Conditions for superdecoherence

TL;DR

This paper investigates superdecoherence in quantum systems, demonstrating it is absent with continuous spectra and only occurs under specific conditions with discrete spectra, implying it is avoidable in practical quantum computing.

Contribution

It clarifies the conditions under which superdecoherence occurs, showing it is avoidable in realistic quantum computing scenarios with continuous reservoir spectra.

Findings

Superdecoherence is absent with continuous reservoir spectra.

Superdecoherence requires exact frequency matching in discrete spectra.

Superdecoherence can be avoided in practical quantum computer implementations.

Abstract

Decoherence is the main obstacle to quantum computation. The decoherence rate per qubit is typically assumed to be constant. It is known, however, that quantum registers coupling to a single reservoir can show a decoherence rate per qubit that increases linearly with the number of qubits. This effect has been referred to as superdecoherence, and has been suggested to pose a threat to the scalability of quantum computation. Here, we show that superdecoherence is absent when the spectrum of the single reservoir is continuous, rather than discrete. The reason of this absence, is that, as the number of qubits is increased, a quantum register inevitably becomes susceptible to an ever narrower bandwidth of frequencies in the reservoir. Furthermore, we show that for superdecoherence to occur in a reservoir with a discrete spectrum, one of the frequencies in the reservoir has to coincide exactly with the frequency the quantum register is most susceptible to. We thus fully resolve the conditions that determine the presence or absence of superdecoherence. We conclude that superdecoherence is easily avoidable in practical realizations of quantum computers.