Partial-measurement back-action and non-classical weak values in a superconducting circuit

  1. J. P. Groen,
  2. D. Ristè,
  3. L. Tornberg,
  4. J. Cramer,
  5. P. C. de Groot,
  6. T. Picot,
  7. G. Johansson,
  8. and L. DiCarlo
We realize indirect partial measurement of a transmon qubit in circuit quantum electrodynamics by interaction with an ancilla qubit and projective ancilla measurement with a dedicated
readout resonator. Accurate control of the interaction and ancilla measurement basis allows tailoring the measurement strength and operator. The tradeoff between measurement strength and qubit back-action is characterized through the distortion of a qubit Rabi oscillation imposed by ancilla measurement in different bases. Combining partial and projective qubit measurements, we provide the solid-state demonstration of the correspondence between a non-classical weak value and the violation of a Leggett-Garg inequality.

Probing quantum coherence in qubit arrays

  1. J. Almeida,
  2. P. C. de Groot,
  3. S. F. Huelga,
  4. A. M. Liguori,
  5. and M. B. Plenio
We discuss how the observation of population localization effects in periodically driven systems can be used to quantify the presence of quantum coherence in interacting qubit arrays.
Essential for our proposal is the fact that these localization effects persist beyond tight-binding Hamiltonian models. This result is of special practical relevance in those situations where direct system probing using tomographic schemes becomes infeasible beyond a very small number of qubits. As a proof of principle, we study analytically a Hamiltonian system consisting of a chain of superconducting flux qubits under the effect of a periodic driving. We provide extensive numerical support of our results in the simple case of a two-qubits chain. For this system we also study the robustness of the scheme against different types of noise and disorder. We show that localization effects underpinned by quantum coherent interactions should be observable within realistic parameter regimes in chains with a larger number of