Avoided crossing is insufficient to witness large-scale quantum coherence in flux qubits

Do experiments based on superconducting loops segmented with Josephson junctions (e.g., flux qubits) show macroscopic quantum behavior in the sense of Schr\“odinger’s cat example? Various arguments based on microscopic and phenomenological models were recently adduced in this debate. We approach this problem by adapting –to flux qubits– the framework of large-scale quantum coherence, which was already successfully applied to spin ensembles and photonic systems. We show that contemporary experiments might show quantum coherence more than one hundred times larger than experiments in the classical regime. However, we argue that the often used demonstration of an avoided crossing in the energy spectrum is not sufficient to conclude about the presence of large-scale quantum coherence. Alternative, rigorous witnesses are proposed.