Achieving fast high-fidelity optimal control of many-body dynamics.

We apply recent state-of-the-art optimal control techniques to a challenging many-body problem: driving the superfluid-Mott insulator transition in an optical lattice. At system sizes well beyond the reach of exact diagonalization approaches, and thus requiring a matrix product state ansatz, we obtain fidelities in the range 0.99-0.9999 and beyond with associated quantum speed limit estimates. Whereas previous efforts yielded lower fidelity solutions with smooth, monotonic controls, we efficiently identify a rich hierarchy of bang-bang-like solutions. These facilitate the non-adiabatic quantum interference pathways using sequential tunneling and phase-imprinting dynamics necessary for high fidelity. Mapping out the optimal solutions at various process durations, we observe a characteristic, exponential dependence for the fidelity across several orders of magnitude. Overall, we achieve these results by utilizing the counter-intuitive fact that appropriate dynamical approximations lead to a more precise and significantly cheaper implementation of optimal control than a full dynamical solution. In discussing the technique's generality, this demonstration may pave the way for fulfilling the comprehensive demands for efficient high-fidelity control in very high-dimensional systems which has hitherto not been feasible.