In circuit QED, protocols for quantum gates and readout of superconducting qubits often rely on the dispersive regime, reached when the qubit-photon detuning $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ is large compared to the mutual coupling strength. For qubits including the Cooper-pair box and transmon, selection rules dramatically restrict the contributions to dispersive level shifts $\ensuremath{\chi}$. By contrast, in the absence of selection rules many virtual transitions contribute to $\ensuremath{\chi}$ and can produce sizable dispersive shifts even at large detuning. We present theory for a generic multilevel qudit capacitively coupled to one or multiple harmonic modes and give general expressions for the effective Hamiltonian in second- and fourth-order perturbation theory. Applying our results to the fluxonium system, we show that the absence of strong selection rules explains the surprisingly large dispersive shifts observed in experiments and leads to the prediction of a two-photon vacuum Rabi splitting. Quantitative predictions from our theory are in good agreement with experimental data over a wide range of magnetic flux and reveal that fourth-order resonances are important for the phase modulation observed in fluxonium spectroscopy.
In circuit QED, protocols for quantum gates and readout of superconducting qubits often rely on the dispersive regime, reached when the qubit-photon detuning \ensuremathΔ is large compared to the mutual coupling strength. For qubits including the Cooper-pair box and transmon, selection rules dramatically restrict the contributions to dispersive level shifts \ensuremathχ. By contrast, in the absence of selection rules many virtual transitions contribute to \ensuremathχ and can produce sizable dispersive shifts even at large detuning. We present theory for a generic multilevel qudit capacitively coupled to one or multiple harmonic modes and give general expressions for the effective Hamiltonian in second- and fourth-order perturbation theory. Applying our results to the fluxonium system, we show that the absence of strong selection rules explains the surprisingly large dispersive shifts observed in experiments and leads to the prediction of a two-photon vacuum Rabi splitting. Quantitative predictions from our theory are in good agreement with experimental data over a wide range of magnetic flux and reveal that fourth-order resonances are important for the phase modulation observed in fluxonium spectroscopy.
Spectral properties of a quantum circuit are efficiently read out by monitoring the resonance frequency shift it induces in a microwave resonator coupled to it. When the two systems are strongly detuned, theory attributes the shift to an effective resonator capacitance or inductance that depends on the quantum circuit state. At small detuning, the shift arises from the exchange of virtual photons, as described by the Jaynes-Cummings model. Here we present a theory bridging these two limits and illustrate, with several examples, its necessity for a general description of quantum circuits readout. Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics (cQED) is at the heart of most advanced superconducting quantum technologies. Different types of superconducting qubits can be strongly coupled to microwave resonators thus achieving regimes and phenomenena which cannot be reached within the realm of quantum optics [1]. More recently, strong coupling between microwave resonators and a variety of other quantum systems not necessarily involving superconductors has been achieved [2], extending further the realm of cQED. In all these applications the measurement of the qubit or the hybrid device state is achieved by monitoring the resonator properties. Theoretically , two regimes have been approached using disconnected descriptions [3]: the dispersive regime, where the qubit-resonator detuning is larger than the coupling strength yet small enough to allow the exchange of virtual photons, and the adiabatic regime, where the de-tuning is sufficiently large for virtual processes to be strongly suppressed. The dispersive regime, which describes level repulsion between those of the quantum circuit and of the resonator, is typically dealt with using a Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian within different levels of approximation [3-10]. In contrast, the adiabatic regime accounts for the renormalization of the resonator capaci-tance/inductance by the effective capacitance of the circuit , including its "quantum capacitance" [11, 12], or its effective inductance [13, 14], which modifies the resonator frequency [15, 16]. However, there is no actual border between these two regimes which could justify a separate treatment, as illustrated by recent experiments on hybrid cQED setups [17] that reveal features of both regimes for the same device. This situation claims for a unified description of quantum circuits readout, going beyond the standard Jaynes-Cummings model, which could be applied to different types of devices over a large range of parameters. * Corresponding author : a.l.yeyati@uam.es In the present Letter we derive a general expression for the resonator frequency shift when coupled to a generic quantum circuit. This expression naturally interpolates between the adiabatic and the dispersive regimes, thus allowing to clarify their origin from the same coupling Hamiltonian. In addition our formalism is not restricted to the usual two-level approximations but any multilevel situation can be described on the same footing. We illustrate the importance of the different terms in our expression by analyzing well-known models like a short single channel superconducting weak link hosting Andreev states, the RF-SQUID and the Cooper pair box. Resonator-quantum circuit coupling.