H^∞ control of linear quantum stochastic systems

The purpose of this paper is to formulate and solve a H^∞ controller synthesis problem for a class of noncommutative linear stochastic systems which includes many examples of interest in quantum technology. The paper includes results on the class of such systems for which the quantum commutation relations are preserved (such a requirement must be satisfied in a physical quantum system). A quantum version of standard (classical) dissipativity results are presented and from this a quantum version of the Strict Bounded Real Lemma is derived. This enables a quantum version of the two Riccati solution to the H^∞ control problem to be presented. This result leads to controllers which may be realized using purely quantum, purely classical or a mixture of quantum and classical elements. This issue of physical realizability of the controller is examined in detail, and necessary and sufficient conditions are given. Our results are constructive in the sense that we provide explicit formulas for the Hamiltonian function and coupling operator corresponding to the controller.