arXiv subjects

Igor Aleiner

Publications and source records attributed to Igor Aleiner.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Practical gates by Majorana fermion motion

Quantum error correction protocols protect against local errors by storing logical information non-locally. This poses a challenge: how to design efficient logical gates on the non-local ``hidden'' logical information, and how to implement these gates using the local physical operations. We develop a general description of planar Pauli stabilizer codes and protocols for logical operations in terms of point-like particles called Majorana fermions. Information is stored in the pairwise fermion parities of spatially separated Majorana fermions. The description in terms of Majorana fermions captures not only large distance asymptotics, but also all scales down to the lattice constants. We exploit this locality to densely pack logical information in spacetime. The simplest application is to a static case: dense memory. More importantly, we implement fault-tolerant Majorana motion and leverage this primitive to design braiding-based logical gates. This approach reduces space overhead of logical operations resulting in an improved logical error rate given fixed number of physical qubits. We illustrate a practical use of our approach by designing and benchmarking of 2-qubit Clifford gates. We find numerically that our protocol outperforms lattice surgery in this setting for near-term error rates and realistic device constraints. More generally, introduction of compact motion of Majorana fermions as an efficient computational primitive opens a promising new route for the design of low overhead error correction protocols.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Constructive interference at the edge of quantum ergodic dynamics

Quantum observables in the form of few-point correlators are the key to characterizing the dynamics of quantum many-body systems. In dynamics with fast entanglement generation, quantum observables generally become insensitive to the details of the underlying dynamics at long times due to the effects of scrambling. In experimental systems, repeated time-reversal protocols have been successfully implemented to restore sensitivities of quantum observables. Using a 103-qubit superconducting quantum processor, we characterize ergodic dynamics using the second-order out-of-time-order correlators, OTOC$^{(2)}$. In contrast to dynamics without time reversal, OTOC$^{(2)}$ are observed to remain sensitive to the underlying dynamics at long time scales. Furthermore, by inserting Pauli operators during quantum evolution and randomizing the phases of Pauli strings in the Heisenberg picture, we observe substantial changes in OTOC$^{(2)}$ values. This indicates that OTOC$^{(2)}$ is dominated by constructive interference between Pauli strings that form large loops in configuration space. The observed interference mechanism endows OTOC$^{(2)}$ with a high degree of classical simulation complexity, which culminates in a set of large-scale OTOC$^{(2)}$ measurements exceeding the simulation capacity of known classical algorithms. Further supported by an example of Hamiltonian learning through OTOC$^{(2)}$, our results indicate a viable path to practical quantum advantage.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Anomalous Thickness Dependence of the Vortex Pearl Length in Few-Layer NbSe2

The coexistence of multiple types of orders is a common thread in condensed matter physics and unconventional superconductors. The nature of superconducting orders may be unveiled by analyzing local perturbations such as vortices. For thin films, the vortex magnetic profile is characterized by the Pearl-length Λ, which is inversely proportional to the 2D superfluid density; hence, normally, also inversely proportional to the film thickness, d. Here we employ the scanning SQUID-on-tip microscopy to measure Λ in NbSe2 flakes with thicknesses ranging from N=3 to 53 layers. For N>10, we find the expected dependence Λ{\varpropto}1/d. However, six-layer films show a sharp increase of Λ deviating by a factor of three from the expected value. This value remains fixed for N=3 to 6. This unexpected behavior suggests the competition between two orders; one residing only on the first and last layers of the film while the other prevails in all layers.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

