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arXiv:2603.11889 · Physical Review Letters

Probing the memory of a superconducting qubit environment

Nicolas Gosling, Denis Bénâtre, Nicolas Zapata, Paul Kugler, Mitchell Field, Sumeru Hazra, Simon Günzler, Thomas Reisinger, Martin Spiecker, Mathieu Féchant, Ioan M. Pop

quant-phSubmitted Mar 12, 2026• Announced Mar 13, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Achieving fault tolerance with superconducting quantum processors requires qubits to operate within the regime of threshold theorems based on the Born-Markov approximation. This approximation, which models dissipation as constant energy decay into a memoryless environment, breaks down when qubits couple to long-lived two-level systems (TLSs) that become polarized during operation and retain memory of past qubit states. Here, we show that non-Poissonian quantum jump traces carry the information required to distinguish long-lived TLSs from the standard Markovian bath. By fitting the Solomon equations to measured quantum jumps dynamics arising naturally due to thermal fluctuations, we can disentangle the coupling of the qubit to the two environments. Sweeping the qubit frequency reveals distinct peaks, each associated with a TLS that outlives the qubit, providing a handle to understand their microscopic origin.

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Achieving fault tolerance with superconducting quantum processors requires qubits to operate within the regime of threshold theorems based on the Born-Markov approximation. This approximation, which models dissipation as constant energy decay into a memoryless environment, breaks down when qubits couple to long-lived two-level systems (TLSs) that become polarized during operation and retain memory of past qubit states. Here, we show that non-Poissonian quantum jump traces carry the information required to distinguish long-lived TLSs from the standard Markovian bath. By fitting the Solomon equations to measured quantum jumps dynamics arising naturally due to thermal fluctuations, we can disentangle the coupling of the qubit to the two environments. Sweeping the qubit frequency reveals distinct peaks, each associated with a TLS that outlives the qubit, providing a handle to understand their microscopic origin.
Understanding the qubit environment is central to fault-tolerant superconducting quantum computation. Characterization typically relies on relaxation, leaving excitation largely underexplored. Here, we access this information with time-resolved broadband excitation spectroscopy. The resulting qubit excitation spectrum reveals a highly structured landscape, interspersed with cold regions. Combined with postselection, this technique enables full reconstruction of the noise power spectral density (PSD) and separates quantum from classical noise. With feed-forward, it exposes long-lived two-level-systems (TLSs), whose relaxation times span tens of microseconds to milliseconds - uncovering an intrinsic link between the qubit-TLS coupling and TLS relaxation. The data suggest that the long-lived TLSs are intrinsic to the qubit environment, and can cause excitation that lasts for many qubit operation cycles. Consequently, the environment retains a memory of prior dynamics, and properties like gate fidelity become non-Markovian and protocol-dependent. The presented approach enables identifying and bypassing the hidden roadblocks formed by long-lived TLSs in fault-tolerant quantum computation.
Understanding the microscopic environment of superconducting qubits is a central challenge for quantum technologies. Parasitic two-level systems (TLSs) of various microscopic origins are ubiquitous and limit qubit performance through decoherence, frequency drifts, and leakage. Recently, long-lived TLSs with lifetimes exceeding those of state-of-the-art qubits have been shown to induce correlated qubit dynamics, with direct implications for quantum error correction. Here, we perform wide-band quantum-jump correlation spectroscopy on flux-tunable transmon qubits and identify microscopic degrees of freedom that outlive the qubit by orders of magnitude. Pump-probe measurements at varying detunings from these objects reveal intrinsic lifetimes exceeding one second. Their weak coupling to the qubit, in the kilohertz range, is consistent with positional defects described by the standard tunneling model, without excluding other microscopic origins such as magnetic spin impurities or trapped quasiparticles. More broadly, these results establish superconducting qubits as a sensitive probe of exceptionally long-lived microscopic degrees of freedom and open a route toward their controlled access and functionalization.
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We reveal long-lived memory effects in the defect bath of a superconducting transmon qubit through electric-field tuning of two-level system (TLS) defects coupled to the qubit. Using a fast TLS mapping method we observe several hysteretic effects in the TLS environment with memory timescales of the order of seconds, far beyond the lifetimes of individual TLS defects. The observations can be explained by TLS coupling to electric field-polarised charge fluctuators in the defect bath. Our method enables detailed mapping of the dynamics of the bath's coupled microscopic degrees of freedom and the associated memory effects which can introduce temporally correlated noise. This information may be used to improve qubit-stabilisation and quantum error correction protocols.
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Temporal fluctuations in the superconducting qubit lifetime, T1T_1T1​, bring up additional challenges in building a fault-tolerant quantum computer. While the exact mechanisms remain unclear, T1T_1T1​ fluctuations are generally attributed to the strong coupling between the qubit and a few near-resonant two-level systems (TLSs) that can exchange energy with an assemble of thermally fluctuating two-level fluctuators (TLFs) at low frequencies. Here, we report T1T_1T1​ measurements on the qubits with different geometrical footprints and surface dielectrics as a function of the temperature. By analyzing the noise spectrum of the qubit depolarization rate, Γ1=1/T1Γ_1 = 1/T_1Γ1​=1/T1​, we can disentangle the impact of TLSs, non-equilibrium quasiparticles (QPs), and equilibrium (thermally excited) QPs on the variance in Γ1Γ_1Γ1​. We find that Γ1Γ_1Γ1​ variances in the qubit with a small footprint are more susceptible to the QP and TLS fluctuations than those in the large-footprint qubits. Furthermore, the QP-induced variances in all qubits are consistent with the theoretical framework of QP diffusion and fluctuation. We suggest these findings can offer valuable insights for future qubit design and engineering optimization.