We propose a quantum simulator based on driven superconducting qubits where the interactions are generated parametrically by a polychromatic magnetic flux modulation of a tunable buselement. Using a time-dependent Schrieffer-Wolff transformation, we analytically derive a multi-qubit Hamiltonian which features independently tunable XX and YY-type interactions as well as local bias fields over a large parameter range. We demonstrate the adiabatic simulation of the ground state of a hydrogen molecule using two superconducting qubits and one tunable bus element. The time required to reach chemical accuracy lies in the few microsecond range and therefore could be implemented on currently available superconducting circuits. Further applications of this technique may also be found in the simulation of interacting spin systems.
Improving coherence times of quantum bits is a fundamental challenge in the field of quantum computing. With long-lived qubits it becomes, however, inefficient to wait until the qubitshave relaxed to their ground state after completion of an experiment. Moreover, for error-correction schemes it is import to rapidly re-initialize ancilla parity-check qubits. We present a simple pulsed qubit reset protocol based on a two-pulse sequence. A first pulse transfers the excited state population to a higher excited qubit state and a second pulse into a lossy environment provided by a low-Q transmission line resonator, which is also used for qubit readout. We show that the remaining excited state population can be suppressed to 2.2±0.8% and utilize the pulsed reset protocol to carry out experiments at enhanced rates.
Universal fault-tolerant quantum computers will require error-free execution of long sequences of quantum gate operations, which is expected to involve millions of physical qubits.Before the full power of such machines will be available, near-term quantum devices will provide several hundred qubits and limited error correction. Still, there is a realistic prospect to run useful algorithms within the limited circuit depth of such devices. Particularly promising are optimization algorithms that follow a hybrid approach: the aim is to steer a highly entangled state on a quantum system to a target state that minimizes a cost function via variation of some gate parameters. This variational approach can be used both for classical optimization problems as well as for problems in quantum chemistry. The challenge is to converge to the target state given the limited coherence time and connectivity of the qubits. In this context, the quantum volume as a metric to compare the power of near-term quantum devices is discussed.
With focus on chemistry applications, a general description of variational algorithms is provided and the mapping from fermions to qubits is explained. Coupled-cluster and heuristic trial wave-functions are considered for efficiently finding molecular ground states. Furthermore, simple error-mitigation schemes are introduced that could improve the accuracy of determining ground-state energies. Advancing these techniques may lead to near-term demonstrations of useful quantum computation with systems containing several hundred qubits.
A current bottleneck for quantum computation is the realization of high-fidelity two-qubit quantum operations between two and more quantum bits in arrays of coupled qubits. Gates basedon parametrically driven tunable couplers offer a convenient method to entangle multiple qubits by selectively activating different interaction terms in the effective Hamiltonian. Here, we study theoretically and experimentally a superconducting qubit setup with two transmon qubits connected via a capacitively coupled tunable bus. We develop a time-dependent Schrieffer-Wolff transformation and derive analytic expressions for exchange-interaction gates swapping excitations between the qubits (iSWAP) and for two-photon gates creating and annihilating simultaneous two-qubit excitations (bSWAP). We find that the bSWAP gate is generally slower than the more commonly used iSWAP gate, but features favorable scalability properties with less severe frequency crowding effects, which typically degrade the fidelity in multi-qubit setups. Our theoretical results are backed by experimental measurements as well as exact numerical simulations including the effects of higher transmon levels and dissipation.
Berry’s geometric phase naturally appears when a quantum system is driven by an external field whose parameters are slowly and cyclically changed. A variation in the couplingbetween the system and the external field can also give rise to a geometric phase, even when the field is in the vacuum state or any other Fock state. Here we demonstrate the appearance of a vacuum-induced Berry phase in an artificial atom, a superconducting transmon, interacting with a single mode of a microwave cavity. As we vary the phase of the interaction, the artificial atom acquires a geometric phase determined by the path traced out in the combined Hilbert space of the atom and the quantum field. Our ability to control this phase opens new possibilities for the geometric manipulation of atom-cavity systems also in the context of quantum information processing.
A challenge for constructing large circuits of superconducting qubits is to balance addressability, coherence and coupling strength. High coherence can be attained by building circuitsfrom fixed-frequency qubits, however, leading techniques cannot couple qubits that are far detuned. Here we introduce a method based on a tunable bus which allows for the coupling of two fixed-frequency qubits even at large detunings. By parametrically oscillating the bus at the qubit-qubit detuning we enable a resonant exchange (XX+YY) interaction. We use this interaction to implement a 183ns two-qubit iSWAP gate between qubits separated in frequency by 854MHz with a measured average fidelity of 0.9823(4) from interleaved randomized benchmarking. This gate may be an enabling technology for surface code circuits and for analog quantum simulation.
With improved gate calibrations reducing unitary errors, we achieve a benchmarked single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.95% with superconducting qubits in a circuit quantum electrodynamicssystem. We present a method for distinguishing between unitary and non-unitary errors in quantum gates by interleaving repetitions of a target gate within a randomized benchmarking sequence. The benchmarking fidelity decays quadratically with the number of interleaved gates for unitary errors but linearly for non-unitary, allowing us to separate systematic coherent errors from decoherent effects. With this protocol we show that the fidelity of the gates is not limited by unitary errors, but by another drive-activated source of decoherence such as amplitude fluctuations.