The ability to control quantum systems using shaped fields as well as to infer the states of such controlled systems from measurement data are key tasks in the design and operation of quantum devices. Here we associate the success of performing both tasks to the structure of the underlying control landscape. We relate the ability to control and reconstruct the full state of the system to the absence of singular controls and show that for sufficiently long evolution times, singular controls rarely occur. Based on these findings, we describe a learning algorithm for finding optimal controls that makes use of measurement data obtained from partially accessing the system. Open challenges stemming from the concentration of measure phenomenon in high-dimensional systems are discussed.

• Received 8 April 2020
• Revised 18 September 2020
• Accepted 21 September 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.042207