Revealing correlated noise with single-qubit operations

Abstract

Spatially correlated noise poses a significant challenge to fault-tolerant quantum computation by breaking the assumption of independent errors. Existing methods such as cycle benchmarking and quantum process tomography can characterize noise correlations but require substantial resources. We propose straightforward and efficient techniques to detect and quantify these correlations by leveraging collective phenomena arising from environmental correlations in a qubit register. In these techniques, single-qubit state preparations, single-qubit gates, and single-qubit measurements, combined with classical post-processing, suffice to uncover correlated relaxation and dephasing. Specifically, we use that correlated relaxation is connected to the superradiance effect which we show to be accessible by single-qubit measurements. Analogously, the established parity oscillation protocol can be refined to reveal correlated dephasing through characteristic changes in the oscillation line shape, without requiring the preparation of complex and entangled states.