PhD in Quantum Control Theory for Quantum Algorithms
The Department of Electronic Systems at The Technical Faculty of IT and Design invites applications for a 3-year PhD stipend in the field of quantum control theory for quantum algorithms within the general study programme Electronical and Electronic Engineering, as per January 1st 2027, or soon hereafter.
In electronic engineering, Aalborg University is known worldwide for its high academic quality and societal impact. The Department of Electronic Systems employs more than 200 people, of which about 90 are PhD students, and about 40 % of all employees are internationals. In total, it has more than 600 students in its BSc and MSc programs, which are based on AAU's problem-based learning model. The department leverages its unique research infrastructure and lab facilities to conduct world-leading fundamental and applied research within communication, networks, control systems, AI, sound, cyber security, and robotics. The department plays an active role in transferring inventions and results into applications in close collaboration with industrial partners worldwide. You can read more about the department at www.es.aau.dk.
Your work tasks
The position is part of the research project QUANTA – Quantum Control Theory for Quantum Algorithms, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. Real quantum computers are open quantum systems: noise and decoherence act on the computation while it runs, so the idealised picture of a sequence of perfect unitary gates acting on an isolated system does not hold in practice. QUANTA therefore regards a quantum program as an open dynamical system, described by Kraus operators in discrete time and by the controlled Lindblad master equation in continuous time, and treats the choice of quantum gates as control decisions. The aim is to use control theory to design quantum algorithms, in particular optimisation algorithms, that are robust to noise and disturbances.
As a PhD student you will work mainly on two parts of the project. The first concerns reach-avoidance for quantum systems: computing the probability that a quantum process reaches a target set of states before it enters a set of forbidden states, and designing control strategies, for example by dynamic programming, that steer the computation towards its goal while respecting such constraints. You will develop this theory for quantum Markov chains described by Kraus operators and for continuous-time systems described by the Lindblad master equation.
The second part applies these results to quantum optimisation. You will develop algorith...
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