arXiv subjects

Bela Bauer

Publications and source records attributed to Bela Bauer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

20 Second Parity Lifetime in an InAs--Pb Tetron Device

A central promise of topological quantum computing is that increasing the excitation gap improves device performance significantly. Here, we experimentally validate this principle in an InAs--Pb tetron device via interferometric single-shot parity measurements. By replacing aluminum with the higher-gap superconductor lead in our superconductor-semiconductor hybrid devices, we have improved the robustness of our topological phase. In addition, to enable fast and precise bring-up at scale, we have developed an rf measurement technique that resolves low-energy wire-end states and directly measures their energy splitting with $\mu\text{eV}$ precision. We employ this technique to bring up a device in a multi-tetron array and perform parity measurements of one of the tetron's hybrid nanowires (NWs). By controllably switching the wire parity, we observe $h/2e$-periodic bimodal shifts in the quantum capacitance of a quantum dot coupled to the hybrid nanowire in an interference loop. Further time-resolved measurements reveal a characteristic parity switching time of $\sim 20$ s with some instances reaching minute-scale. Such extremely long parity lifetimes are orders of magnitude longer than typical qubit operation times, which are on the order of $\mu\text{s}$. Finally, we discuss potential implications for the fidelity of Pauli measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Excising dead components in the surface code using minimally invasive alterations: A performance study

The physical implementation of a large-scale error-corrected quantum processor will necessarily need to mitigate the presence of defective (thereby "dead") physical components in its operation, for example, identified during bring-up of the device or detected in the middle of a computation. In the context of solid-state qubits, the quantum error correcting protocol operating in the presence of dead components should ideally (i) use the same native operation set as that without dead components, (ii) maximize salvaging of functional components, and (iii) use a consistent global operating schedule which optimizes logical qubit performance and is compatible with the control requirements of the system. The scheme proposed by Grans-Samuelsson et al. [Quantum 8, 1429 (2024)] satisfies all three of these criteria: it effectively excises (cuts out) dead components from the surface code using minimally invasive alterations (MIA). We conduct extensive numerical simulations of this proposal for the pairwise-measurement-based surface code protocol in the presence of dead components under circuit-level noise. To that end, we also describe techniques to automatically construct performant check (detector) bases directly from circuits without manual circuit annotation, which may be of independent interest. Both the MIA scheme and this automated check basis computation can be readily used with measurement-based as well as CNOT-based circuits, and the results presented here demonstrate state-of-the-art performance.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Distinct Lifetimes for $X$ and $Z$ Loop Measurements in a Majorana Tetron Device

We present a hardware realization and measurements of a tetron qubit device in a superconductor-semiconductor heterostructure. The device architecture contains two parallel superconducting nanowires, which support four Majorana zero modes (MZMs) when tuned into the topological phase, and a trivial superconducting backbone. Two distinct readout interferometers are formed by connecting the superconducting structure to a series of quantum dots. We perform single-shot interferometric measurements of the fermion parity for the two loops, designed to implement Pauli-$X$ and $Z$ measurements of the tetron. Performing repeated single-shot measurements yields two widely separated time scales $\tau_X = 14.5\pm 0.3 \, \mathrm{\mu s}$ and $\tau_Z = 12.4\pm 0.4\, \mathrm{ms}$ for parity switches observed in the $X$ and $Z$ measurement loops, which we attribute to intra-wire parity switches and external quasiparticle poisoning, respectively. We estimate assignment errors of $\mathrm{err}^X_a=16\%$ and $\mathrm{err}^Z_a=0.5\%$ for $X$ and $Z$ measurement-based operations, respectively.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Response to recent comments on Phys. Rev. B 107, 245423 (2023) and Subsection S4.3 of the Supp. Info. for Nature 638, 651-655 (2025)

