Quantum processors require a signal-delivery architecture with high addressability (low crosstalk) to ensure high performance already at the scale of dozens of qubits. Signal crosstalk causes inadvertent driving of quantum gates, which will adversely affect quantum gate fidelities in scaled-up devices. Here, we demonstrate packaged flip-chip superconducting quantum processors with signal-crosstalk performance competitive with those reported in other platforms. For capacitively coupled qubit-drive lines, we find on-resonant crosstalk better than $-27$ dB (average $-37$ dB). For inductively coupled magnetic-flux-drive lines, we find less than 0.13% direct-current flux crosstalk (average 0.05%). These observed crosstalk levels are adequately small and indicate a decreasing trend with increasing distance, which is promising for further scaling up to larger numbers of qubits. We discuss the implications of our results for the design of a low-crosstalk on-chip signal-delivery architecture, including the influence of a shielding tunnel structure, potential sources of crosstalk, and estimation of crosstalk-induced qubit-gate error in scaled-up quantum processors.

In this work, we implement a new method for imaging ultracold atoms with subwavelength resolution capabilities and determine its regime of validity. It uses the laser-driven interaction between excited states to engineer hyperfine ground-state population transfer in a three-level system on scales much smaller than the optical resolution. Subwavelength imaging of a quantum gas is atypical in the sense that the measurement itself perturbs the dynamics of the system. To avoid induced dynamics affecting the measurement, one usually “rapidly” measures the wave function in a so-called strong imaging regime. We experimentally illustrate this regime using a thermal gas ensemble, and demonstrate subwavelength resolution in quantitative agreement with a fully analytical model. Additionally, we show that, counterintuitively, the opposite weak imaging regime can also be exploited to reach subwavelength resolution. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate that this regime is a robust solution to select and spatially resolve a 30-nm-wide wave function, which was created and singled out from a tightly confined one-dimensional optical lattice. Using a general dissipation-included formalism, we derive validity criteria for both regimes. The formalism is applicable to other subwavelength methods.

One of the most prominent application areas for quantum computers is solving hard constraint satisfaction and optimization problems. However, detailed analyses of the complexity of standard quantum algorithms have suggested that outperforming classical methods for these problems would require extremely large and powerful quantum computers. The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is designed for near-term quantum computers, yet previous work has shown strong limitations on the ability of QAOA to outperform classical algorithms for optimization problems. Here we instead apply QAOA to hard constraint satisfaction problems, where both classical and quantum algorithms are expected to require exponential time. We analytically characterize the average success probability of QAOA on a constraint satisfaction problem commonly studied using statistical physics methods: random $k$-SAT at the threshold for satisfiability, as the number of variables $n$ goes to infinity. We complement these theoretical results with numerical experiments on the performance of QAOA for small $n$, which match the limiting theoretical bounds closely. We then compare QAOA with leading classical solvers. For random 8-SAT, we find that for more than 14 quantum circuit layers, QAOA achieves more efficient scaling than the highest-performance classical solver we tested, WalkSATlm. Our results suggest that near-term quantum algorithms for solving constraint satisfaction problems may outperform their classical counterparts.

Current state-of-the-art superconducting microwave qubits are cooled to extremely low temperatures to avoid sources of decoherence. Higher qubit operating temperatures would significantly increase the cooling power available, which is desirable for scaling up the number of qubits in quantum computing architectures and integrating qubits in experiments requiring increased heat dissipation. To operate superconducting qubits at higher temperatures, it is necessary to address both quasiparticle decoherence (which becomes significant for aluminum junctions above 160 mK) and dephasing from thermal microwave photons (which are problematic above 50 mK). Using low-loss niobium-trilayer junctions, which have reduced sensitivity to quasiparticles due to the higher superconducting transition temperature of niobium, we fabricate transmons with higher frequencies than previously studied, up to 24 GHz. We measure decoherence and dephasing times of about $1\text{μ}\mathrm{s}$, corresponding to average qubit quality factors of approximately ${10}^5$, and find that decoherence is unaffected by quasiparticles up to $1\mathrm{K}$. Without relaxation from quasiparticles, we are able to explore dephasing from purely thermal sources, finding that our qubits can operate up to approximately $250\mathrm{mK}$ while maintaining similar performance. The thermal resilience of these qubits creates new options for scaling up quantum processors, enables hybrid quantum experiments with high heat-dissipation budgets, and introduces a material platform for even-higher-frequency qubits.

