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Quantum Comput."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Quantum optimal control is a technique for controlling the evolution of a quantum system and has been applied to a wide range of problems in quantum physics. We study a binary quantum control optimization problem, where control decisions are binary-valued and the problem is solved in diverse quantum algorithms. In this paper, we utilize classical optimization and computing techniques to develop an algorithmic framework that sequentially optimizes the number of control switches and the duration of each control interval on a continuous time horizon. Specifically, we first solve the continuous relaxation of the binary control problem based on time discretization and then use a heuristic to obtain a controller sequence with a penalty on the number of switches. Then, we formulate a switching time optimization model and apply sequential least-squares programming with accelerated time-evolution simulation to solve the model. We demonstrate that our computational framework can obtain binary controls with high-quality performance and also reduce computational time via solving a family of quantum control instances in various quantum physics applications.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3670416","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,19]],"date-time":"2024-07-19T11:25:24Z","timestamp":1721388324000},"page":"1-38","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Switching Time Optimization for Binary Quantum Optimal Control"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7010-8664","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xinyu","family":"Fei","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7696-7689","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lucas","family":"Brady","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NASA Ames Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Moffett Field, United States"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9924-2082","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jeffrey","family":"Larson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, United States"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8839-5876","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sven","family":"Leyffer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, United States"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2854-163X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Siqian","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_2_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Ali Javadi-Abhari Matthew Treinish Kevin Krsulich Christopher J. 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