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Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

Dynamic decoupling in the presence of 1D random walk

Arnab Chakrabarti, Ipsita Chakraborty, Rangeet Bhattacharyya

Published May 1, 2016• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract In the recent past, many dynamic decoupling sequences have been proposed for the suppression of decoherence of spins connected to thermal baths of various natures. Dynamic decoupling schemes for suppressing decoherence due to Gaussian diffusion have also been developed. In this work, we study the relative performances of dynamic decoupling schemes in the presence of a non-stationary Gaussian noise such as a 1D random walk. Frequency domain analysis is not suitable to determine the performances of various dynamic decoupling schemes in suppressing decoherence due to such a process. Thus, in this work, we follow a time domain calculation to arrive at the following conclusions: in the presence of such a noise, we show that (i) the traditional Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill (CPMG) sequence outperforms Uhrig’s dynamic decoupling scheme, (ii) CPMG remains the optimal sequence for suppression of decoherence due to random walk in the presence of an external field gradient. Later, the theoretical predictions are experimentally verified by using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy on spin 1/2 particles diffusing in a liquid medium.

DOI
10.1088/1742-5468/2016/05/053210

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Abstract In the recent past, many dynamic decoupling sequences have been proposed for the suppression of decoherence of spins connected to thermal baths of various natures. Dynamic decoupling schemes for suppressing decoherence due to Gaussian diffusion have also been developed. In this work, we study the relative performances of dynamic decoupling schemes in the presence of a non-stationary Gaussian noise such as a 1D random walk. Frequency domain analysis is not suitable to determine the performances of various dynamic decoupling schemes in suppressing decoherence due to such a process. Thus, in this work, we follow a time domain calculation to arrive at the following conclusions: in the presence of such a noise, we show that (i) the traditional Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill (CPMG) sequence outperforms Uhrig’s dynamic decoupling scheme, (ii) CPMG remains the optimal sequence for suppression of decoherence due to random walk in the presence of an external field gradient. Later, the theoretical predictions are experimentally verified by using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy on spin 1/2 particles diffusing in a liquid medium.
Maintaining quantum coherence is a crucial requirement for quantum computation; hence protecting quantum systems against their irreversible corruption due to environmental noise is an important open problem. Dynamical decoupling (DD) is an effective method for reducing decoherence with a low control overhead. It also plays an important role in quantum metrology, where, for instance, it is employed in multiparameter estimation. While a sequence of equidistant control pulses [the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence] has been ubiquitously used for decoupling, Uhrig recently proposed that a nonequidistant pulse sequence [the Uhrig dynamic decoupling (UDD) sequence] may enhance DD performance, especially for systems where the spectral density of the environment has a sharp frequency cutoff. On the other hand, equidistant sequences outperform UDD for soft cutoffs. The relative advantage provided by UDD for intermediate regimes is not clear. In this paper, we analyze the relative DD performance in this regime experimentally, using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance. Our system qubits are 13C^{13}\mathrm{C}13C nuclear spins and the environment consists of a 1H^{1}\mathrm{H}1H nuclear spin bath whose spectral density is close to a normal (Gaussian) distribution. We find that in the presence of such a bath, the CPMG sequence outperforms the UDD sequence. An analogy between dynamical decoupling and interference effects in optics provides an intuitive explanation as to why the CPMG sequence performs better than any nonequidistant DD sequence in the presence of this kind of environmental noise.
Abstract Dynamical decoupling (DD) is a quantum error-mitigation technique based on applying sequences of control pulses to suppress decoherence. Here we perform a numerical study to compare different DD protocols, namely Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG), Periodic Dynamical Decoupling (PDD), Concatenated Dynamical Decoupling (CDD) and Uhrig Dynamical Decoupling (UDD) applied to three commonly used noise power spectral densities: (i) white, (ii) 1/f, (iii) 1/f 2 and their hybrid combinations. By ignoring qubit relaxation, we simulate these protocols focusing purely on dephasing noise. We then consider independent multi-axial noise with uniaxial control pulses. The effective coherence times T2,eff are extracted for each case and compared with the baseline free induction decay T ∗ 2 [6]. In all these simulations, the time-domain decoherence profiles follow a stretched exponential form ∼ exp −(t/T2,eff) β with the effective coherence times dependent on the noise spectrum considered, the strength of the noise, and the DD sequence employed. An exception is observed for the UDD under specific noise conditions where it cannot be described by a simple stretched exponential decay form.
