Abstract An open question in designing superconducting quantum circuits is how best to reduce the full circuit Hamiltonian which describes their dynamics to an effective two-level qubit Hamiltonian which is appropriate for manipulation of quantum information. Despite advances in numerical methods to simulate the spectral properties of multi-element superconducting circuits (Yurke B and Denker J S 1984 Phys. Rev. A 29 1419, Reiter F and Sørensen A S 2012 Phys. Rev. A 85 032111 and Amin M H et al 2012 Phys. Rev. A 86 052314), the literature lacks a consistent and effective method of determining the effective qubit Hamiltonian. Here we address this problem by introducing a novel local basis reduction method . This method does not require any ad hoc assumption on the structure of the Hamiltonian such as its linear response to applied fields. We numerically benchmark the local basis reduction method against other Hamiltonian reduction methods in the literature and report specific examples of superconducting qubits, including the capacitively-shunted flux qubit, where the standard reduction approaches fail. By combining the local basis reduction method with the Schrieffer–Wolff transformation we further extend its applicability to systems of interacting qubits and use it to extract both non-stoquastic two-qubit Hamiltonians and three-local interaction terms in three-qubit Hamiltonians.
Abstract An open question in designing superconducting quantum circuits is how best to reduce the full circuit Hamiltonian which describes their dynamics to an effective two-level qubit Hamiltonian which is appropriate for manipulation of quantum information. Despite advances in numerical methods to simulate the spectral properties of multi-element superconducting circuits (Yurke B and Denker J S 1984 Phys. Rev. A 29 1419, Reiter F and Sørensen A S 2012 Phys. Rev. A 85 032111 and Amin M H et al 2012 Phys. Rev. A 86 052314), the literature lacks a consistent and effective method of determining the effective qubit Hamiltonian. Here we address this problem by introducing a novel local basis reduction method . This method does not require any ad hoc assumption on the structure of the Hamiltonian such as its linear response to applied fields. We numerically benchmark the local basis reduction method against other Hamiltonian reduction methods in the literature and report specific examples of superconducting qubits, including the capacitively-shunted flux qubit, where the standard reduction approaches fail. By combining the local basis reduction method with the Schrieffer–Wolff transformation we further extend its applicability to systems of interacting qubits and use it to extract both non-stoquastic two-qubit Hamiltonians and three-local interaction terms in three-qubit Hamiltonians.
An open question in designing superconducting quantum circuits is how best to reduce the full circuit Hamiltonian which describes their dynamics to an effective two-level qubit Hamiltonian which is appropriate for manipulation of quantum information. Despite advances in numerical methods to simulate the spectral properties of multi-element superconducting circuits (Yurke B and Denker J S 1984 Phys. Rev. A 29 1419, Reiter F and Sørensen A S 2012 Phys. Rev. A 85 032111 and Amin M H et al 2012 Phys. Rev. A 86 052314), the literature lacks a consistent and effective method of determining the effective qubit Hamiltonian. Here we address this problem by introducing a novel local basis reduction method. This method does not require any ad hoc assumption on the structure of the Hamiltonian such as its linear response to applied fields. We numerically benchmark the local basis reduction method against other Hamiltonian reduction methods in the literature and report specific examples of superconducting qubits, including the capacitively-shunted flux qubit, where the standard reduction approaches fail. By combining the local basis reduction method with the Schrieffer–Wolff transformation we further extend its applicability to systems of interacting qubits and use it to extract both non-stoquastic two-qubit Hamiltonians and three-local interaction terms in three-qubit Hamiltonians.
We have analyzed and proposed coupling mechanisms between Three Josephson Junction Flux Qubits (3JJQ). For this, we have developed a numerical method to extract the effective Hamiltonian of a system of coupled qubits via the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation (SWT). We then give a comprehensive introduction to the 3JJQ, and study it analytically by approximating its potential with a Harmonic well. With a clear understanding of the 3JJQs, we use the SWT to gain intuition about their effective dipolar interaction with the electromagnetic field, and use that intuition to propose and study analytically and numerically the capacitive coupling of two 3JJQs via a non-tunable capacitor, and the inductive coupling of two 3JJQs via a tunable Josephson Junction (dc-SQUID), showing that we are able to reproduce non-stoquastic Hamiltonians in the strong-coupling regime.
