Scalable and robust quantum computing on qubit arrays with fixed coupling

Abstract

We propose a scheme for scalable and robust quantum computing on two-dimensional arrays of qubits with fixed longitudinal coupling. This opens the possibility for bypassing the device complexity associated with tunable couplers required in conventional quantum computing hardware. Our approach is based on driving a subarray of qubits such that the total multi-qubit Hamiltonian can be decomposed into a sum of commuting few-qubit blocks, and then efficient optimization of the unitary evolution within each block. Each driving pulse can implement a target gate on the driven qubits, and at the same time implement identity gates on the neighbouring undriven qubits, cancelling any unwanted evolution due to the constant qubit-qubit interaction. We show that it is possible to realise a universal set of quantum gates with high fidelity on the basis blocks, and by shifting the driving pattern one can realise an arbitrary quantum circuit on the array. Allowing for imperfect Hamiltonian characterisation, we use robust optimal control to obtain fidelities around 99.99% despite 1% uncertainty in the qubit-qubit and drive-qubit couplings, and a detuning uncertainty at 0.1% of the qubit-qubit coupling strength. This robust feature is crucial for scaling up as parameter uncertainty is significant in large devices.