We study the performance of dynamical decoupling in suppressing decoherence caused by soft-cutoff Gaussian noise, using short-time expansion of the noise correlations and numerical optimization. For the noise with soft cutoff at high frequencies, there exists no dynamical decoupling scheme to eliminate the decoherence to arbitrary orders of the short time, regardless of the timing or pulse shaping of the control under the population conserving condition. We formulate the equations for optimizing pulse sequences that minimize decoherence up to the highest possible order of the short time for the noise correlations with odd power terms in the short-time expansion. In particular, we show that the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence is optimal in the short-time limit for the noise correlations with a linear order term in the time expansion.
Decoherence is a primary barrier to practical quantum computation, causing quantum states to degrade through phase randomization and irreversible energy relaxation. This study presents a simulation-based evaluation of echo-based dynamical decoupling (DD) pulse sequences as a software-level mitigation strategy in single-qubit systems. Using the Qiskit Aer density matrix simulator, four strategies—baseline, Hahn Echo, Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG), and Mixed Synchronization—were evaluated across low-frequency phase noise, high-frequency phase noise, and combined T₁ + T₂ noise regimes. Hahn Echo restored mean fidelity to 100.00% under low-frequency noise (baseline: 57.90%), while CPMG achieved 97.62% under high-frequency noise (baseline: 2.45%). Under combined noise, all strategies showed limited improvement, with Mixed-Sync reaching 65.34% versus 60.95%. Coefficient of variation (CV) analysis across 500 Monte Carlo trials showed that CPMG reduced purity-decay variance threefold under high-frequency noise, with bootstrap confidence intervals confirming statistical significance. Time-resolved analysis showed that CPMG suppressed variance growth throughout evolution, reducing variance growth from +267% (baseline) to +89%, while baseline and Hahn Echo exhibited progressive amplification of variance. These results show that dynamical decoupling influences the temporal structure of noise, not just mean fidelity. In T₂-dominated regimes, pulse sequences constrain variability; in mixed regimes, they partially shape it; and in T₁-dominated regimes, both mean performance and variability converge to hardware-limited behavior. DD effectively corrects reversible phase errors but cannot overcome irreversible T₁ loss, with implications for NISQ circuit design.
We analyze the suppression of decoherence by means of dynamical decoupling in the pure-dephasing spin-boson model for baths with power law spectra. The sequence of ideal $\ensuremath{\pi}$ pulses is optimized according to the power of the bath. We expand the decoherence function and separate the canceling divergences from the relevant terms. The proposed sequence is chosen to be the one minimizing the decoherence function. By construction, it provides the best performance. We analytically derive the conditions that must be satisfied. The resulting equations are solved numerically. The solutions are very close to the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence for a soft cutoff of the bath while they approach the Uhrig dynamical-decoupling sequence as the cutoff becomes harder.
One of the simplest and least resource-intensive methods to suppress decoherence for qubit operations, namely, dynamical decoupling (DD), is investigated for a broad range of realistic noise sources with time-retarded feedback. By way of example, the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence is analyzed in a numerically rigorous manner accounting also for correlations between qubits and environments. Since experimentally noise sources are characterized through spectral densities, we adopt the spin-boson model as a suitable framework to describe the qubit dynamics under DD for a given spectral density J ( ω ) ∝ ω s . Motivated by the situation for superconducting qubits, the spectral exponent s is varied from s = 1 (Ohmic bath) to a substantially small value 0 < s ≪ 1 (deep sub-Ohmic bath), in order to investigate the impact of time-nonlocal back action on DD performances for enhanced coherence times. As reference to the DD schemes, dynamics of a single qubit subject to Ramsey sequences without any pules and Hahn echo sequences are also investigated.