Performance of deterministic dynamical decoupling schemes: Concatenated and periodic pulse sequences

Dynamical decoupling can be used to preserve arbitrary quantum states despite undesired interactions with the environment, using control Hamiltonians affecting the system only. We present a system-independent analysis of dynamical decoupling based on leading order decoupling error estimates, valid for bounded-strength environments. Using as a key tool a renormalization transformation of the effective system-bath coupling Hamiltonian, we delineate the reliability domain of dynamical decoupling used for quantum state preservation, in a general setting for a single qubit. We specifically analyze and compare two deterministic dynamical decoupling schemes-periodic and concatenated-and distinguish between two limiting cases of fast versus slow environments. We prove that concatenated decoupling outperforms periodic decoupling over a wide range of parameters. These results are obtained for both "ideal" (zero-width) and realistic (finite-width) pulses This work extends and generalizes our earlier work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 180501 (2005)].