Estimated scale of Born rule violation in superconducting qubit measurement

TL;DR

This paper estimates the potential violation of the Born rule in superconducting qubit measurements, suggesting that such violations could occur but are likely too small to affect quantum computing practices.

Contribution

It provides the first estimate of Born rule violation magnitude in superconducting qubits based on extrapolated experimental data analysis.

Findings

Estimated Born rule violation is potentially detectable but very small.

The violation level is unlikely to impact practical quantum computing.

Analysis is based on extrapolating from cloud chamber detection data.

Abstract

I estimate the size of expected Born rule violation for a two-level superconducting qubit with dispersive readout. The estimate is based on extrapolating from an earlier analysis of experimental data on cloud chamber detection. That analysis made no explicit use of quantum measurement axioms and found indication that the Born rule breaks down when it would otherwise naively predict extremely small measurement probabilities. In such cases, the Born rule significantly over-predicts the number of measurement events. The level of breakdown that I estimate here for the two-level qubit may be too small to have a meaningful impact on practical quantum computing.