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Si-Yun Zhou

Publications and source records attributed to Si-Yun Zhou.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Observing Quantum Correlation Dynamics in Tunable Superconducting Bose-Hubbard Simulators

The dynamics of quantum correlations are central to understanding many physical properties of quantum systems. Here we experimentally study the correlation dynamics via two-particle quantum walks in superconducting Bose-Hubbard qutrit arrays, with tunable on-site interaction $U$ realized by Floquet engineering. Quantum walks show the characteristic change from bosonic bunching to fermionic antibunching with increasing $U$. The two-site entanglement and quantum correlation dynamics, as measured by negativity and quantum discord, are investigated. We find that depending on the initial state, the propagation of entanglement can be strongly suppressed with increasing $U$, while that of quantum discord exhibits considerably larger amplitude; or both of them appear insensitive to $U$. Furthermore, the forms of entanglement are found to persist throughout particle walks for $U =$ 0 and it is generally not the case when $U$ increases. Our work highlights the role of interaction in shaping quantum dynamics and extends the realm of simulating correlated quantum systems with superconducting circuits.

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Observation of Inelastic Meson Scattering in a Floquet System using a Digital Quantum Simulator

Lattice gauge theories provide a non-perturbative framework for understanding confinement and hadronic physics, but their real-time dynamics remain challenging for classical computations. However, quantum simulators offer a promising alternative for exploring such dynamics beyond classical capabilities. Here, we experimentally investigate meson scattering using a superconducting quantum processor. Employing a digital protocol, we realize a Floquet spin chain equivalent to a one-dimensional Floquet $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theory. We observe Bloch oscillations of single kinks and strong binding between adjacent kinks, signaling confinement and the formation of stable mesons in this Floquet system. Using full-system joint readout, we resolve meson populations by string length, enabling identification of meson scattering channels. Our results reveal the fragmentation of a long-string meson into multiple short-string mesons, which is also an experimental signature of string breaking. Moreover, we directly observe inelastic meson scattering, where two short-string mesons can merge into a longer one. Our results pave the way for studying interacting gauge particles and composite excitations on digital quantum simulators.

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Non-Equilibrium Criticality-Enhanced Quantum Sensing with Superconducting Qubits

Exploiting quantum features allows for estimating external parameters with precisions well beyond the capacity of classical sensors, a phenomenon known as quantum-enhanced precision. Quantum criticality has been identified as a resource for achieving such enhancements with respect to the probe size. However, they demand complex probe preparation and measurement and the achievable enhancement is ultimately restricted to narrow parameter regimes. On the other hand, non-equilibrium probes harness dynamics, enabling quantum-enhanced precision with respect to time over a wide range of parameters through simple probe initialization. Here, we unify these approaches through a Stark-Wannier localization platform, where competition between a linear gradient field and particle tunneling enables quantum-enhanced sensitivity across an extended parameter regime. The probe is implemented on a 9-qubit superconducting quantum device, in both single- and double-excitation subspaces, where we explore its performance in the extended phase, the critical point and the localized phase. Despite employing only computational-basis measurements we have been able to achieve near-Heisenberg-limited precision by combining outcomes at distinct evolution times. In addition, we demonstrate that the performance of the probe in the entire extended phase is significantly outperforming the performance in the localized regime. Our results highlight Stark-Wannier systems as versatile platforms for quantum sensing, where the combination of criticality and non-equilibrium dynamics enhances precision over a wide range of parameters without stringent measurement requirements.

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Direct Implementation of High-Fidelity Three-Qubit Gates for Superconducting Processor with Tunable Couplers

Three-qubit gates can be constructed using combinations of single-qubit and two-qubit gates, making their independent realization unnecessary. However, direct implementation of three-qubit gates reduces the depth of quantum circuits, streamlines quantum programming, and facilitates efficient circuit optimization, thereby enhancing overall performance in quantum computation. In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity scheme for implementing a three-qubit controlled-controlled-Z (CCZ) gate in a flip-chip superconducting quantum processor with tunable couplers. This direct CCZ gate is implemented by simultaneously leveraging two tunable couplers interspersed between three qubits to enable three-qubit interactions, achieving an average final state fidelity of $97.94\%$ and a process fidelity of $93.54\%$. This high fidelity cannot be achieved through a simple combination of single- and two-qubit gate sequences from processors with similar performance levels. Our experiments also verify that multilayer direct implementation of the CCZ gate exhibits lower leakage compared to decomposed gate approaches. As a showcase, we utilize the CCZ gate as an oracle to implement the Grover search algorithm on three qubits, demonstrating high performance with the target probability amplitude significantly enhanced after two iterations. These results highlight the advantage of our approach, and facilitate the implementation of complex quantum circuits.

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Many-body delocalization with a two-dimensional 70-qubit superconducting quantum simulator

Quantum many-body systems with sufficiently strong disorder can exhibit a non-equilibrium phenomenon, known as the many-body localization (MBL), which is distinct from conventional thermalization. While the MBL regime has been extensively studied in one dimension, its existence in higher dimensions remains elusive, challenged by the avalanche instability. Here, using a 70-qubit two-dimensional (2D) superconducting quantum simulator, we experimentally explore the robustness of the MBL regime in controlled finite-size 2D systems. We observe that the decay of imbalance becomes more pronounced with increasing system sizes, scaling up from 21, 42 to 70 qubits, with a relatively large disorder strength, and for the first time, provide an evidence for the many-body delocalization in 2D disordered systems. Our experimental results are consistent with the avalanche theory that predicts the instability of MBL regime beyond one spatial dimension. This work establishes a scalable platform for probing high-dimensional non-equilibrium phases of matter and their finite-size effects using superconducting quantum circuits.

