Universal two-qubit interactions, measurement and cooling for quantum simulation and computing

TL;DR

This paper presents methods to generate universal two-qubit interactions, measurement, and cooling in superconducting qubits, enabling programmable quantum simulation of complex spin models with existing hardware.

Contribution

It introduces a versatile coupling scheme for superconducting qubits that achieves universal interactions, measurement, and cooling, expanding capabilities for quantum simulation.

Findings

Universal two-qubit interactions can be generated with flux bias control.

Qubit state measurement along any Bloch sphere direction is demonstrated.

Qubit cooling below ambient temperature is achieved via frequency conversion mechanisms.

Abstract

By coupling pairs of superconducting qubits through a small Josephson junction with a time-dependent flux bias, we show that arbitrary interactions involving any combination of Pauli matrices can be generated with a small number of drive tones applied through the flux bias of the coupling junction. We then demonstrate that similar (though not fully universal) results can be achieved in capacitively coupled qubits by exploiting the higher energy states of the devices through multi-photon drive signals applied to the qubits' flux degrees of freedom. By using this mechanism to couple a qubit to a detuned resonator, the qubit's rotating frame state can be non-destructively measured along any direction on the Bloch sphere. Finally, we describe how the frequency-converting nature of the couplings can be used to engineer a mechanism analogous to dynamic nuclear polarization in NMR systems, capable of cooling an array of qubits well below the ambient temperature, and outline how higher order interactions, such as local 3-body terms, can be engineered through the same couplings. Our results demonstrate that a programmable quantum simulator for large classes of interacting spin models could be engineered with the same physical hardware.