Observable-Conditioned Backaction in Dynamic Circuits: A Higher-Order Context-Conditioned Kernel for Local Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a higher-order kernel model to better characterize the disturbance caused by mid-circuit measurements in quantum circuits, surpassing traditional proxy metrics.

Contribution

It presents a novel context-conditioned kernel that captures residual quantum backaction effects unexplainable by standard low-order diagnostics.

Findings

The kernel isolates higher-order context dependence in quantum hardware.

Experimental validation on synthetic hardware demonstrates the kernel's effectiveness.

Quantum eraser experiments confirm the model's ability to describe backaction phenomena.

Abstract

Mid-circuit measurements are essential primitives for dynamic circuits and quantum error correction, yet characterizing their induced disturbance on spectator qubits remains a central practical problem. Device-level benchmarking often compresses this disturbance into low-order proxy metrics such as $T_1$, $T_2$, readout assignment error, and pairwise crosstalk. We argue that these proxies can be operationally incomplete for multiscale dynamic circuits. We introduce a higher-order context-conditioned kernel, $\Gamma_{\mathrm{eff}}[Y,O] = \Gamma_{\mathrm{loc}}[O] + \Gamma_{\mathrm{proxy}}[O] + \Gamma_{\mathrm{rel}}[Y,O]$, where $Y$ is a global context label and $O$ a local observable. The term $\Gamma_{\mathrm{rel}}[Y,O]$ is a phenomenological compression ansatz isolating residual context dependence unexplained by standard proxies. To avoid impossibility issues of quantum partial-information decompositions on non-commuting algebras, the M\"obius weights entering this ansatz are evaluated operationally on classical measurement outcomes. We present evidence in three steps. First, earlier GHZ-versus-clock hardware results motivate an observable-class split. Second, we present dynamical evidence using the A6 synthetic hardware harness. A6 injects a pure higher-order context dependence via a programmed conditional interaction. Because the $(C_0,C_1,C_2)$ parity context is invisible to singles and pairs by construction, standard low-order diagnostics are fundamentally blind to the source of the probe's disturbance. Third, we demonstrate coherent controllability through the A6.2 quantum-eraser experiment. Programmable MARK interactions suppress unconditional fringes while eraser-basis conditioning restores them, consistent with complementarity bounds. These results validate a context-conditioned description of backaction over proxy-only null models.