The topological gap protocol (TGP) is a statistical test designed to identify a topological phase with high confidence and without human bias. It is used to determine a promising parameter regime for operating topological qubits. The protocol's key metric is the probability of incorrectly identifying a trivial region as topological, referred to as the false discovery rate (FDR). Two recent manuscripts [arXiv:2502.19560, arXiv:2503.08944] engage with the topological gap protocol and its use in Phys. Rev. B 107, 245423 (2023) and Subsection S4.3 of the Supplementary Information for Nature 638, 651-655 (2025), although they do not explicitly dispute the main results of either one. We demonstrate that the objections in arXiv:2502.19560 and arXiv:2503.08944 are unfounded, and we uphold the conclusions of Phys. Rev. B 107, 245423 (2023) and Nature 638, 651-655 (2025). Specifically, we show that no flaws have been identified in our estimate of the false discovery rate (FDR). We provide a point-by-point rebuttal of the comments in arXiv:2502.19560 and arXiv:2503.08944.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Predictive simulations of the dynamical response of mesoscopic devices

As the complexity of mesoscopic quantum devices increases, simulations are becoming an invaluable tool for understanding their behavior. This is especially true for the superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures used to build Majorana-based topological qubits, where quantitatively understanding the interplay of topological superconductivity, disorder, semiconductor quantum dots, Coulomb blockade and noise has been essential for progress on device design and interpretation of measurements. In this paper, we describe a general framework to simulate the low-energy quantum dynamics of such complex systems. We illustrate our approach by computing the dispersive gate sensing (DGS) response of quantum dots coupled to topological superconductors. We start by formulating the DGS response as an open-system quantum dynamics problem, which allows a consistent treatment of drive backaction as well as quantum and classical noise. For microscopic quantum problems subject to Coulomb-blockade, where a direct solution in the exponentially large many-body Hilbert space would be prohibitive, we introduce a series of controlled approximations that incorporate ideas from tensor network theory and quantum chemistry to reduce this Hilbert space to a few low-energy degrees of freedom that accurately capture the low-energy quantum dynamics. We demonstrate the methods introduced in this paper on the example of a single quantum dot coupled to a topological superconductor and a microscopic realization of the fermion parity readout setup of Aghaee et al. arXiv:2401.09549 (2024).

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Roadmap to fault tolerant quantum computation using topological qubit arrays

We describe a concrete device roadmap towards a fault-tolerant quantum computing architecture based on noise-resilient, topologically protected Majorana-based qubits. Our roadmap encompasses four generations of devices: a single-qubit device that enables a measurement-based qubit benchmarking protocol; a two-qubit device that uses measurement-based braiding to perform single-qubit Clifford operations; an eight-qubit device that can be used to show an improvement of a two-qubit operation when performed on logical qubits rather than directly on physical qubits; and a topological qubit array supporting lattice surgery demonstrations on two logical qubits. Devices that enable this path require a superconductor-semiconductor heterostructure that supports a topological phase, quantum dots and coupling between those quantum dots that can create the appropriate loops for interferometric measurements, and a microwave readout system that can perform fast, low-error single-shot measurements. We describe the key design components of these qubit devices, along with the associated protocols for demonstrations of single-qubit benchmarking, Clifford gate execution, quantum error detection, and quantum error correction, which differ greatly from those in more conventional qubits. Finally, we comment on implications and advantages of this architecture for utility-scale quantum computation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Simulating adiabatic quantum computation with a variational approach

The theoretical analysis of the Adiabatic Quantum Computation protocol presents several challenges resulting from the difficulty of simulating, with classical resources, the unitary dynamics of a large quantum device. We present here a variational approach to substantially alleviate this problem in many situations of interest. Our approach is based on the time-dependent Variational Monte Carlo method, in conjunction with a correlated and time-dependent Jastrow ansatz. We demonstrate that accurate results can be obtained in a variety of problems, ranging from the description of defect generation through a dynamical phase transition in 1D to the complex dynamics of frustrated spin-glass problems both on fully-connected and Chimera graphs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Interferometric Single-Shot Parity Measurement in an InAs-Al Hybrid Device