Distributing entanglement between remote sites is integral to quantum networks. Here, we demonstrate the autonomous stabilization of remote entanglement between a pair of noninteracting superconducting qubits connected by an open waveguide on a chip. In this setting, the interplay between a classical continuous drive—supplied through the waveguide—and dissipation into the waveguide stabilizes the qubit pair in a dark state, which, asymptotically, takes the form of a Bell state. We use field-quadrature measurements of the photons emitted to the waveguide to perform quantum state tomography on the stabilized states, where we find a concurrence of ${0.504}_{-0.029}^{+0.007}$ in the optimal setting with a stabilization time constant of $56\pm 4$ ns. We examine the imperfections within our system and discuss avenues for enhancing fidelities and achieving scalability in future work. The decoherence-protected steady-state remote entanglement offered via dissipative stabilization may find applications in distributed quantum computing, sensing, and communication.

We propose an efficient yet simple protocol to generate arbitrary symmetric entangled states with only global single-qubit rotations in a torn Hilbert space. The system is based on spin-1/2 qubits in a resonator such as atoms in an optical cavity or superconducting qubits coupled to a main bus. By sending light or microwave into the resonator, it induces ac Stark shifts on particular angular-momentum eigenstates (Dicke states) of qubits. Then we are able to generate barriers that hinder transitions between adjacent Dicke states and tear the original Hilbert space into pieces. Therefore, a simple global single-qubit rotation becomes highly nontrivial, and thus generates entanglement among the many-body system. By optimal control of energy shifts on Dicke states, we are able to generate arbitrary symmetric entangled states. We also exemplify that we can create varieties of useful states with near-unity fidelities in only one or very few steps, including W states, spin-squeezed states (SSSs), and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states. Particularly, the SSS can be created by only one step with a squeezing parameter ${\xi }_R^2\sim 1/N^{0.843}$ approaching the Heisenberg limit. Our finding establishes a way for universal entanglement generations with only single-qubit drivings where all the multiple-qubit controls are integrated into simply switching on or off microwave. It has direct applications in the variational quantum optimizer, which is available with existing technology.

Adaptive quantum circuits, which combine local unitary gates, midcircuit measurements, and feedforward operations, have recently emerged as a promising avenue for efficient state preparation, particularly on near-term quantum devices limited to shallow-depth circuits. Matrix product states (MPS) comprise a significant class of many-body entangled states, efficiently describing the ground states of one-dimensional gapped local Hamiltonians and finding applications in a number of recent quantum algorithms. Recently, it has been shown that the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki state—a paradigmatic example of an MPS—can be exactly prepared with an adaptive quantum circuit of constant depth, an impossible feat with local unitary gates alone due to its nonzero correlation length [Smith et al., PRX Quantum 4, 020315 (2023)]. In this work, we broaden the scope of this approach and demonstrate that a diverse class of MPS can be exactly prepared using constant-depth adaptive quantum circuits, outperforming theoretically optimal preparation with unitary circuits. We show that this class includes short- and long-ranged entangled MPS, symmetry-protected topological (SPT) and symmetry-broken states, MPS with finite Abelian, non-Abelian, and continuous symmetries, resource states for MBQC, and families of states with tunable correlation length. Moreover, we illustrate the utility of our framework for designing constant-depth sampling protocols, such as for random MPS or for generating MPS in a particular SPT phase. We present sufficient conditions for particular MPS to be preparable in constant time, with global on-site symmetry playing a pivotal role. Altogether, this work demonstrates the immense promise of adaptive quantum circuits for efficiently preparing many-body entangled states and provides explicit algorithms that outperform known protocols to prepare an essential class of states.

