Synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays
Abstract Quantum information processing at scale will require sufficiently stable and long-lived qubits, likely enabled by error-correction codes. Several recent superconducting-qubit experiments, however, reported observing intermittent spatiotemporally correlated errors that would be problematic f...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61385-x |
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| author | Patrick M. Harrington Mingyu Li Max Hays Wouter Van De Pontseele Daniel Mayer H. Douglas Pinckney Felipe Contipelli Michael Gingras Bethany M. Niedzielski Hannah Stickler Jonilyn L. Yoder Mollie E. Schwartz Jeffrey A. Grover Kyle Serniak William D. Oliver Joseph A. Formaggio |
| author_facet | Patrick M. Harrington Mingyu Li Max Hays Wouter Van De Pontseele Daniel Mayer H. Douglas Pinckney Felipe Contipelli Michael Gingras Bethany M. Niedzielski Hannah Stickler Jonilyn L. Yoder Mollie E. Schwartz Jeffrey A. Grover Kyle Serniak William D. Oliver Joseph A. Formaggio |
| author_sort | Patrick M. Harrington |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Quantum information processing at scale will require sufficiently stable and long-lived qubits, likely enabled by error-correction codes. Several recent superconducting-qubit experiments, however, reported observing intermittent spatiotemporally correlated errors that would be problematic for conventional codes, with ionizing radiation being a likely cause. Here, we directly measured the cosmic-ray contribution to spatiotemporally correlated qubit errors. We accomplished this by synchronously monitoring cosmic-ray detectors and qubit energy-relaxation dynamics of 10 transmon qubits distributed across a 5 × 5 × 0.35 mm3 silicon chip. Cosmic rays caused correlated errors at a rate of $$1/\left(592\begin{array}{c}+48\\ -41\end{array}\,{\rm{s}}\right)$$ 1 / 592 + 48 − 41 s , accounting for 17.1 ± 1.3% of all such events. Our qubits responded to essentially all of the cosmic rays and their secondary particles incident on the chip, consistent with the independently measured arrival flux. Moreover, we observed that the landscape of the superconducting gap in proximity to the Josephson junctions dramatically impacts the qubit response to cosmic rays. Given the practical difficulties associated with shielding cosmic rays, our results indicate the importance of radiation hardening—for example, superconducting gap engineering—to the realization of robust quantum error correction. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9b6b179cbfdb4619969f20b65fd5c273 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-9b6b179cbfdb4619969f20b65fd5c2732025-08-20T03:46:12ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-07-0116111510.1038/s41467-025-61385-xSynchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arraysPatrick M. Harrington0Mingyu Li1Max Hays2Wouter Van De Pontseele3Daniel Mayer4H. Douglas Pinckney5Felipe Contipelli6Michael Gingras7Bethany M. Niedzielski8Hannah Stickler9Jonilyn L. Yoder10Mollie E. Schwartz11Jeffrey A. Grover12Kyle Serniak13William D. Oliver14Joseph A. Formaggio15Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyResearch Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyResearch Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMIT Lincoln LaboratoryMIT Lincoln LaboratoryMIT Lincoln LaboratoryMIT Lincoln LaboratoryMIT Lincoln LaboratoryMIT Lincoln LaboratoryResearch Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyResearch Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyResearch Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyAbstract Quantum information processing at scale will require sufficiently stable and long-lived qubits, likely enabled by error-correction codes. Several recent superconducting-qubit experiments, however, reported observing intermittent spatiotemporally correlated errors that would be problematic for conventional codes, with ionizing radiation being a likely cause. Here, we directly measured the cosmic-ray contribution to spatiotemporally correlated qubit errors. We accomplished this by synchronously monitoring cosmic-ray detectors and qubit energy-relaxation dynamics of 10 transmon qubits distributed across a 5 × 5 × 0.35 mm3 silicon chip. Cosmic rays caused correlated errors at a rate of $$1/\left(592\begin{array}{c}+48\\ -41\end{array}\,{\rm{s}}\right)$$ 1 / 592 + 48 − 41 s , accounting for 17.1 ± 1.3% of all such events. Our qubits responded to essentially all of the cosmic rays and their secondary particles incident on the chip, consistent with the independently measured arrival flux. Moreover, we observed that the landscape of the superconducting gap in proximity to the Josephson junctions dramatically impacts the qubit response to cosmic rays. Given the practical difficulties associated with shielding cosmic rays, our results indicate the importance of radiation hardening—for example, superconducting gap engineering—to the realization of robust quantum error correction.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61385-x |
| spellingShingle | Patrick M. Harrington Mingyu Li Max Hays Wouter Van De Pontseele Daniel Mayer H. Douglas Pinckney Felipe Contipelli Michael Gingras Bethany M. Niedzielski Hannah Stickler Jonilyn L. Yoder Mollie E. Schwartz Jeffrey A. Grover Kyle Serniak William D. Oliver Joseph A. Formaggio Synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays Nature Communications |
| title | Synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays |
| title_full | Synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays |
| title_fullStr | Synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays |
| title_full_unstemmed | Synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays |
| title_short | Synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays |
| title_sort | synchronous detection of cosmic rays and correlated errors in superconducting qubit arrays |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61385-x |
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