The fusion of non-Abelian anyons or topological defects is a fundamental operation in measurement-only topological quantum computation. In topological superconductors, this operation amounts to a determination of the shared fermion parity of Majorana zero modes. As a step towards this, we implement a single-shot interferometric measurement of fermion parity in indium arsenide-aluminum heterostructures with a gate-defined nanowire. The interferometer is formed by tunnel-coupling the proximitized nanowire to quantum dots. The nanowire causes a state-dependent shift of these quantum dots' quantum capacitance of up to 1 fF. Our quantum capacitance measurements show flux h/2e-periodic bimodality with a signal-to-noise ratio of 1 in 3.7 $\mu$s at optimal flux values. From the time traces of the quantum capacitance measurements, we extract a dwell time in the two associated states that is longer than 1 ms at in-plane magnetic fields of approximately 2 T. These results are consistent with a measurement of the fermion parity encoded in a pair of Majorana zero modes that are separated by approximately 3 $\mu$m and subjected to a low rate of poisoning by non-equilibrium quasiparticles. The large capacitance shift and long poisoning time enable a parity measurement error probability of 1%.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Improved Pairwise Measurement-Based Surface Code

We devise a new realization of the surface code on a rectangular lattice of qubits utilizing single-qubit and nearest-neighbor two-qubit Pauli measurements and three auxiliary qubits per plaquette. This realization gains substantial advantages over prior pairwise measurement-based realizations of the surface code. It has a short operation period of 4 steps and our performance analysis for a standard circuit noise model yields a high fault-tolerance threshold of approximately $0.66\% $. The syndrome extraction circuits avoid bidirectional hook errors, so we can achieve full code distance by choosing appropriate boundary conditions. We also construct variants of the syndrome extraction circuits that entirely prevent hook errors, at the cost of larger circuit depth. This achieves full distance regardless of boundary conditions, with only a modest decrease in the threshold. Furthermore, we propose an efficient strategy for dealing with dead components (qubits and measurements) in our surface code realization, which can be adopted more generally for other surface code realizations. This new surface code realization is highly optimized for Majorana-based hardware, accounting for constraints imposed by layouts and the implementation of measurements, making it competitive with the recently proposed Floquet codes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Measurement-induced entanglement transitions in quantum circuits of non-interacting fermions: Born-rule versus forced measurements

We address entanglement transitions in monitored random quantum circuits of non-interacting fermions, in particular, the question of whether Born-rule and forced measurements yield the same universality class. For a generic circuit with no symmetry other than fermion parity, acting on a one-dimensional Majorana chain, we numerically obtain several critical exponents, providing clear evidence that the two transitions with Born-rule and forced measurements are in different universality classes. We provide a theoretical understanding for our numerical results by identifying the underlying statistical mechanics model which follows from the general correspondence, established in Jian et al., Phys. Rev. B 106, 134206, between non-unitary circuits of non-interacting fermions and the ten-fold Altland-Zirnbauer (AZ) symmetry classes. The AZ class is the same for Born-rule and forced measurements of the circuits. For the circuit under consideration (in AZ class DIII), the statistical mechanics model describing the transition is the principal chiral non-linear sigma model whose field variable is an ${\rm SO}(n)$ matrix in the replica limits $n\to 0$ and $n\to 1$ for forced and Born-rule measurements, respectively. The former is in an Anderson localization universality class while we show that the latter is in a novel universality class beyond Anderson localization. Both entanglement transitions are driven by proliferation of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological defects. The different replica limits account for the difference in the universality classes. Furthermore, we provide numerical and symmetry-based arguments that the entanglement transition in the previously-studied monitored circuit of Majorana fermions based on the loop model with crossings, a highly fine-tuned circuit, belongs to a universality class different from both transitions in the generic circuits discussed in this paper.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2022

