Observation of constructive interference at the edge of quantum ergodicity
Google Quantum AI and Collaborators, Dmitry A. Abanin, Rajeev Acharya, Laleh Aghababaie-Beni, Georg Aigeldinger, Ashok Ajoy, Ross Alcaraz, I. L. Aleǐner, Trond I. Andersen, M. Ansmann, Frank Arute, Kunal Arya, Abraham Asfaw, Nikita Astrakhantsev, Juan Atalaya, Ryan Babbush, Dave Bacon, Brian Ballard, Joseph C. Bardin, Christian Bengs, Andreas Bengtsson, Alexander Bilmes, Sergio Boixo, Gina Bortoli, Alexandre Bourassa, Jenna Bovaird, Dylan Bowers, L. Brill, Michael Broughton, David A. Browne, Brett Buchea, Bob B. Buckley, David A. Buell, Tim Burger, Brian Burkett, Nicholas Bushnell, Anthony Cabrera, Juan Campero, Hung-Shen Chang, Yu Chen, Zijun Chen, B. Chiaro, Liang-Ying Chih, Desmond Chik, Charina Chou, Jahan Claes, Agnetta Y. Cleland, Josh Cogan, Saul D. Cohen, Roberto Collins, Paul Conner, William Courtney, Alexander L. Crook, Ben Curtin, Sayan Das, Laura de Lorenzo, Dripto M. Debroy, Sean Demura, Michel Devoret, Agustín Di Paolo, Paul Donohoe, Ilya Drozdov, Andrew Dunsworth, Clint Earle, Alec Eickbusch, Aviv Moshe Elbag, Mahmoud Elzouka, Catherine Erickson, Lara Faoro, Edward Farhi, Vinicius S. Ferreira, Leslie Flores Burgos, Ebrahim Forati, Austin G. Fowler, Brooks Foxen, Suhas Ganjam, Gonzalo Cerruela García, Robert Gasca, Élie Genois, William Giang, Craig Gidney, D. Gilboa, Raja Gosula, Alejandro Grajales Dau, Dietrich Graumann, Alex Greene, Jonathan A. Gross, Hanfeng Gu, Steve Habegger, John A. Hall, Ikko Hamamura, Michael C. Hamilton, Monica Hansen, Matthew P. Harrigan, Sean D. Harrington, Stephen Heslin, Paula Heu, Oscar Higgott, Gordon Hill, J. Hilton
Abstract
The dynamics of quantum many-body systems is characterized by quantum observables that are reconstructed from correlation functions at separate points in space and time1–3. In dynamics with fast entanglement generation, however, quantum observables generally become insensitive to the details of the underlying dynamics at long times due to the effects of scrambling. To circumvent this limitation and enable access to relevant dynamics in experimental systems, repeated time-reversal protocols have been successfully implemented4. Here we experimentally measure the second-order out-of-time-order correlators (OTOC(2))5–18 on a superconducting quantum processor and find that they remain sensitive to the underlying dynamics at long timescales. Furthermore, OTOC(2) manifests quantum correlations in a highly entangled quantum many-body system that are inaccessible without time-reversal techniques. This is demonstrated through an experimental protocol that randomizes the phases of Pauli strings in the Heisenberg picture by inserting Pauli operators during quantum evolution. The measured values of OTOC(2) are substantially changed by the protocol, thereby revealing constructive interference between Pauli strings that form large loops in the configuration space. The observed interference mechanism also endows OTOC(2) with high degrees of classical simulation complexity. These results, combined with the capability of OTOC(2) in unravelling useful details of quantum dynamics, as shown through an example of Hamiltonian learning, indicate a viable path to practical quantum advantage. Experimental measurements of high-order out-of-time-order correlators on a superconducting quantum processor show that these correlators remain highly sensitive to the quantum many-body dynamics in quantum computers at long timescales.