controllable cavity states with hundreds of photons and with quantum error correcting codes exploring more and more of Fock space, this state-dependency of the RWA is increasingly relevant for the field of quantum computation, and our results pave the way towards a better understanding of those experiments.