Optimal control theory for measured quantum Schr\"odinger bridges

Quantum Physics arXiv:2609.03097 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 2 Sep 2026] Title:Optimal control theory for measured quantum Schrödinger bridges Authors:Masayuki Ohzeki, Andrew N. Jordan View a PDF of the paper titled Optimal control theory for measured quantum Schr\"odinger bridges, by Masayuki Ohzeki and Andrew N. Jordan View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Schrödinger bridges and entropic optimal transport are usually formulated as stochastic interpolation problems between initial and final probability distributions. In their computational form, the bridge potentials are obtained by Sinkhorn or iterative proportional fitting, and are often regarded as auxiliary scaling functions. We show that for continuously monitored quantum systems, these potentials acquire a direct measurement-theoretic meaning. The mathematical structure of conditional quantum trajectory theory induces a Fokker--Planck equation on quantum state space. Conditioning this diffusion on a terminal distribution or a terminal measurement effect produces a Doob/Sinkhorn potential whose directional derivative along a unitary control vector field is the imaginary part of a generalized weak value. The same construction connects the Schrödinger-bridge viewpoint to the optimal-path framework for continuously monitored trajectories: the backward bridge potential plays the role of an effect-like costate, and its weak-value directional derivative gives the local control signal. By specifying the desired endpoint distribution, the induced drift produced by the Schrödinger bridge solution is the control solution that minimizes the quadratic cost feedback law, guiding the distribution to its desired endpoint. We quantify the control score of the available control Hamiltonian as a logarithmic directional derivative of the bridge potential, or an imaginary weak value. Three explicit examples identify weak measurement as a natural entropic regularization mechanism for quantum state transport and gives a route from Sinkhorn scaling to quantum feedback and Hamiltonian control synthesis for practical optimal control. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) Cite as: arXiv:2609.03097 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2609.03097v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.03097 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Masayuki Ohzeki [view email] [v1] Wed, 2 Sep 2026 19:13:38 UTC (1,577 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Optimal control theory for measured quantum Schr\"odinger bridges, by Masayuki Ohzeki and Andrew N. JordanView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-09 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.stat-mech References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)