Quantum error correction below the surface code threshold

Quantum error correction provides a path to reach practical quantum computing by combining multiple physical qubits into a logical qubit, where the logical error rate is suppressed exponentially as more qubits are added. However, this exponential suppression only occurs if the physical error rate is below a critical threshold. In this work, we present two surface code memories operating below this threshold: a distance-7 code and a distance-5 code integrated with a real-time decoder. The logical error rate of our larger quantum memory is suppressed by a factor of $Λ$ = 2.14 $\pm$ 0.02 when increasing the code distance by two, culminating in a 101-qubit distance-7 code with 0.143% $\pm$ 0.003% error per cycle of error correction. This logical memory is also beyond break-even, exceeding its best physical qubit's lifetime by a factor of 2.4 $\pm$ 0.3. We maintain below-threshold performance when decoding in real time, achieving an average decoder latency of 63 $μ$s at distance-5 up to a million cycles, with a cycle time of 1.1 $μ$s. To probe the limits of our error-correction performance, we run repetition codes up to distance-29 and find that logical performance is limited by rare correlated error events occurring approximately once every hour, or 3 $\times$ 10$^9$ cycles. Our results present device performance that, if scaled, could realize the operational requirements of large scale fault-tolerant quantum algorithms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Noise-resilient Edge Modes on a Chain of Superconducting Qubits

Inherent symmetry of a quantum system may protect its otherwise fragile states. Leveraging such protection requires testing its robustness against uncontrolled environmental interactions. Using 47 superconducting qubits, we implement the one-dimensional kicked Ising model which exhibits non-local Majorana edge modes (MEMs) with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ parity symmetry. Remarkably, we find that any multi-qubit Pauli operator overlapping with the MEMs exhibits a uniform late-time decay rate comparable to single-qubit relaxation rates, irrespective of its size or composition. This characteristic allows us to accurately reconstruct the exponentially localized spatial profiles of the MEMs. Furthermore, the MEMs are found to be resilient against certain symmetry-breaking noise owing to a prethermalization mechanism. Our work elucidates the complex interplay between noise and symmetry-protected edge modes in a solid-state environment.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Graph gauge theory of mobile non-Abelian anyons in a qubit stabilizer code

Stabilizer codes allow for non-local encoding and processing of quantum information. Deformations of stabilizer surface codes introduce new and non-trivial geometry, in particular leading to emergence of long sought after objects known as projective Ising non-Abelian anyons. Braiding of such anyons is a key ingredient of topological quantum computation. We suggest a simple and systematic approach to construct effective unitary protocols for braiding, manipulation and readout of non-Abelian anyons and preparation of their entangled states. We generalize the surface code to a more generic graph with vertices of degree 2, 3 and 4. Our approach is based on the mapping of the stabilizer code defined on such a graph onto a model of Majorana fermions charged with respect to two emergent gauge fields. One gauge field is akin to the physical magnetic field. The other one is responsible for emergence of the non-Abelian anyonic statistics and has a purely geometric origin. This field arises from assigning certain rules of orientation on the graph known as the Kasteleyn orientation in the statistical theory of dimer coverings. Each 3-degree vertex on the graph carries the flux of this "Kasteleyn" field and hosts a non-Abelian anyon. In our approach all the experimentally relevant operators are unambiguously fixed by locality, unitarity and gauge invariance. We illustrate the power of our method by making specific prescriptions for experiments verifying the non-Abelian statistics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Suppressing quantum errors by scaling a surface code logical qubit

Practical quantum computing will require error rates that are well below what is achievable with physical qubits. Quantum error correction offers a path to algorithmically-relevant error rates by encoding logical qubits within many physical qubits, where increasing the number of physical qubits enhances protection against physical errors. However, introducing more qubits also increases the number of error sources, so the density of errors must be sufficiently low in order for logical performance to improve with increasing code size. Here, we report the measurement of logical qubit performance scaling across multiple code sizes, and demonstrate that our system of superconducting qubits has sufficient performance to overcome the additional errors from increasing qubit number. We find our distance-5 surface code logical qubit modestly outperforms an ensemble of distance-3 logical qubits on average, both in terms of logical error probability over 25 cycles and logical error per cycle ($2.914\%\pm 0.016\%$ compared to $3.028\%\pm 0.023\%$). To investigate damaging, low-probability error sources, we run a distance-25 repetition code and observe a $1.7\times10^{-6}$ logical error per round floor set by a single high-energy event ($1.6\times10^{-7}$ when excluding this event). We are able to accurately model our experiment, and from this model we can extract error budgets that highlight the biggest challenges for future systems. These results mark the first experimental demonstration where quantum error correction begins to improve performance with increasing qubit number, illuminating the path to reaching the logical error rates required for computation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Exponential suppression of bit or phase flip errors with repetitive error correction

