Noise-resilient Edge Modes on a Chain of Superconducting Qubits

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the robustness of Majorana edge modes in a superconducting qubit chain, showing their resilience to noise and enabling detailed spatial profiling through experimental implementation of a kicked Ising model.

Contribution

We experimentally realize a 1D kicked Ising model with superconducting qubits, revealing noise-resilient Majorana edge modes and their decay dynamics in a solid-state system.

Findings

Majorana edge modes exhibit uniform decay rates regardless of size

Edge modes can be spatially reconstructed with high accuracy

Edge modes show resilience against certain symmetry-breaking noise

Abstract

Inherent symmetry of a quantum system may protect its otherwise fragile states. Leveraging such protection requires testing its robustness against uncontrolled environmental interactions. Using 47 superconducting qubits, we implement the one-dimensional kicked Ising model which exhibits non-local Majorana edge modes (MEMs) with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ parity symmetry. Remarkably, we find that any multi-qubit Pauli operator overlapping with the MEMs exhibits a uniform late-time decay rate comparable to single-qubit relaxation rates, irrespective of its size or composition. This characteristic allows us to accurately reconstruct the exponentially localized spatial profiles of the MEMs. Furthermore, the MEMs are found to be resilient against certain symmetry-breaking noise owing to a prethermalization mechanism. Our work elucidates the complex interplay between noise and symmetry-protected edge modes in a solid-state environment.