-The system we consider comprises a resonant circuit and a quantum circuit coupled through phase or charge fluctuations as depicted in Figs. 1(a), 2(a) and in the inset of Fig. 3. The resonant circuit is represented as a lumped-element LC resonator with bare resonance frequency f r = ω r /2π, with ω r = 1/ √ L r C r. Introducing the photon annihilation (creation) operators a (a †), it can be described by the Hamiltonian H r = ω r a † a. On the other hand, the quantum circuit Hamiltonian,Ĥ qc (x), depends on a dimensionless control parameter x, corresponding to an excess charge on a capacitor or a flux through a loop. We denote by |Φ i (x) the eigenstates of the uncoupled quantum circuit,Ĥ qc (x)|Φ i (x) = E i (x)|Φ i (x). Flux (charge) fluctuations in the resonator lead to x → x 0 +x r , wherex r = λ(s a + s * a †) with a coupling constant λ, depending on a coupling scheme [19], and s = 1 (−i). We assume λ 1 in accordance with experiments. The resonator-quantum circuit coupling HamiltonianĤ c is obtained by expandingĤ qc (x 0 +x r) up to second order inx rĤ c (x 0) =x rĤ qc (x 0) +x 2 r 2Ĥ qc (x 0), (1) where the prime stands for the derivative with respect to x. The Hamiltonian describing resonator, quantum
In circuit quantum electrodynamics (circuit QED), an artificial 'circuit atom' can couple to a quantized microwave radiation much stronger than its real atomic counterpart. The celebrated quantum Rabi model describes the simplest interaction of a two-level system with a single-mode boson field. When the coupling is large enough, the bare multilevel structure of a realistic circuit atom cannot be ignored even if the circuit is strongly anharmonic. We explored this situation theoretically for flux (fluxonium) and charge (Cooper pair box) type multi-level circuits tuned to their respective flux/charge degeneracy points. We identified which spectral features of the quantum Rabi model survive and which are renormalized for large coupling. Despite significant renormalization of the low-energy spectrum in the fluxonium case, the key quantum Rabi feature—nearly-degenerate vacuum consisting of an atomic state entangled with a multi-photon field—appears in both types of circuits when the coupling is sufficiently large. Like in the quantum Rabi model, for very large couplings the entanglement spectrum is dominated by only two, nearly equal eigenvalues, in spite of the fact that a large number of bare atomic states are actually involved in the atom-resonator ground state. We interpret the emergence of the two-fold degeneracy of the vacuum of both circuits as an environmental suppression of flux/charge tunneling due to their dressing by virtual low-/high-impedance photons in the resonator. For flux tunneling, the dressing is nothing else than the shunting of a Josephson atom with a large capacitance of the resonator. Suppression of charge tunneling is a manifestation of the dynamical Coulomb blockade of transport in tunnel junctions connected to resistive leads.
Superconducting circuits consisting of a few low-anharmonic transmons coupled to readout and bus resonators can perform basic quantum computations. Since the number of qubits in such circuits is limited to not more than a few tens, the qubits can be designed to operate within the dispersive regime where frequency detunings are much stronger than coupling strengths. However, scaling up the number of qubits will bring the circuit out of the regime, and this invalidates current theories. We develop a formalism that allows to consistently diagonalize the superconducting circuit Hamiltonian beyond the dispersive regime. This will allow to study qubit-qubit interaction unperturbatively, therefore, our formalism remains valid and accurate at small or even negligible frequency detuning; thus, our formalism serves as a theoretical ground for designing qubit characteristics for scaling up the number of qubits in superconducting circuits. We study the most important circuits with single- and two-qubit gates, i.e., a single transmon coupled to a resonator and two transmons sharing a bus resonator. Surprisingly, our formalism allows to determine the circuit characteristics, such as dressed frequencies and Kerr couplings, in closed-form formulas that not only reproduce perturbative results, but also extrapolate beyond the dispersive regime and can ultimately reproduce (and even modify) the Jaynes-Cumming results at resonant frequencies.