A recently introduced classical simulation method for universal quantum computation with magic states operates by repeated sampling from probability functions [M. Zurel et al. PRL 260404 (2020)]. This method is closely related to sampling algorithms based on Wigner functions, with the important distinction that Wigner functions can take negative values obstructing the sampling. Indeed, negativity in Wigner functions has been identified as a precondition for a quantum speed-up. However, in the present method of classical simulation, negativity of quasiprobability functions never arises. This model remains probabilistic for all quantum computations. In this paper, we analyze the amount of classical data that the simulation procedure must track. We find that this amount is small. Specifically, for any number $n$ of magic states, the number of bits that describe the quantum system at any given time is $2n^2+O(n)$.

In computer and system sciences, higher-order cellular automata (HOCA) are a type of cellular automata that evolve over multiple time steps and generate complex patterns, which have various applications, such as secret-sharing schemes, data compression, and image encryption. In this paper, we introduce HOCA to quantum many-body physics and construct a series of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases of matter, in which symmetries are supported on a great variety of subsystems embbeded in the SPT bulk. We call these phases HOCA-generated SPT (HGSPT) phases. Specifically, we show that HOCA can generate not only well-understood SPTs with symmetries supported on either regular (e.g., linelike subsystems in the two-dimensional cluster model) or fractal subsystems, but also a large class of unexplored SPTs with symmetries supported on more choices of subsystems. One example is mixed-subsystem SPT that has either fractal and linelike subsystem symmetries simultaneously or two distinct types of fractal symmetries simultaneously. Another example is chaotic-subsystem SPT in which chaotic-looking symmetries are significantly different from and thus cannot reduce to fractal or regular subsystem symmetries. We also introduce a new notation system to characterize HGSPTs. We prove that all possible subsystem symmetries in a square lattice can be locally simulated by an HOCA-generated symmetry. As the usual two-point strange correlators are trivial in most HGSPTs, we find that the nontrivial SPT orders can be detected by what we call multi point strange correlators. We propose a universal procedure to design the spatial configuration of the multi point strange correlators for a given HGSPT phase. Specifically, we find deep connections between multi point strange correlators and the spurious topological entanglement entropy (STEE), both exhibiting long-range behavior in a short-range entangled state. Our HOCA approaches and multi point strange correlators pave the way for a unified paradigm to design, classify, and detect phases of matter with symmetries supported on a great variety of subsystems, and also provide potential useful perspective in surpassing the computational irreducibility of HOCA in a quantum mechanical way.

Phase slips occur across all Josephson junctions (JJs) at a rate that increases with the impedance of the junction. In superconducting qubits composed of JJ-array superinductors—such as fluxonium—phase slips in the array can lead to decoherence. In particular, phase-slip processes at the individual array junctions can coherently interfere, each with an Aharonov-Casher phase that depends on the offset charges of the array islands. These coherent quantum phase slips (CQPS) perturbatively modify the qubit frequency, and therefore charge noise on the array islands will lead to dephasing. By varying the impedance of the array junctions, we design a set of fluxonium qubits in which the expected phase-slip rate within the JJ array changes by several orders of magnitude. We characterize the coherence times of these qubits and demonstrate that the scaling of CQPS-induced dephasing rates agrees with our theoretical model. Furthermore, we perform noise spectroscopy of two qubits in regimes dominated by either CQPS or flux noise. We find that the noise power spectrum associated with CQPS dephasing appears to be featureless at low frequencies and not $1/f$. Numerical simulations indicate that this behavior is consistent with charge noise generated by charge-parity fluctuations within the array. Our findings broadly inform JJ-array-design trade-offs, relevant for the numerous superconducting-qubit designs employing JJ-array superinductors.

We propose a novel variational ansatz for the ground-state preparation of the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ lattice gauge theory (LGT) in quantum simulators. It combines dissipative and unitary operations in a completely deterministic scheme with a circuit depth that does not scale with the size of the considered lattice. We find that, with very few variational parameters, the ansatz can achieve $>99\mathrm{\%}$ precision in energy in both the confined and deconfined phase of the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ LGT. We benchmark our proposal against the unitary Hamiltonian variational ansatz showing a reduction in the required number of variational layers to achieve a target precision. After performing a finite-size scaling analysis, we show that our dissipative variational ansatz can predict accurate critical exponents without requiring a number of layers that scales with the system size, which is the standard situation for unitary ansätze. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of this variational eigensolver subject to circuit-level noise, determining variational error thresholds that fix the error rate below which it would be beneficial to increase the number of layers. In light of these quantities and for typical gate errors $p$ in current quantum processors, we provide a detailed assessment of the prospects of our scheme to explore the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ LGT on near-term devices.

