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The SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f=8$ nearly massless Dirac fermions has long been of theoretical and phenomenological interest due to the near-conformality arising from its proximity to the conformal window. One particularly interesting feature is the emergence of a relatively light, stable flavor-singlet scalar meson $\sigma$ $(J^{PC}=0^{++})$ in contrast to the $N_f=2$ theory QCD. In this work, we study the finite-volume dependence of the $\sigma$ meson correlation function computed in lattice gauge theory and determine the $\sigma$ meson mass and decay constant extrapolated to the infinite-volume limit. We also determine the infinite volume mass and decay constant of the flavor-nonsinglet scalar meson $a_0$., Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures, supplementary data in zenodo https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8007955

We analyze newly expanded and refined data from lattice studies of an SU(3) gauge theory with eight Dirac fermions in the fundamental representation. We focus on the light composite states emerging from these studies, consisting of a set of pseudoscalars and a single light scalar. We first consider the view that this theory is just outside the conformal window. In this case, the pseudoscalars arise from spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry. Identifying the scalar in this case as an approximate dilaton, we fit the lattice data to a dilaton effective field theory, finding that it yields a good fit even at lowest order. For comparison, we then consider the possibility that the theory is inside the conformal window. The fermion mass provides a deformation, triggering confinement. We employ simple scaling laws to fit the lattice data, and find that it is of lesser quality., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, version accepted for publication

Parametric coupling is a powerful technique for generating tunable interactions between superconducting circuits using only microwave tones. Here, we present a highly flexible parametric coupling scheme demonstrated with two transmon qubits, which can be employed for multiple purposes, including the removal of residual $ZZ$ coupling and the implementation of driven swap or swap-free controlled-$Z$ (c$Z$) gates. Our fully integrated coupler design is only weakly flux tunable, cancels static linear coupling between the qubits, avoids internal coupler dynamics or excitations, and operates with rf-pulses. We show that residual $ZZ$ coupling can be reduced with a parametric dispersive tone down to an experimental uncertainty of 5.5 kHz. Additionally, randomized benchmarking reveals that the parametric swap c$Z$ gate achieves a fidelity of 99.4% in a gate duration of 60 ns, while the dispersive parametric swap-free c$Z$ gate attains a fidelity of 99.5% in only 30 ns. We believe this is the fastest and highest fidelity gate achieved with on-chip parametric coupling to date. We further explore the dependence of gate fidelity on gate duration for both p-swap and p-swap-free c$Z$ gates, providing insights into the possible error sources for these gates. Overall, our findings demonstrate a versatility, precision, speed, and high performance not seen in previous parametric approaches. Finally, our design opens up new possibilities for creating larger, modular systems of superconducting qubits.

The appearance of a light composite $0^+$ scalar resonance in nearly conformal gauge-fermion theories motivates further study of the low energy structure of these theories. To this end, we present a nonperturbative lattice calculation of s-wave scattering of Goldstone bosons in the maximal-isospin channel in SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f=8$ light, degenerate flavors. The scattering phase shift is measured both for different values of the underlying fermion mass and for different values of the scattering momentum. We examine the effect of a light flavor-singlet scalar (reported in earlier studies) on Goldstone boson scattering, employing a dilaton effective field theory (EFT) at the tree level. The EFT gives a good description of the scattering data, insofar as the magnitude of deviations between EFT and lattice data are no larger than the expected size of next-to-leading order corrections in the EFT., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. References and clarifying comments added. To match published version

Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) with in-situ tunable interactions is important for developing novel systems for quantum simulation and computing. The ability to tune the dispersive shifts of a cavity QED system provides more functionality for performing either quantum measurements or logical manipulations. Here, we couple two transmon qubits to a lumped-element cavity through a shared dc-SQUID. Our design balances the mutual capacitive and inductive circuit components so that both qubits are highly decoupled from the cavity, offering protection from decoherence processes. We show that by parametrically driving the SQUID with an oscillating flux it is possible to independently tune the interactions between either of the qubits and the cavity dynamically. The strength and detuning of this cavity QED interaction can be fully controlled through the choice of the parametric pump frequency and amplitude. As a practical demonstration, we perform pulsed parametric dispersive readout of both qubits while statically decoupled from the cavity. The dispersive frequency shifts of the cavity mode follow the expected magnitude and sign based on simple theory that is supported by a more thorough theoretical investigation. This parametric approach creates a new tunable cavity QED framework for developing quantum information systems with various future applications, such as entanglement and error correction via multi-qubit parity readout, state and entanglement stabilization, and parametric logical gates., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