InAs-Al Hybrid Devices Passing the Topological Gap Protocol

We present measurements and simulations of semiconductor-superconductor heterostructure devices that are consistent with the observation of topological superconductivity and Majorana zero modes. The devices are fabricated from high-mobility two-dimensional electron gases in which quasi-one-dimensional wires are defined by electrostatic gates. These devices enable measurements of local and non-local transport properties and have been optimized via extensive simulations to ensure robustness against non-uniformity and disorder. Our main result is that several devices, fabricated according to the design's engineering specifications, have passed the topological gap protocol defined in Pikulin et al. [arXiv:2103.12217]. This protocol is a stringent test composed of a sequence of three-terminal local and non-local transport measurements performed while varying the magnetic field, semiconductor electron density, and junction transparencies. Passing the protocol indicates a high probability of detection of a topological phase hosting Majorana zero modes as determined by large-scale disorder simulations. Our experimental results are consistent with a quantum phase transition into a topological superconducting phase that extends over several hundred millitesla in magnetic field and several millivolts in gate voltage, corresponding to approximately one hundred micro-electron-volts in Zeeman energy and chemical potential in the semiconducting wire. These regions feature a closing and re-opening of the bulk gap, with simultaneous zero-bias conductance peaks at both ends of the devices that withstand changes in the junction transparencies. The extracted maximum topological gaps in our devices are 20-60 $\mu$eV. This demonstration is a prerequisite for experiments involving fusion and braiding of Majorana zero modes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Performance of planar Floquet codes with Majorana-based qubits

Quantum error correction is crucial for any quantum computing platform to achieve truly scalable quantum computation. The surface code and its variants have been considered the most promising quantum error correction scheme due to their high threshold, low overhead, and relatively simple structure that can naturally be implemented in many existing qubit architectures, such as superconducting qubits. The recent development of Floquet codes offers another promising approach. By going beyond the usual paradigm of stabilizer codes, Floquet codes achieve similar performance while being constructed entirely from two-qubit measurements. This makes them particularly suitable for platforms where two-qubit measurements can be implemented directly, such as measurement-only topological qubits based on Majorana zero modes (MZMs). Here, we explain how two variants of Floquet codes can be implemented on MZM-based architectures without any auxiliary qubits for syndrome measurement and with shallow syndrome extraction sequences. We then numerically demonstrate their favorable performance. In particular, we show that they improve the threshold for scalable quantum computation in MZM-based systems by an order of magnitude, and significantly reduce space and time overheads below threshold.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Linear-time generalized Hartree-Fock algorithm for quasi-one-dimensional systems

In many approximate approaches to fermionic quantum many-body systems, such as Hartree-Fock and density functional theory, solving a system of non-interacting fermions coupled to some effective potential is the computational bottleneck. In this paper, we demonstrate that this crucial computational step can be accelerated using recently developed methods for Gaussian fermionic matrix product states (GFMPS). As an example, we study the generalized Hartree-Fock method, which unifies Hartree-Fock and self-consistent BCS theory, applied to Hubbard models with an inhomogeneous potential. We demonstrate that for quasi-one-dimensional systems with local interactions, our approach scales approximately linearly in the length of the system while yielding a similar accuracy to standard approaches that scale cubically in the system size.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Quantum impurity models using superpositions of fermionic Gaussian states: Practical methods and applications

The coherent superposition of non-orthogonal fermionic Gaussian states has been shown to be an efficient approximation to the ground states of quantum impurity problems [Bravyi and Gosset,Comm. Math. Phys.,356 451 (2017)]. We present a practical approach for performing a variational calculation based on such states. Our method is based on approximate imaginary-time equations of motion that decouple the dynamics of each Gaussian state forming the ansatz. It is independent of the lattice connectivity of the model and the implementation is highly parallelizable. To benchmark our variational method, we calculate the spin-spin correlation function and R\'enyi entanglement entropy of an Anderson impurity, allowing us to identify the screening cloud and compare to density matrix renormalization group calculations. Secondly, we study the screening cloud of the two-channel Kondo model, a problem difficult to tackle using existing numerical tools.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Criticality and entanglement in non-unitary quantum circuits and tensor networks of non-interacting fermions

