Resolving catastrophic error bursts from cosmic rays in large arrays of superconducting qubits

Understand

Scalable quantum computing can become a reality with error correction, provided coherent qubits can be constructed in large arrays.

• The key premise is that physical errors can remain both small and sufficiently uncorrelated as devices scale, so that logical error rates can be exponentially suppressed.
• However, energetic impacts from cosmic rays and latent radioactivity violate both of these assumptions.
• An impinging particle ionizes the substrate, radiating high energy phonons that induce a burst of quasiparticles, destroying qubit coherence throughout the device.