Benchmarking multi-qubit gates -- II: Computational aspects

TL;DR

This paper develops efficient benchmarking protocols for multi-qubit gates by analyzing properties of their reduced Choi matrices, identifying error types, and creating tests sensitive to different physical error mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces classically verifiable properties of the reduced Choi matrix to distinguish error types and proposes benchmarks for thermal bath, non-Markovian, and systematic errors in multi-qubit gates.

Findings

Double-stochasticity violation detects thermal bath coupling.

Rank property violation indicates non-Markovian errors.

Symmetry-based partial benchmarking assesses unitary errors.

Abstract

An important step in developing multi-qubit gates is to construct efficient benchmarking protocols for them. In our previous paper (arXiv: 2210.04330), we developed metrological protocols to measure the reduced Choi matrix i.e., the completely positive (CP) maps induced on a subset S of the qubits, by the multi-qubit gate. Here, we show a set of classically verifiable properties that the Choi matrix satisfies if it is a reduction of a multi-qubit unitary and use them to develop benchmarks. We identify three types of errors that affect the implementation of a multi-qubit unitary, based on their mathematical properties and physical origin. Although a target multi-qubit gate is a unitary operator, errors turn it into a general completely positive (CP) map. Errors due to coupling to a thermal bath result in the multi-qubit gate being CP-divisible (Markovian), deviating from a unitary. The reduced Choi matrix of a multi-qubit gate has a property known as double stochasticity, which is violated in the presence of Markovian errors. We construct a benchmark using double-stochasticity violation and show that it is sensitive to coupling to any thermal bath at a finite temperature. Further, errors due to shot-to-shot fluctuations result in a non-markovian, i.e., CP-indivisible quantum process. We prove a new property, which we call the \rank property of the reduced Choi matrix, the violation of which implies a CP-indivisible error. A third category of errors comes from systematics in the implementation of a multi-qubit gate, resulting in no deviation from unitarity. We refer to this as unitary errors. This corresponds to the most challenging type of error to benchmark. We develop a partial-benchmarking protocol for such errors using symmetries of the multi-qubit gate being applied.