Realizing the potential of quantum computing will require achieving sufficiently low logical error rates. Many applications call for error rates in the $10^{-15}$ regime, but state-of-the-art quantum platforms typically have physical error rates near $10^{-3}$. Quantum error correction (QEC) promises to bridge this divide by distributing quantum logical information across many physical qubits so that errors can be detected and corrected. Logical errors are then exponentially suppressed as the number of physical qubits grows, provided that the physical error rates are below a certain threshold. QEC also requires that the errors are local and that performance is maintained over many rounds of error correction, two major outstanding experimental challenges. Here, we implement 1D repetition codes embedded in a 2D grid of superconducting qubits which demonstrate exponential suppression of bit or phase-flip errors, reducing logical error per round by more than $100\times$ when increasing the number of qubits from 5 to 21. Crucially, this error suppression is stable over 50 rounds of error correction. We also introduce a method for analyzing error correlations with high precision, and characterize the locality of errors in a device performing QEC for the first time. Finally, we perform error detection using a small 2D surface code logical qubit on the same device, and show that the results from both 1D and 2D codes agree with numerical simulations using a simple depolarizing error model. These findings demonstrate that superconducting qubits are on a viable path towards fault tolerant quantum computing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Information Scrambling in Computationally Complex Quantum Circuits

Interaction in quantum systems can spread initially localized quantum information into the many degrees of freedom of the entire system. Understanding this process, known as quantum scrambling, is the key to resolving various conundrums in physics. Here, by measuring the time-dependent evolution and fluctuation of out-of-time-order correlators, we experimentally investigate the dynamics of quantum scrambling on a 53-qubit quantum processor. We engineer quantum circuits that distinguish the two mechanisms associated with quantum scrambling, operator spreading and operator entanglement, and experimentally observe their respective signatures. We show that while operator spreading is captured by an efficient classical model, operator entanglement requires exponentially scaled computational resources to simulate. These results open the path to studying complex and practically relevant physical observables with near-term quantum processors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Solitons in One Dimensional Systems at BCS-BEC Crossover

We developed a comprehensive semiclassical theory of solitons in one dimensional systems at BCS-BEC crossover to provide a semiclassical explanation of their excitation spectra. Our semiclassical results agree well with the exact solutions on both the deep BCS and deep BEC side and explain qualitatively the smooth crossover between them. Especially, we showed that the minimum energy of the $S=1/2$ excitation is achieved exactly at the Fermi momentum $k_F=πn/2$, where $nm_F$ ($m_F$ is the mass of the fermionic atom) is the total mass density of the system. This momentum remains unchanged along the whole crossover, whether the mass is contained in the bosonic molecules as on the deep BEC side or in the fermionic atoms as on the deep BCS side. This phenomenon comes about as a result of a special feature of one dimensional systems that the conventional quasiparticle is not stable with respect to soliton formation. It is valid not only in exactly solvable models but also on the level of semiclassical theory. Besides, we also resolved the inconsistency of existing semiclassical theory with the exact solution of soliton-like $S=0$ excitations on the deep BCS side by a new proposal of soliton configuration.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Exact Solutions to Two-Component Many-Body Systems in One Dimension

We introduce a new type of models for two-component systems in one dimension subject to exact solutions by Bethe ansatz, where the interspecies interactions are tunable via Feshbach resonant interactions. The applicability of Bethe ansatz is obtained by fine-tuning the resonant energies, and the resulting systems can be described by introducing intraspecies repulsive and interspecies attractive couplings $c_1$ and $c_2$. This kind of systems admits two types of interesting solutions: In the regime with $c_1>c_2$, the ground state is a Fermi sea of two-strings, where the Fermi momentum $Q$ is constrained to be smaller than a certain value $Q^*$, and it provides an ideal scenario to realize BCS-BEC crossover (from weakly attractive atoms to weakly repulsive molecules) in one dimension; In the opposite regime with $c_1<c_2$, the ground state is a single bright soliton even for fermionic atoms, which reveals itself as an embedded string solution.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Saturation of Strong Electron-Electron Umklapp Scattering at High Temperature

