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Physical Review Research

Implementing a nonpairwise three-body interaction of superconducting qubits and its applications in realizing three-qubit entanglement and quantum gates

Tong Liu

Published Dec 23, 2025• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Nonpairwise multibody interactions have recently attracted much attention due to their promising applications in the realm of quantum information science and technology. In this work, we propose a method to synthesize a nonpairwise three-body interaction of superconducting qubits using a coupler qubit dispersively coupled to two spatially separated qubits and a microwave pulse. This interaction describes physical processes of an excitation from the coupler qubit to two spatially separated qubits and the reverse process. We show that the interaction can be utilized to deterministically generate three-body Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states, transfer the state of the coupler qubit into a two-qubit entangled state, and construct three-qubit controlled-controlled-phase and Toffoli gates. Our proposal only requires a coupler qubit and a single-step operation; thus, the system architecture and method are quite simple. As examples, we numerically simulate the dynamics of the system, and the numerical results demonstrate that high-fidelity preparation of the proposed three-body GHZ entangled state and quantum gates is feasible with current superconducting circuit technology. This approach is general and applicable to a wide range of quantum systems.

DOI
10.1103/sysd-pg74

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Nonpairwise multibody interactions have recently attracted much attention due to their promising applications in the realm of quantum information science and technology. In this work, we propose a method to synthesize a nonpairwise three-body interaction of superconducting qubits using a coupler qubit dispersively coupled to two spatially separated qubits and a microwave pulse. This interaction describes physical processes of an excitation from the coupler qubit to two spatially separated qubits and the reverse process. We show that the interaction can be utilized to deterministically generate three-body Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states, transfer the state of the coupler qubit into a two-qubit entangled state, and construct three-qubit controlled-controlled-phase and Toffoli gates. Our proposal only requires a coupler qubit and a single-step operation; thus, the system architecture and method are quite simple. As examples, we numerically simulate the dynamics of the system, and the numerical results demonstrate that high-fidelity preparation of the proposed three-body GHZ entangled state and quantum gates is feasible with current superconducting circuit technology. This approach is general and applicable to a wide range of quantum systems.
A recent major technological breakthrough in superconducting circuits is the realization of more than 50 qubits arranged on two-dimensional (2D) lattices with tunable nearest-neighbor couplings. We propose a protocol to generate Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states on 2D superconducting-qubit lattices by applying multiqubit controlled-iiiswap gates in parallel. The multiqubit gate can be naturally implemented based on an effective three-body interaction, which can be synthesized with appropriate detunings and coupling strengths between qubits. We simulate the preparation process of GHZ states with realistic parameters, and show a 373737-qubit GHZ state can be generated with a controlled-iiiswap depth of 333. Our proposal provides a more promising method of generating GHZ states on the latest 2D superconducting-qubit architectures and will stimulate the preparation of multiqubit entangled states based on multiqubit gates.
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Hybrid quantum gates have recently drawn considerable attention. They play significant roles in connecting quantum information processors with qubits of different encoding and have important applications in the transmission of quantum states between a quantum processor and a quantum memory. In this work, we propose a single-step implementation of a multitarget-qubit controlled-not gate with one superconducting (SC) qubit simultaneously controlling nnn target cat-state qubits. In this proposal, the gate is implemented with nnn microwave cavities coupled to a three-level SC qutrit. The two logic states of the control SC qubit are represented by the two lowest levels of the qutrit, while the two logic states of each target cat-state qubit are represented by two quasi-orthogonal cat states of a microwave cavity. This proposal operates essentially through the dispersive coupling of each cavity with the qutrit. The gate realization is quite simple because it requires only a single-step operation. There is no need of applying a classical pulse or performing a measurement. The gate operation time is independent of the number of target qubits, thus it does not increase as the number of target qubits increases. Moreover, because the third higher energy level of the qutrit is not occupied during the gate operation, decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. As an application of this hybrid multitarget-qubit gate, we further discuss the generation of a hybrid Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state of SC qubits and cat-state qubits. As an example, we numerically analyze the experimental feasibility of generating a hybrid GHZ state of one SC qubit and three cat-state qubits within present circuit QED technology. This proposal is quite general and can be extended to implement a hybrid controlled-not gate with one matter qubit (of different type) simultaneously controlling multiple target cat-state qubits in a wide range of physical systems, such as multiple microwave or optical cavities coupled to a three-level natural or artificial atom.
Nonpairwise multiqubit interactions present a useful resource for quantum information processors. Their implementation would facilitate more efficient quantum simulations of molecules and combinatorial optimization problems, and they could simplify error suppression and error correction schemes. Here, we present a superconducting circuit architecture in which a coupling module mediates two-local and three-local interactions between three flux qubits by design. The system Hamiltonian is estimated via multiqubit pulse sequences that implement Ramsey-type interferometry between all neighboring excitation manifolds in the system. The three-local interaction is coherently tunable over several MHz via the coupler flux biases and can be turned off, which is important for applications in quantum annealing, analog quantum simulation, and gate-model quantum computation.
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