CQS-12 Tutorial: Pedram Roushan - Novel quantum dynamics with superconducting qubits

Tutorial talk from the 12th Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Science on June 26 2025 at University of Rochester Novel quantum dynamics with superconducting qubits Speaker: Pedram Roushan, Google Quantum AI Abstract: In recent years, superconducting qubits have emerged as a leading platform for quantum simulation, particularly for studying quantum dynamics on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) processors. I will discuss some of our work within this broad area of research. In a recent study [1], we directly image the dynamics of charges and strings in (2+1)-dimensional lattice gauge theories. We identify two distinct regimes within the confining phase: in the weak confinement regime, the string exhibits strong transverse fluctuations, while in the strong confinement regime, these fluctuations are significantly suppressed. In another study [2], we observe a novel form of localization in quantum many-body systems in one and two dimensions. Despite the absence of disorder, energy perturbations do not spread, even when both the evolution operator and initial states are fully translationally invariant. These results demonstrate that NISQ processors—in the absence of fully developed quantum computers—are invaluable tools for probing non-equilibrium physics, offering critical insights into complex quantum dynamics. [1] Cochran et al., Nature 642, 315–320 (2025) [2] Gyawali et al., arxiv.org/abs/2410.06557