Models for non-unitary quantum dynamics, such as quantum circuits that include projective measurements, have been shown to exhibit rich quantum critical behavior. There are many complementary perspectives on this behavior. For example, there is a known correspondence between d-dimensional local non-unitary quantum circuits and tensor networks on a D=(d+1)-dimensional lattice. Here, we show that in the case of systems of non-interacting fermions, there is furthermore a full correspondence between non-unitary circuits in d spatial dimensions and unitary non-interacting fermion problems with static Hermitian Hamiltonians in D=(d+1) spatial dimensions. This provides a powerful new perspective for understanding entanglement phases and critical behavior exhibited by non-interacting circuits. Classifying the symmetries of the corresponding non-interacting Hamiltonian, we show that a large class of random circuits, including the most generic circuits with randomness in space and time, are in correspondence with Hamiltonians with static spatial disorder in the ten Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classes. We find the criticality that is known to occur in all of these classes to be the origin of the critical entanglement properties of the corresponding random non-unitary circuit. To exemplify this, we numerically study the quantum states at the boundary of Haar-random Gaussian fermionic tensor networks of dimension D=2 and D=3. We show that the most general such tensor network ensemble corresponds to a unitary problem of non-interacting fermions with static disorder in Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry class DIII, which for both D=2 and D=3 is known to exhibit a stable critical metallic phase. Tensor networks and corresponding random non-unitary circuits in the other nine Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classes can be obtained from the DIII case by implementing Clifford algebra extensions for classifying spaces.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Efficient matrix-product-state preparation of highly entangled trial states: Weak Mott insulators on the triangular lattice revisited

Using tensor network states to unravel the physics of quantum spin liquids in minimal, yet generic microscopic spin or electronic models remains notoriously challenging. A prominent open question concerns the nature of the insulating ground state of two-dimensional half-filled Hubbard-type models on the triangular lattice in the vicinity of the Mott metal-insulator transition, a regime which can be approximated microscopically by a spin-1/2 Heisenberg model supplemented with additional "ring-exchange" interactions. Using a novel and efficient state preparation technique whereby we initialize full density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations with highly entangled Gutzwiller-projected Fermi surface trial wave functions, we show -- contrary to previous works -- that the simplest triangular lattice $J$-$K$ spin model with four-site ring exchange likely does not harbor a fully gapless U(1) spinon Fermi surface (spin Bose metal) phase on four- and six-leg wide ladders. Our methodology paves the way to fully resolve with DMRG other controversial problems in the fields of frustrated quantum magnetism and strongly correlated electrons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry and quantum materials science

As we begin to reach the limits of classical computing, quantum computing has emerged as a technology that has captured the imagination of the scientific world. While for many years, the ability to execute quantum algorithms was only a theoretical possibility, recent advances in hardware mean that quantum computing devices now exist that can carry out quantum computation on a limited scale. Thus it is now a real possibility, and of central importance at this time, to assess the potential impact of quantum computers on real problems of interest. One of the earliest and most compelling applications for quantum computers is Feynman's idea of simulating quantum systems with many degrees of freedom. Such systems are found across chemistry, physics, and materials science. The particular way in which quantum computing extends classical computing means that one cannot expect arbitrary simulations to be sped up by a quantum computer, thus one must carefully identify areas where quantum advantage may be achieved. In this review, we briefly describe central problems in chemistry and materials science, in areas of electronic structure, quantum statistical mechanics, and quantum dynamics, that are of potential interest for solution on a quantum computer. We then take a detailed snapshot of current progress in quantum algorithms for ground-state, dynamics, and thermal state simulation, and analyze their strengths and weaknesses for future developments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Emergent Fermi surface in a triangular-lattice SU(4) quantum antiferromagnet

Motivated by multiple possible physical realizations, we study the SU(4) quantum antiferromagnet with a fundamental representation on each site of the triangular lattice. We provide evidence for a gapless liquid ground state of this system with an emergent Fermi surface of fractionalized fermionic partons coupled with a U(1) gauge field. Our conclusions are based on numerical simulations using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method, which we support with a field theory analysis.

cond-mat.str-el↗