In quantum electrodynamics, an artificial circuit can couple to a quantized microwave radiation much stronger than its real atomic counterpart. The celebrated quantum Rabi model describes the simplest interaction of a two-level system with a single-mode boson field. When the coupling is arbitrary large, the bare multilevel structure of a realistic atom cannot be ignored even if the is strongly anharmonic. We explored this situation theoretically for flux (fluxonium) and charge (Cooper pair box) type multi-level atoms at maximal frustration and identified which spectral features of the quantum Rabi model survive and which are renormalized for arbitrary large coupling. We provide a quantitative comparison with the ideal quantum Rabi model by inspecting not only the energy level spectrum, but also the entanglement spectrum. Despite significant renormalization of the low-energy energy spectrum in the fluxonium case, the key quantum Rabi feature -- nearly-degenerate vacuum consisting of an atomic state entangled with a multi-photon field -- appears in both circuits when the coupling is sufficiently large. Like in the quantum Rabi model, for very large couplings the entanglement spectrum is dominated by only two, nearly equal eigenvalues, in spite of the fact that a large number of bare atomic states are actually involved in the ground state. We interpret the emergence of the vacuum degeneracy in both circuits as an environmental suppression of flux/charge tunneling due to their dressing by virtual low-/high-impedance photons in the resonator. For flux tunneling, the dressing is nothing else than the shunting of a Josephson atom with a large capacitance of the resonator. Suppression of charge tunneling appears to have the same origin as the dynamical Coulomb blockade of transport in tunnel junctions connected to resistive leads.
Dispersive readout is widely used to perform high-fidelity measurement of superconducting qubits. Much work has been focused on the qubit readout fidelity, which depends on the achievable signal-to-noise ratio and the qubit relaxation time. As groups have pushed to increase readout fidelity by increasing readout photon number, dispersive readout has been shown to strongly affect the postmeasurement qubit state. Such effects hinder the effectiveness of quantum error correction, which requires measurements that both have high readout fidelity and are quantum nondemolition (QND). Here, we experimentally investigate non-QND effects in the fluxonium. We map out the state evolution of fluxonium qubits in the presence of resonator photons and observe that these photons induce transitions in the fluxonium both within and outside the qubit subspace. We numerically model our system and find that transitions to higher-excited states and coupling to an external spurious mode are necessary to explain observed non-QND effects.
Boundary conditions in confined geometries and measurement interactions in quantum mechanics share a common structural role: both select a preferred basis by determining which states are compatible with the imposed constraint. This paper develops this perspective for circuit QED dispersive readout through a first-principles derivation starting from the circuit Lagrangian. The transmon qubit terminating a transmission line resonator provides a frequency-dependent boundary condition whose pole structure encodes the qubit's transition frequencies; different qubit states yield different resonator frequencies. Two approximations, linear response and a pole-dominated expansion valid near resonance, reduce the boundary function to a rational form in the Sturm-Liouville eigenparameter. The extended Hilbert space of the Fulton-Walter spectral theory then provides a framework for the dressed-mode eigenvalue problem conditional on the qubit state. The dispersive shift and vacuum Rabi splitting emerge from the transcendental eigenvalue equation, with the residues determined by matching to the splitting: δge=2Lg2ωq2/v4, where g is the vacuum Rabi coupling. A level repulsion theorem guarantees that no dressed mode frequency coincides with a transmon transition. For two qubits with matched dispersive shifts, odd-parity states become frequency-degenerate; true parity-only measurement requires engineered suppression of linear dispersive terms.