  An approximate exponential quantum projection filtering scheme is developed
for a class of open quantum systems described by Hudson- Parthasarathy quantum
stochastic differential equations, aiming to reduce the computational burden
associated with online calculation of the quantum filter. By using a
differential geometric approach, the quantum trajectory is constrained in a
finite-dimensional differentiable manifold consisting of an unnormalized
exponential family of quantum density operators, and an exponential quantum
projection filter is then formulated as a number of stochastic differential
equations satisfied by the finite-dimensional coordinate system of this
manifold. A convenient design of the differentiable manifold is also presented
through reduction of the local approximation errors, which yields a
simplification of the quantum projection filter equations. It is shown that the
computational cost can be significantly reduced by using the quantum projection
filter instead of the quantum filter. It is also shown that when the quantum
projection filtering approach is applied to a class of open quantum systems
that asymptotically converge to a pure state, the input-to-state stability of
the corresponding exponential quantum projection filter can be established.
Simulation results from an atomic ensemble system example are provided to
illustrate the performance of the projection filtering scheme. It is expected
that the proposed approach can be used in developing more efficient quantum
control methods.
