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arXiv:2304.13656

A diagrammatic method to compute the effective Hamiltonian of driven nonlinear oscillators

Xu Xiao, Jayameenakshi Venkatraman, Rodrigo G. Cortiñas, Shoumik Chowdhury, Michel Devoret

Published Apr 26, 2023• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this work, we present a new diagrammatic method for computing the effective Hamiltonian of driven nonlinear oscillators. At the heart of our method is a self-consistent perturbation expansion developed in phase space, which establishes a direct correspondence between the diagram and algebra. Each diagram corresponds to a Hamiltonian term, the prefactor of which, like those in Feynman diagrams, involves a simple counting of topologically equivalent diagrams. Leveraging the algorithmic simplicity of our diagrammatic method, we provide a readily available computer program that generates the effective Hamiltonian to arbitrary order. We show the consistency of our schemes with existing perturbation methods such as the Schrieffer-Wolff method. Furthermore, we recover the classical harmonic balance scheme from our result in the limit of $\hbar\rightarrow0$. Our method contributes to the understanding of dynamic control within quantum systems and achieves precision essential for advancing future quantum information processors. To demonstrate its value and versatility, we analyze five examples from the field of superconducting circuits. These include an experimental proposal for the Hamiltonian stabilization of a three-legged Schrödinger cat, modeling of energy renormalization phenomena in superconducting circuits experiments, a comprehensive characterization of multiphoton resonances in a driven transmon, a proposal for an inductively shunted transmon circuit, and a characterization of classical ultra-subharmonic bifurcation in driven oscillators. Lastly, we benchmark the performance of our method by comparing it with experimental data and exact Floquet numerical diagonalization.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2304.13656

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In this work, we present a new diagrammatic method for computing the effective Hamiltonian of driven nonlinear oscillators. At the heart of our method is a self-consistent perturbation expansion developed in phase space, which establishes a direct correspondence between the diagram and algebra. Each diagram corresponds to a Hamiltonian term, the prefactor of which, like those in Feynman diagrams, involves a simple counting of topologically equivalent diagrams. Leveraging the algorithmic simplicity of our diagrammatic method, we provide a readily available computer program that generates the effective Hamiltonian to arbitrary order. We show the consistency of our schemes with existing perturbation methods such as the Schrieffer-Wolff method. Furthermore, we recover the classical harmonic balance scheme from our result in the limit of ℏ→0\hbar\rightarrow0ℏ→0. Our method contributes to the understanding of dynamic control within quantum systems and achieves precision essential for advancing future quantum information processors. To demonstrate its value and versatility, we analyze five examples from the field of superconducting circuits. These include an experimental proposal for the Hamiltonian stabilization of a three-legged Schrödinger cat, modeling of energy renormalization phenomena in superconducting circuits experiments, a comprehensive characterization of multiphoton resonances in a driven transmon, a proposal for an inductively shunted transmon circuit, and a characterization of classical ultra-subharmonic bifurcation in driven oscillators. Lastly, we benchmark the performance of our method by comparing it with experimental data and exact Floquet numerical diagonalization.
We present a recursive formula for the computation of the static effective Hamiltonian of a system under a fast-oscillating drive. Our analytical result is well-suited to symbolic calculations performed by a computer and can be implemented to arbitrary order, thus overcoming limitations of existing time-dependent perturbation methods and allowing computations that were impossible before. We also provide a simple diagrammatic tool for calculation and treat illustrative examples. By construction, our method applies directly to both quantum and classical systems; the difference is left to a low-level subroutine. This sheds light on the relationship between seemingly disconnected independently developed methods in the literature and has direct applications in quantum engineering.
Deriving effective Hamiltonian models plays an essential role in quantum theory, with particular emphasis in recent years on control and engineering problems. In this work, we present two symbolic methods for computing effective Hamiltonian models: the Non-perturbative Analytical Diagonalization (NPAD) and the Recursive Schrieffer-Wolff Transformation (RSWT). NPAD makes use of the Jacobi iteration and works without the assumptions of perturbation theory while retaining convergence, allowing to treat a very wide range of models. In the perturbation regime, it reduces to RSWT, which takes advantage of an in-built recursive structure where remarkably the number of terms increases only linearly with perturbation order, exponentially decreasing the number of terms compared to the ubiquitous Schrieffer-Wolff method. Both methods consist of elementary algebra and can be easily automated to obtain closed-form expressions. To demonstrate the application of the methods, we study the ZZ interaction of superconducting qubits systems in two different parameter regimes. In the near-resonant regime, the method produces an analytical expression for the effective ZZ interaction strength, with an improvement of at least one order of magnitude compared to neglecting the comparably further detuned state. In the dispersive regime, we calculate perturbative corrections up to the 8th order and accurately identify a regime where ZZ interaction is suppressed in a simple model with only resonator-mediated coupling.
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 present a method for calculating the energy levels of superconducting circuits that contain highly anharmonic, inductively shunted modes with arbitrarily strong coupling. Our method starts by calculating the normal modes of the linearized circuit and proceeds with numerical diagonalization in this basis. As an example, we analyze the Hamiltonian of a fluxonium qubit inductively coupled to a readout resonator. While elementary, this simple example is nontrivial because it cannot be efficiently treated by the method known as ``black-box quantization,'' numerical diagonalization in the bare harmonic oscillator basis, or perturbation theory. Calculated spectra are compared to measured spectroscopy data, demonstrating excellent quantitative agreement between theory and experiment.
Out-of-equilibrium driven nonlinear oscillators have attracted interest as a platform for tailoring Floquet Hamiltonian spectra and stabilizing quantum states for quantum information. However, it is usually ignored that the necessary parametric drive can amplify environmental fluctuations limiting applications. In this work, we capture this effect by computing the effective Lindbladian of a Kerr parametric oscillator beyond the rotating wave approximation. We find that the relevant dissipators depend strongly on the nonlinearity and the mean-photon number in the oscillator. In particular, we address recent measurements of the logical lifetime on a Schr\"odinger's-cat qubit stabilized by a parametric drive, thereby providing an explanation for the observed three-order-of-magnitude discrepancy between experimental data and an ordinary Lindblad treatment. Our systematic approach paves the path to treat dissipative effects in Floquet-engineered nonlinear quantum systems.
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.