Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2008 / iii / Paper 61 / 1 / a

A reachable set contains all states attainable from a specified initial state by admissible control inputs in the allowed times, and controllability means that every target in the declared state space is reachable from every initial state. For a closed quantum control system, distinguish pure-state controllability on state rays, density operator controllability on fixed-spectrum unitary orbits, and unitary operator controllability for entire propagators. State engineering asks for a particular state transfer; process engineering asks for an entire quantum gate, which must act correctly on every input. A closed Hamiltonian evolution preserves density-operator eigenvalues, so arbitrary mixed states of different spectra cannot be connected even by a fully operator-controllable system.