IBM Q Experience as a versatile experimental testbed for simulating open quantum systems

Abstract

Abstract The advent of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) technology is changing rapidly the landscape and modality of research in quantum physics. NISQ devices, such as the IBM Q Experience, have very recently proven their capability as experimental platforms accessible to everyone around the globe. Until now, IBM Q Experience processors have mostly been used for quantum computation and simulation of closed systems. Here, we show that these devices are also able to implement a great variety of paradigmatic open quantum systems models, hence providing a robust and flexible testbed for open quantum systems theory. During the last decade an increasing number of experiments have successfully tackled the task of simulating open quantum systems in different platforms, from linear optics to trapped ions, from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to cavity quantum electrodynamics. Generally, each individual experiment demonstrates a specific open quantum system model, or at most a specific class. Our main result is to prove the great versatility of the IBM Q Experience processors. Indeed, we experimentally implement one and two-qubit open quantum systems, both unital and non-unital dynamics, Markovian and non-Markovian evolutions. Moreover, we realise proof-of-principle reservoir engineering for entangled state generation, demonstrate collisional models, and verify revivals of quantum channel capacity and extractable work, caused by memory effects. All these results are obtained using IBM Q Experience processors publicly available and remotely accessible online.