We have analyzed and proposed coupling mechanisms between Three Josephson Junction Flux Qubits (3JJQ). For this, we have developed a numerical method to extract the effective Hamiltonian of a system of coupled qubits via the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation (SWT). This method is a more efficient version of the one proposed by Ref. [1]. We then give a comprehensive introduction to the 3JJQ, and study it analytically by approximating its potential with a Harmonic well. With a clear understanding of the 3JJQs, we use the SWT to gain intuition about their effective dipolar interaction with the electromagnetic field, and use that intuition to propose and study analytically and numerically the capacitive coupling of two 3JJQs via a non-tunable capacitor, and the inductive coupling of two 3JJQs via a tunable Josephson Junction (dc-SQUID), showing that we are able to reproduce non-stoquastic Hamiltonians in the strong-coupling regime.
Pulse-level simulators are the lowest-level, most widely used abstraction layer for studying how quantum hardware responds to control signals, but they can be built on Hamiltonian models with very different fidelity and cost. This raises the question: which level of physical abstraction is sufficient for a given simulation objective? We study this question for a flux-tunable two-qubit superconducting device with a fixed bus coupler by comparing three Hamiltonian descriptions of the same hardware: an effective two-level model, a three-mode Duffing model, and a circuit-based transmon model in the charge basis. Using a realistic parameter set, we evaluate these models on a common benchmark suite spanning flux-dependent spectra, extracted two-qubit interaction terms, driven single-qubit dynamics, CZ gate dynamics, leakage outside the computational subspace, and runtime. Across the tested flux range, the Duffing model follows the circuit-based reference more closely than the effective model for static spectra and reduced two-qubit quantities, while in driven benchmarks, the multilevel models reveal effects absent in the effective description. Overall, the results support a layered use of abstraction in pulse-level simulation: effective models for reduced analyses, Duffing models as a practical multilevel default, and circuit-based models for high-fidelity reference simulation or detailed leakage analysis.
We analyze the coupling of two flux qubits with a general many-body projector into the low-energy subspace. Specifically, we extract the effective Hamiltonians that controls the dynamics of two qubits when they are coupled via a capacitor and/or via a Josephson junction. While the capacitor induces a static charge coupling tunable by design, the Josephson junction produces a magnetic-like interaction easily tunable by replacing the junction with a superconducting quantum interference device. Those two elements allow to engineer qubits Hamiltonians with XX, YY, and ZZ interactions, including ultrastrongly coupled ones. We present an exhaustive numerical study for two three-Josephson junctions flux qubit that can be directly used in experimental work. The method developed here, namely, the numerical tool to extract qubit effective Hamiltonians at strong coupling, can be applied to replicate our analysis for general systems of many qubits and any type of coupling.
Pulse-level simulators are the lowest-level, most widely used abstraction layer for studying how quantum hardware responds to control signals, but they can be built on Hamiltonian models with very different fidelity and cost. This raises the question: which level of physical abstraction is sufficient for a given simulation objective? We study this question for a flux-tunable two-qubit superconducting device with a fixed bus coupler by comparing three Hamiltonian descriptions of the same hardware: an effective two-level model, a three-mode Duffing model, and a circuit-based transmon model in the charge basis. Using a realistic parameter set, we evaluate these models on a common benchmark suite spanning flux-dependent spectra, extracted two-qubit interaction terms, driven single-qubit dynamics, CZ gate dynamics, leakage outside the computational subspace, and runtime. Across the tested flux range, the Duffing model follows the circuit-based reference more closely than the effective model for static spectra and reduced two-qubit quantities, while in driven benchmarks, the multilevel models reveal effects absent in the effective description. Overall, the results support a layered use of abstraction in pulse-level simulation: effective models for reduced analyses, Duffing models as a practical multilevel default, and circuit-based models for high-fidelity reference simulation or detailed leakage analysis.