English

Superconducting qubit decoherence correlated with detected radiation events

Quantum Physics 2025-12-23 v1 Superconductivity

Abstract

Most quantum error correction (QEC) protocols for superconducting qubits assume spatially and temporally uncorrelated decoherence events; however, recent evidence suggests that cosmic radiation induces spatially correlated errors. We present a platform that sandwiches a superconducting transmon qubit between two microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) arrays, enabling real-time detection of radiation-induced phonon bursts. By synchronizing MKID event detection with single-shot measurements of qubit energy relaxation (T1T_1) and phase coherence (T2T_2), we observe statistically significant reductions in both T1T_1 and T2T_2-up to 30.5%-immediately following dual MKID events attributed to penetrating muons. Our findings directly link radiating events to correlated qubit decoherence. Furthermore, our experimental platform provides a foundation for systematic studies of radiation effects, the development of shielding and mitigation techniques, and the refinement of error-correction algorithms tailored to correlated noise sources.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.18171,
  title  = {Superconducting qubit decoherence correlated with detected radiation events},
  author = {A. R. Castelli and K. M. Beck and L. D. H. Alegria and L. A. Martinez and K. R. Chaves and S. R. O'Kelley and N. Materise and J. L DuBois and Y. J. Rosen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.18171},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

10 pages, 9 figures