Quantum simulation traditionally relies on unitary dynamics, inherently imposing efficiency constraints on the generation of intricate entangled states. In principle, these limitations can be superseded by nonunitary, dynamic circuits. These circuits exploit measurements alongside conditional feed-forward operations, providing a promising approach for long-range entangling gates, higher effective connectivity of near-term hardware, and more efficient state preparations. Here, we explore the utility of shallow dynamic circuits for creating long-range entanglement on large-scale quantum devices. Specifically, we study two tasks: controlled-not gate teleportation between up to 101 qubits by feeding forward 99 midcircuit measurement outcomes, and the preparation of Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger states with genuine entanglement. In the former, we observe that dynamic circuits can outperform their unitary counterparts. In the latter, by tallying instructions of compiled quantum circuits, we provide an error budget detailing the obstacles that must be addressed to unlock the full potential of dynamic circuits. Looking forward, we expect dynamic circuits to be useful for generating long-range entanglement in the near term on large-scale quantum devices.

We present the experimental measurement, on a quantum processor, of a series of polynomial lower bounds that converge to the quantum Fisher information (QFI), a fundamental quantity for certifying multipartite entanglement that is useful for metrological applications. We combine advanced methods of the randomized measurement toolbox to obtain estimators that are robust regarding drifting errors caused uniquely during the randomized measurement protocol. We estimate the QFI for Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, observing genuine multipartite entanglement. Then we prepare the ground state of the transverse-field Ising model at the critical point using a variational circuit. We estimate its QFI and investigate the interplay between state optimization and noise induced by our increasing the circuit depth.

The properties of superconducting devices depend sensitively on the parity (even or odd) of the quasiparticles that they contain. Encoding quantum information in the parity degree of freedom is central in several emerging solid-state qubit architectures, including in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor devices. In the latter case, accurate, nondestructive, and time-resolved parity measurements are a challenging issue. Here, we report on control and real-time parity measurement in a superconducting island embedded in a superconducting loop and realized in a hybrid two-dimensional heterostructure using a microwave resonator. To avoid microwave losses impeding time-resolved measurements, the device and readout resonator are located on separate chips, connected via flip-chip bonding, and couple inductively through vacuum. The superconducting resonator detects the parity-dependent circuit inductance, allowing for fast parity readout. We have resolved even- and odd-parity states with a signal-to-noise ratio of $\mathrm{SNR}\approx 3$ for an integration time of $20\text{μ}\mathrm{s}$ and a detection fidelity exceeding $98\mathrm{\%}$. The real-time parity measurement shows a state lifetime extending into the millisecond range. Our approach will lead to a better understanding of coherence-limiting mechanisms in superconducting quantum hardware and help to advance inductive-readout schemes for hybrid qubits.

We use a bulk acoustic wave resonator to demonstrate coherent control of the excited orbital states in a diamond nitrogen-vacancy ($\text{N}$$\mathrm{V}$) center at cryogenic temperature. Coherent quantum control is an essential tool for understanding and mitigating decoherence. Moreover, characterizing and controlling orbital states is a central challenge for quantum networking, where optical coherence is tied to orbital coherence. We study resonant multiphonon orbital Rabi oscillations in both the frequency and time domain, extracting the strength of the orbital-phonon interactions and the coherence of the acoustically driven orbital states. We reach the strong-driving limit, where the physics is dominated by the coupling induced by the acoustic waves. We find agreement between our measurements, quantum master-equation simulations, and a Landau-Zener transition model in the strong-driving limit. Using perturbation theory, we derive an expression for the orbital Rabi frequency versus the acoustic drive strength that is nonperturbative in the drive strength and agrees well with our measurements for all acoustic powers. Motivated by continuous-wave spin-resonance-based decoherence protection schemes, we model the orbital decoherence and find good agreement between our model and our measured few-to-several-nanoseconds orbital decoherence times. We discuss the outlook for orbital decoherence protection.

