(February 1, 2008) | Lorenza Viola* and Seth Lloyd†
The paper investigates a method to suppress decoherence in a two-state quantum system (qubit) driven by a control Hamiltonian. The control procedure involves a sequence of radiofrequency pulses that flip the system's state repeatedly, a technique termed quantum "bang-bang" control. The study shows that decoherence can be completely washed out in the limit of continuous flipping and is significantly reduced when the pulse interval is comparable to the environment's correlation time. This approach complements existing quantum error-correction techniques and provides a strategy to combat decoherence. The model is based on a qubit coupled to a thermal bath of harmonic oscillators, where decoherence is suppressed through repeated effective time-reversal operations. The results are compared with different environmental configurations and quantum error-correction techniques, highlighting the role of the reservoir correlation time in preserving quantum coherence. The paper also discusses the physical interpretation of the decoherence suppression, connecting it to effects observed in magnetic resonance experiments like spin-echoes and spin-flip narrowing. Finally, the authors analyze the decoherence dynamics in Ohmic environments and demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively reduce decoherence, especially when the pulse frequency is high enough to satisfy the condition \(\omega_c \Delta t \lesssim 1\).The paper investigates a method to suppress decoherence in a two-state quantum system (qubit) driven by a control Hamiltonian. The control procedure involves a sequence of radiofrequency pulses that flip the system's state repeatedly, a technique termed quantum "bang-bang" control. The study shows that decoherence can be completely washed out in the limit of continuous flipping and is significantly reduced when the pulse interval is comparable to the environment's correlation time. This approach complements existing quantum error-correction techniques and provides a strategy to combat decoherence. The model is based on a qubit coupled to a thermal bath of harmonic oscillators, where decoherence is suppressed through repeated effective time-reversal operations. The results are compared with different environmental configurations and quantum error-correction techniques, highlighting the role of the reservoir correlation time in preserving quantum coherence. The paper also discusses the physical interpretation of the decoherence suppression, connecting it to effects observed in magnetic resonance experiments like spin-echoes and spin-flip narrowing. Finally, the authors analyze the decoherence dynamics in Ohmic environments and demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively reduce decoherence, especially when the pulse frequency is high enough to satisfy the condition \(\omega_c \Delta t \lesssim 1\).