Project Grant 2412597

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) provides $400,000 to Syracuse University to conduct research on understanding the physical mechanisms governing qubit transitions during the measurement process in superconducting quantum computers. The project aims to develop and experimentally verify methods for predicting these transitions in order to improve the performance and capabilities of modern quantum processors. Specifically, the research will focus on the measurement-induced transitions that limit the efficiency of the widely used dispersive readout scheme for superconducting qubits, a critical roadblock to achieving the error rates required for practical quantum computing. The project will establish a theoretical framework to estimate the maximum number of photons that can be used in the dispersive readout without inducing qubit transitions, and experimentally validate this framework using model qubit systems like transmons and fluxonia. The successful completion of this 3-year project is expected to advance the fundamental understanding of quantum measurements and foster new design paradigms for quantum devices and sensors.