We consider clean metals, at finite temperature, in which the inelastic rate, $\hbar/ τ_{ee}$, can become of the order of, or larger, than the band splitting energy. We show that in suchsystems, contrary to the common knowledge, the umklapp scattering rate becomes independent of both $τ_{ee}$ and the temperature $T,$ in three dimensional systems. We discuss the relation of this phenomenon to the saturation of resistivity at high temperature.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Three-Boson Bound States in Two Dimensions

We investigate the possible existence of the bound state in the system of three bosons interacting with each other via zero-radius potentials in two dimensions (it can be atoms confined in two dimensions or tri-exciton states in heterostructures or dihalogenated materials). The bosons are classified in two species (a,b) such that a-a and b-b pairs repel each other and a-b attract each other, forming the two-particle bound state with binding energy $ε_b^{(2)}$ (such as bi-exciton). We developed an efficient routine based on the proper choice of basis for analytic and numerical calculations. For zero-angular momentum we found the energies of the three-particle bound states $ε^{(3)}_b$ for wide ranges of the scattering lengths, and found a universal curve of $ε^{(3)}_b/ε^{(2)}_b$ which depends only on the scattering lengths but not the microscopic details of the interactions, this is in contrast to the three-dimensional Efimov effect, where a non-universal three-body parameter is needed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Fast relaxation of photo-excited carriers in 2D transition metal dichalcogenides

We predict a fast relaxation of photo-excited carriers in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which is mediated by the emission of longitudinal optical (LO) phonons. By evaluating Born effective charges for ${\rm MoS_2, MoSe_2,WS_2}$, and ${\rm WSe_2}$, we find that, due to the polar coupling of electrons with LO phonons, the relaxation times for hot electrons and holes are of the order of a few ps.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Three-particle Complexes in Two-Dimensional Semiconductors

We map the three-body problem in two dimensions onto one particle in a three dimensional potential treatable by a purposely-developed boundary-matching-matrix method. We evaluate binding energies of trions $X^{\pm}$, excitons bound by a donor/acceptor charge $X^{D/A}$, and overcharged acceptors/donors in two-dimensional atomic crystals of transition metal dichalcogenides, where interaction between charges features logarithmic behavior at intermediate distances. We find that dissociation energy of $X^{\pm}$ is, typically, much larger than that of localised exciton complexes, so that trions are more resilient to heating, despite that their recombination line in optics is much less red-shifted from the exciton line, as compared to $X^{D/A}$

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Memory Effects in Disordered Systems and Their Relation to 1/f Noise

We propose that memory effects in the conductivity of metallic systems can be produced by the same two levels systems that are responsible for the 1/f noise. Memory effects are extremely long-lived responses of the conductivity to changes in external parameters such as density or magnetic field. Using the quantum transport theory, we derive a universal relationship between the memory effect and the 1/f noise. Finally, we propose a magnetic memory effect, where the magneto-resistance is sensitive to the history of the applied magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Shot noise in chaotic systems: "classical" to quantum crossover

This paper is devoted to study of the classical-to-quantum crossover of the shot noise value in chaotic systems. This crossover is determined by the ratio of the particle dwell time in the system, $τ_d$, to the characteristic time for diffraction $t_E \simeq λ^{-1} |\ln \hbar|$, where $λ$ is the Lyapunov exponent. The shot noise vanishes in the limit $t_E \gg τ_d $, while reaches its universal quantum value in the opposite limit. Thus, the Lyapunov exponent of chaotic mesoscopic systems may be found by the shot noise measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