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Interplay between disorder and topology in Thouless pumping on a superconducting quantum processor

Topological phases are robust against weak perturbations, but break down when disorder becomes sufficiently strong. However, moderate disorder can also induce topologically nontrivial phases. Thouless pumping, as a (1+1)D counterpart of the integer quantum Hall effect, is one of the simplest manifestations of topology. Here, we report experimental observations of the competition and interplay between Thouless pumping and disorder on a 41-qubit superconducting quantum processor. We improve a Floquet engineering technique to realize cycles of adiabatic pumping by simultaneously varying the on-site potentials and the hopping couplings. We demonstrate Thouless pumping in the presence of disorder and show its breakdown as the strength of disorder increases. Moreover, we observe two types of topological pumping that are induced by on-site potential disorder and hopping disorder, respectively. In particular, an intrinsic topological pump that is induced by quasi-periodic hopping disorder has never been experimentally realized before. Our highly controllable system provides a valuable quantum simulating platform for studying various aspects of topological physics in the presence of disorder.

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Prethermalization by Random Multipolar Driving on a 78-Qubit Superconducting Processor

Time-dependent drives hold the promise of realizing non-equilibrium many-body phenomena that are absent in undriven systems. Yet, drive-induced heating normally destabilizes the systems, which can be parametrically suppressed in the high-frequency regime by using periodic (Floquet) drives. It remains largely unknown to what extent highly controllable quantum simulators can suppress heating in non-periodically driven systems. Using the 78-qubit superconducting quantum processor, Chuang-tzu 2.0, we report the experimental observation of long-lived prethermal phases in many-body systems with tunable heating rates, driven by structured random protocols, characterized by $n$-multipolar temporal correlations. By measuring both the particle imbalance and subsystem entanglement entropy, we monitor the entire heating process over 1,000 driving cycles and observe the existence of the prethermal plateau. The prethermal lifetime is `doubly tunable': one way by driving frequency, the other by multipolar order; it grows algebraically with the frequency with the universal scaling exponent $2n{+}1$. Using quantum state tomography on different subsystems, we demonstrate a non-uniform spatial entanglement distribution and observe a crossover from area-law to volume-law entanglement scaling. With 78 qubits and 137 couplers in a 2D configuration, the entire far-from-equilibrium heating dynamics are beyond the reach of simulation using tensor-network numerical techniques. Our work highlights superconducting quantum processors as a powerful platform for exploring universal scaling laws and non-equilibrium phases of matter in driven systems in regimes where classical simulation faces formidable challenges.

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High-precision pulse calibration of tunable couplers for high-fidelity two-qubit gates in superconducting quantum processors

For superconducting quantum processors, stable high-fidelity two-qubit operations depend on precise flux control of the tunable coupler. However, the pulse distortion poses a significant challenge to the control precision. Current calibration methods, which often rely on microwave crosstalk or additional readout resonators for coupler excitation and readout, tend to be cumbersome and inefficient, especially when couplers only have flux control. Here, we introduce and experimentally validate a novel pulse calibration scheme that exploits the strong coupling between qubits and couplers, eliminating the need for extra coupler readout and excitation. Our method directly measures the short-time and long-time step responses of the coupler flux pulse transient, enabling us to apply predistortion to subsequent signals using fast Fourier transformation and deconvolution. This approach not only simplifies the calibration process but also significantly improves the precision and stability of the flux control. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method through the implementation of diabatic CZ and iSWAP gates with fidelities of $99.61\pm0.04\%$ and $99.82\pm0.02\%$, respectively, as well as a series of diabatic CPhase gates with high fidelities characterized by cross-entropy benchmarking. The consistency and robustness of our technique are further validated by the reduction in pulse distortion and phase error observed across multilayer CZ gates. These results underscore the potential of our calibration and predistortion method to enhance the performance of two-qubit gates in superconducting quantum processors.

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High-order topological pumping on a superconducting quantum processor

High-order topological phases of matter refer to the systems of $n$-dimensional bulk with the topology of $m$-th order, exhibiting $(n-m)$-dimensional boundary modes and can be characterized by topological pumping. Here, we experimentally demonstrate two types of second-order topological pumps, forming four 0-dimensional corner localized states on a 4$\times$4 square lattice array of 16 superconducting qubits. The initial ground state of the system for half-filling, as a product of four identical entangled 4-qubit states, is prepared using an adiabatic scheme. During the pumping procedure, we adiabatically modulate the superlattice Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian by precisely controlling both the hopping strengths and on-site potentials. At the half pumping period, the system evolves to a corner-localized state in a quadrupole configuration. The robustness of the second-order topological pump is also investigated by introducing different on-site disorder. Our work studies the topological properties of high-order topological phases from the dynamical transport picture using superconducting qubits, which would inspire further research on high-order topological phases.

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