The coupling of an isolated quantum state to a continuum is typically associated with decoherence and decreased lifetime. For coupling rates larger than the bandwidth of the associated continuum, decoherence can be mitigated, and new stable eigenstates emerge. Here, we laser-couple diatomic molecules of highly excited Rydberg atoms, so-called Rydberg macrodimers, to a continuum of free motional states. Enabled by their small vibrational eigenfrequencies, we achieve the regime of strong continuum couplings and observe the appearance of new resonances. We explain the observed spectroscopic features as molecular states emerging in the presence of the light field using a Fano model. For atoms arranged on a lattice, we predict the strong continuum coupling to even stabilize triatomic molecules and find the first signatures of these by observing three-atom loss correlations using quantum gas microscopy. Our results present a mechanism to control decoherence and bind polyatomic molecules using strong light-matter interactions.

We introduce binary randomized benchmarking (BiRB), a protocol that streamlines traditional RB by using circuits consisting almost entirely of independent identically distributed (IID) layers of gates. BiRB reliably and efficiently extracts the average error rate of a Clifford gate set by sending tensor-product eigenstates of random Pauli operators through random circuits with IID layers. Unlike existing RB methods, BiRB does not use motion reversal circuits—i.e., circuits that implement the identity (or a Pauli) operator—which simplifies both the method and the theory proving its reliability. Furthermore, this simplicity enables scaling BiRB to many more qubits than the most widely used RB methods.

In ab initio electronic structure simulations, fermion-to-qubit mappings represent the initial encoding step from the problem of fermions into a problem of qubits. This work introduces a physically inspired method for constructing mappings that significantly simplify entanglement requirements when one is simulating states of interest. The presence of electronic excitations drives the construction of our mappings, reducing correlations for target states in the qubit space. To benchmark our method, we simulate ground-states of small molecules and observe an enhanced performance when compared with classical and quantum variational approaches from prior research using conventional mappings. In particular, on the quantum side, our mappings require a reduced number of entangling layers to achieve accuracy for $\mathrm{LiH}$, ${\mathrm{H}}_2$, $({\mathrm{H}}_2{)}_2$, ${\mathrm{H}}_4^{\ne }$ stretching, and benzene’s $\pi$ system using the RY hardware-efficient ansatz. In addition, our mappings also provide an enhanced ground-state simulation performance in the density matrix renormalization group algorithm for the ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ molecule.

The classical simulation of highly entangling quantum dynamics is conjectured to be generically hard. Thus, recently discovered measurement-induced transitions between highly entangling and low-entanglement dynamics are phase transitions in classical simulability. Here, we study simulability transitions beyond entanglement: noting that some highly entangling dynamics (e.g., integrable systems or Clifford circuits) are easy to classically simulate, thus requiring “magic”—a subtle form of quantum resource—to achieve computational hardness, we ask how the dynamics of magic competes with measurements. We study the resulting “dynamical magic transitions” focusing on random monitored Clifford circuits doped by $T$ gates (injecting magic). We identify dynamical “stabilizer purification”—the collapse of a superposition of stabilizer states by measurements—as the mechanism driving this transition. We find cases where transitions in magic and entanglement coincide, but also others with a magic and simulability transition in a highly (volume-law) entangled phase. In establishing our results, we use Pauli-based computation, a scheme distilling the quantum essence of the dynamics to a magic state register subject to mutually commuting measurements. We link stabilizer purification to “magic fragmentation” wherein these measurements separate into disjoint, $\mathcal{O}(1)$-weight blocks, and relate this to the spread of magic in the original circuit becoming arrested.

Optical quantum information processing relies critically on Bell-state measurement, a ubiquitous operation for quantum communication and computing. Its practical realization involves the interference of optical modes and the detection of a single photon in an indistinguishable manner. Yet, in the absence of efficient photon-number-resolution capabilities, errors arise from multiphoton components, decreasing the overall process fidelity. Here, we introduce a hybrid detection scheme for Bell-state measurement, leveraging both on-off single-photon detection and quadrature conditioning via homodyne detection. We derive explicit fidelities for quantum teleportation and entanglement-swapping processes employing this strategy, demonstrating its efficacy. We also compare with photon-number-resolving detectors and find a strong advantage of the hybrid scheme in a wide range of parameters. This work provides a new tool for linear-optics schemes, with applications to quantum state engineering and quantum interconnects.