Dissipative Landau-Zener tunneling in the crossover regime from weak to strong environment coupling

X Dai; R Trappen; H Chen; D Melanson; M A Yurtalan; D M Tennant; A J Martinez; Y Tang; E Mozgunov; J Gibson; J A Grover; S M Disseler; J I Basham; S Novikov; R Das; A J Melville; B M Niedzielski; C F Hirjibehedin; K Serniak; S J Weber; J L Yoder; W D Oliver; K M Zick; D A Lidar; A Lupascu

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-55588-x

Dissipative Landau-Zener tunneling in the crossover regime from weak to strong environment coupling

Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 2;16(1):329. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-55588-x.

Authors

X Dai^#^{1

2}, R Trappen^#^{3

4}, H Chen^{5

6}, D Melanson^{7

8}, M A Yurtalan^{7

8

9}, D M Tennant^{7

8}, A J Martinez^{7

8}, Y Tang^{7

8}, E Mozgunov¹⁰, J Gibson^{11

12}, J A Grover^{11

13}, S M Disseler^{11

14}, J I Basham^{11

15}, S Novikov^{11

16}, R Das¹⁴, A J Melville¹⁴, B M Niedzielski¹⁴, C F Hirjibehedin¹⁴, K Serniak¹⁴, S J Weber¹⁴, J L Yoder¹⁴, W D Oliver^{13

14}, K M Zick^{10

11}, D A Lidar^{5

6

17

18}, A Lupascu^{19

20

21}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. [email protected].
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. [email protected].
³ Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. [email protected].
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. [email protected].
⁵ Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁷ Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ University of Southern California-Information Sciences Institute, Arlington, VA, USA.
¹¹ Northrop Grumman Corporation, Linthicum, MD, USA.
¹² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
¹³ Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁴ Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, USA.
¹⁵ QuEra Computing Inc., Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Atlantic Quantum Corp., Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Physics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. [email protected].
²⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. [email protected].
²¹ Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Landau-Zener tunneling, which describes the transition in a two-level system during a sweep through an anti-crossing, is a model applicable to a wide range of physical phenomena. Realistic quantum systems are affected by dissipation due to coupling to their environments. An important aspect of understanding such open quantum systems is the relative energy scales of the system itself and the system-environment coupling, which distinguishes the weak- and strong-coupling regimes. Using a tunable superconducting flux qubit, we observe the crossover from weak to strong coupling to the environment in Landau-Zener tunneling. Our results confirm previous theoretical studies of dissipative Landau-Zener tunneling in the weak and strong coupling limits. We devise a spin bath model that effectively captures the crossover regime. This work is relevant for understanding the role of dissipation in quantum annealing, where the system is expected to go through a cascade of Landau-Zener transitions before reaching the target state.

Abstract

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