Demonstration of tunable three-body interactions between superconducting qubits

  1. Tim Menke,
  2. William P. Banner,
  3. Thomas R. Bergamaschi,
  4. Agustin Di Paolo,
  5. Antti Vepsäläinen,
  6. Steven J. Weber,
  7. Roni Winik,
  8. Alexander Melville,
  9. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  10. Danna Rosenberg,
  11. Kyle Serniak,
  12. Mollie E. Schwartz,
  13. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  14. Alán Aspuru-Guzik,
  15. Simon Gustavsson,
  16. Jeffrey A. Grover,
  17. Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin,
  18. Andrew J. Kerman,
  19. and William D. Oliver
Nonpairwise multi-qubit interactions present a useful resource for quantum information processors. Their implementation would facilitate more efficient quantum simulations of molecules
and combinatorial optimization problems, and they could simplify error suppression and error correction schemes. Here we present a superconducting circuit architecture in which a coupling module mediates 2-local and 3-local interactions between three flux qubits by design. The system Hamiltonian is estimated via multi-qubit pulse sequences that implement Ramsey-type interferometry between all neighboring excitation manifolds in the system. The 3-local interaction is coherently tunable over several MHz via the coupler flux biases and can be turned off, which is important for applications in quantum annealing, analog quantum simulation, and gate-model quantum computation.

Distinguishing multi-spin interactions from lower-order effects

  1. Thomas R. Bergamaschi,
  2. Tim Menke,
  3. William P. Banner,
  4. Agustin Di Paolo,
  5. Steven J. Weber,
  6. Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin,
  7. Andrew J. Kerman,
  8. and William D. Oliver
Multi-spin interactions can be engineered with artificial quantum spins. However, it is challenging to verify such interactions experimentally. Here we describe two methods to characterize
the n-local coupling of n spins. First, we analyze the variation of the transition energy of the static system as a function of local spin fields. Standard measurement techniques are employed to distinguish n-local interactions between up to five spins from lower-order contributions in the presence of noise and spurious fields and couplings. Second, we show a detection technique that relies on time dependent driving of the coupling term. Generalizations to larger system sizes are analyzed for both static and dynamic detection methods, and we find that the dynamic method is asymptotically optimal when increasing the system size. The proposed methods enable robust exploration of multi-spin interactions across a broad range of both coupling strengths and qubit modalities.

Demonstration of long-range correlations via susceptibility measurements in a one-dimensional superconducting Josephson spin chain

  1. Daniel M. Tennant,
  2. Xi Dai,
  3. Antonio J. Martinez,
  4. Robbyn Trappen,
  5. Denis Melanson,
  6. M. A. Yurtalan,
  7. Yongchao Tang,
  8. Salil Bedkihal,
  9. Rui Yang,
  10. Sergei Novikov,
  11. Jeffery A. Grover,
  12. Steven M. Disseler,
  13. James I. Basham,
  14. Rabindra Das,
  15. David K. Kim,
  16. Alexander J. Melville,
  17. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  18. Steven J. Weber,
  19. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  20. Andrew J. Kerman,
  21. Evgeny Mozgunov,
  22. Daniel A. Lidar,
  23. and Adrian Lupascu
Spin chains have long been considered an effective medium for long-range interactions, entanglement generation, and quantum state transfer. In this work, we explore the properties of
a spin chain implemented with superconducting flux circuits, designed to act as a connectivity medium between two superconducting qubits. The susceptibility of the chain is probed and shown to support long-range, cross chain correlations. In addition, interactions between the two end qubits, mediated by the coupler chain, are demonstrated. This work has direct applicability in near term quantum annealing processors as a means of generating long-range, coherent coupling between qubits.

Coherent coupled qubits for quantum annealing

  1. Steven J. Weber,
  2. Gabriel O. Samach,
  3. David Hover,
  4. Simon Gustavsson,
  5. David K. Kim,
  6. Danna Rosenberg,
  7. Adam P. Sears,
  8. Fei Yan,
  9. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  10. William D. Oliver,
  11. and Andrew J. Kerman
Quantum annealing is an optimization technique which potentially leverages quantum tunneling to enhance computational performance. Existing quantum annealers use superconducting flux
qubits with short coherence times, limited primarily by the use of large persistent currents Ip. Here, we examine an alternative approach, using qubits with smaller Ip and longer coherence times. We demonstrate tunable coupling, a basic building block for quantum annealing, between two flux qubits with small (∼50 nA) persistent currents. Furthermore, we characterize qubit coherence as a function of coupler setting and investigate the effect of flux noise in the coupler loop on qubit coherence. Our results provide insight into the available design space for next-generation quantum annealers with improved coherence.

Suppressing relaxation in superconducting qubits by quasiparticle pumping

  1. Simon Gustavsson,
  2. Fei Yan,
  3. Gianluigi Catelani,
  4. Jonas Bylander,
  5. Archana Kamal,
  6. Jeffrey Birenbaum,
  7. David Hover,
  8. Danna Rosenberg,
  9. Gabriel Samach,
  10. Adam P. Sears,
  11. Steven J. Weber,
  12. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  13. John Clarke,
  14. Andrew J. Kerman,
  15. Fumiki Yoshihara,
  16. Yasunobu Nakamura,
  17. Terry P. Orlando,
  18. and William D. Oliver
Dynamical error suppression techniques are commonly used to improve coherence in quantum systems. They reduce dephasing errors by applying control pulses designed to reverse erroneous
coherent evolution driven by environmental noise. However, such methods cannot correct for irreversible processes such as energy relaxation. In this work, we investigate a complementary, stochastic approach to reducing errors: instead of deterministically reversing the unwanted qubit evolution, we use control pulses to shape the noise environment dynamically. In the context of superconducting qubits, we implement a pumping sequence to reduce the number of unpaired electrons (quasiparticles) in close proximity to the device. We report a 70% reduction in the quasiparticle density, resulting in a threefold enhancement in qubit relaxation times, and a comparable reduction in coherence variability.