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arXiv:quant-ph/0412142 · Journal of Modern Optics

Decoherence rates in large-scale quantum computers and macroscopic quantum systems

Bryan J. Dalton

Published Nov 20, 2005• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Markovian regime decoherence effects in quantum computers are studied in terms of the fidelity for the situation where the number of qubits N becomes large. A general expression giving the decoherence time scale in terms of Markovian relaxation elements and expectation values of products of system fluctuation operators is obtained, which could also be applied to study decoherence in other macroscopic systems such as Bose condensates and superconductors. A standard circuit model quantum computer involving three-state lambda system ionic qubits is considered, with qubits localized around well-separated positions via trapping potentials. The centre of mass vibrations of the qubits act as a reservoir. Coherent one and two qubit gating processes are controlled by time-dependent localized classical electromagnetic fields that address specific qubits, the two qubit gating processes being facilitated by a cavity mode ancilla, which permits state interchange between qubits. With a suitable choice of parameters, it is found that the decoherence time can be made essentially independent of N.

DOI
10.1080/09500340500227695

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Markovian regime decoherence effects in quantum computers are studied in terms of the fidelity for the situation where the number of qubits N becomes large. A general expression giving the decoherence time scale in terms of Markovian relaxation elements and expectation values of products of system fluctuation operators is obtained, which could also be applied to study decoherence in other macroscopic systems such as Bose condensates and superconductors. A standard circuit model quantum computer involving three-state lambda system ionic qubits is considered, with qubits localized around well-separated positions via trapping potentials. The centre of mass vibrations of the qubits act as a reservoir. Coherent one and two qubit gating processes are controlled by time-dependent localized classical electromagnetic fields that address specific qubits, the two qubit gating processes being facilitated by a cavity mode ancilla, which permits state interchange between qubits. With a suitable choice of parameters, it is found that the decoherence time can be made essentially independent of N.
Markovian regime decoherence effects in quantum computers are studied in terms of the fidelity for the situation where the number of qubits N becomes large. A standard model involving three‐state lambda system ionic qubits is considered, with qubits localised around well‐separated positions via trapping potentials. The centre of mass vibrations of the qubits act as a reservoir. Coherent one and two qubit gating processes are controlled by time dependent localised classical EM fields that address specific qubits, the two qubit gating processes being facilitated by a cavity mode ancilla, which permits state interchange between qubits. With suitably chosen parameters, the decoherence time can be made essentially independent of N.
The scaling of decoherence rates with qubit number N is studied for a simple model of a quantum computer in the situation where N is large. The two state qubits are localized around well-separated positions via trapping potentials and vibrational centre of mass motion of the qubits occurs. Coherent one and two qubit gating processes are controlled by external classical fields and facilitated by a cavity mode ancilla. Decoherence due to qubit coupling to a bath of spontaneous modes, cavity decay modes and to the vibrational modes is treated. A non-Markovian treatment of the short time behaviour of the fidelity is presented, and expressions for the characteristic decoherence time scales obtained for the case where the qubit/cavity mode ancilla is in a pure state and the baths are in thermal states. Specific results are given for the case where the cavity mode is in the vacuum state and gating processes are absent and the qubits are in (a) the Hadamard state (b) the GHZ state.
We study the dynamics of a many-body quantum system strongly interacting with a bosonic reservoir. The coupling is given by a potential operator for the system and it is linear in the field. We show that in the limit of infinite coupling strength the system undergoes instantaneous spatial decoherence. To resolve the decoherence process in time we consider large coupling strengths λλλ and short times scaling as t∝λ−αt\propto λ^{-α}t∝λ−α, with α≥0α\ge0α≥0, in the limit λ→∞λ\rightarrow\inftyλ→∞. On short time scales α>1α>1α>1 the dynamics is trivial while on longer ones 0≤α<10\leα<10≤α<1 the decoherence is instantaneous. We show that the decoherence process is resolved exactly for α=1α=1α=1, defining the fine-grained time scale τ=λtτ=λtτ=λt. We construct an approximate effective evolution map of the many-body system with controlled error estimates. Generically, the effective dynamics is markovian, but not given by a dynamical semigroup. As a physical application we give a rigorous description of the phenomenon of localization of macroscopic quantum objects in position space.
The fidelity of quantum operations is often limited by incoherent errors, which typically can be modeled by fundamental Markovian noise processes such as amplitude damping and dephasing. In Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 150504 (2022), we presented an analytical result for the average gate fidelity of a general multiqubit operation in terms of the dissipative rates and the corresponding Lindblad jump operators, provided that the operation remains in the computational subspace throughout the time evolution. Here we generalize this expression for the average gate fidelity to include the cases where the system state temporarily leaves the computational subspace during the gate. Such gate mechanisms are integral to several quantum-computing platforms, and our formula is applicable to all of them; as examples, we employ it for the two-qubit controlled-Z gate in both superconducting qubits and neutral atoms. We also obtain the average gate fidelity for simultaneous operations applied in multiqubit systems. These results are useful for understanding the error budgets of quantum gates while scaling up quantum computers.
This thesis is concerned with various aspects of ion traps and their use as a quantum simulation and computation device. In its first part we investigate various sources of noise and decoherence in ion traps. As quantum information is very fragile, a detailed knowledge of noise and decoherence sources in a quantum computation device is essential. In the special case of an ion trap quantum computer we investigate the effects of intensity and phase noise in the laser, which is used to perform the gate operations. We then look at other sources of noise which are present without a laser being switched on. These are fluctuations in the trapping frequency caused by noise in the electric potentials applied to the trap and fluctuating electrical fields which will cause heating of the centre-of-mass vibrational state of the ions in the trap. For the case of fluctuating electrical fields we estimate the effect on a quantum gate operation. We then propose a scheme for performing quantum gates without having the ions cooled down to their motional ground state. The second part deals with various aspects of the use of ion traps as a device for quantum computation. We start with the use of ionic qubits as a measurement device for the centre-of-mass vibrational mode and investigate in detail the effect these measurements will have on the vibrational mode. If one wants to use quantum computation devices as systems to simulate quantum mechanics, it is of interest to know how to simulate say a k-level system with N qubits. We investigate the easiest case of this wider problem and look at how to simulate a three-level system (a so called trit) with two qubits in an ion trap quantum computer. We show how to get and measure a SU (3) geometric phase with this toy model. Finally we investigate how to simulate collective angular momentum models with a string of qubits in an ion trap. We assume that the ionic qubits are coupled to a thermal reservoir and derive a master equation for this case. We investigate the semiclassical limit of this master equation and, in the case for two qubits in the trap, determine the entanglement of the steady state. We also outline a way to find the steady state for the master equation using coherence vectors.
After years of effort by quantum scientists, decoherence due to thermal effects still remains a huge hindrance to the upscaling of quantum computers. This thesis presents the temperature scaling of decoherence in a trapped-ion qubit. Microscopic quantum noise simulations are carried out. The resulting numerical scaling laws of coherence times, T1 and T2, are presented. The results enable experimentalists to determine, as a function of temperature, an upper bound for the time over which a quantum computer can be operated without a disastrous loss of quantum coherence, and the duration over which a memory qubit retains its information. Given the tradeoff between the enormous resource overhead demanded by quantum error correction protocols and the adverse effects of decoherence, the results provide guidance for the implementation and optimization of practical error suppression methods in the current era of quantum computers.