The act of observing a quantum object fundamentally perturbs its state, resulting in a random walk toward an eigenstate of the measurement operator. Ideally, the measurement is responsible for all dephasing of the quantum state. In practice, imperfections in the measurement apparatus limit or corrupt the flow of information required for quantum feedback protocols, an effect quantified by the measurement efficiency. Here we demonstrate the efficient measurement of a superconducting qubit using a nonreciprocal parametric amplifier to directly monitor the microwave field of a readout cavity. By mitigating the losses between the cavity and the amplifier we achieve a measurement efficiency of $72\%$. The directionality of the amplifier protects the readout cavity and qubit from excess backaction caused by amplified vacuum fluctuations. In addition to providing tools for further improving the fidelity of strong projective measurement, this work creates a testbed for the experimental study of ideal weak measurements, and it opens the way towards quantum feedback protocols based on weak measurement such as state stabilization or error correction.

We use non-perturbative lattice calculations to investigate the finite-temperature confinement transition of stealth dark matter, focusing on the regime in which this early-universe transition is first order and would generate a stochastic background of gravitational waves. Stealth dark matter extends the standard model with a new strongly coupled SU(4) gauge sector with four massive fermions in the fundamental representation, producing a stable spin-0 'dark baryon' as a viable composite dark matter candidate. Future searches for stochastic gravitational waves will provide a new way to discover or constrain stealth dark matter, in addition to previously investigated direct-detection and collider experiments. As a first step to enabling this phenomenology, we determine how heavy the dark fermions need to be in order to produce a first-order stealth dark matter confinement transition., Comment: Data release at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3921870

We present a new optomechanical device where the motion of a micromechanical membrane couples to a microwave resonance of a three-dimensional superconducting cavity. With this architecture, we realize ultrastrong parametric coupling, where the coupling rate not only exceeds the dissipation rates in the system but also rivals the mechanical frequency itself. In this regime, the optomechanical interaction induces a frequency splitting between the hybridized normal modes that reaches 88% of the bare mechanical frequency, limited by the fundamental parametric instability. The coupling also exceeds the mechanical thermal decoherence rate, enabling new applications in ultrafast quantum state transfer and entanglement generation., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures

We present a systematic study of the first excited-state population in a 3D transmon qubit mounted in a dilution refrigerator with a variable temperature. Using a modified version of the protocol developed by Geerlings et al. [1], we observe the excited-state population to be consistent with a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, i.e., a qubit in thermal equilibrium with the refrigerator, over the temperature range 35-150 mK. Below 35 mK, the excited-state population saturates to 0.1%, near the resolution of our measurement. We verified this result using a flux qubit with ten-times stronger coupling to its readout resonator. We conclude that these qubits have effective temperature T_{eff} = 35 mK. Assuming T_{eff} is due solely to hot quasiparticles, the inferred qubit lifetime is 108 us and in plausible agreement with the measured 80 us.

We present physical results obtained from simulations using 2+1 flavors of domain wall quarks and the Iwasaki gauge action at two values of the lattice spacing $a$, ($a^{-1}$=\,1.73\,(3)\,GeV and $a^{-1}$=\,2.28\,(3)\,GeV). On the coarser lattice, with $24^3\times 64\times 16$ points, the analysis of ref.[1] is extended to approximately twice the number of configurations. The ensembles on the finer $32^3\times 64\times 16$ lattice are new. We explain how we use lattice data obtained at several values of the lattice spacing and for a range of quark masses in combined continuum-chiral fits in order to obtain results in the continuum limit and at physical quark masses. We implement this procedure at two lattice spacings, with unitary pion masses in the approximate range 290--420\,MeV (225--420\,MeV for partially quenched pions). We use the masses of the $\pi$ and $K$ mesons and the $\Omega$ baryon to determine the physical quark masses and the values of the lattice spacing. While our data are consistent with the predictions of NLO SU(2) chiral perturbation theory, they are also consistent with a simple analytic ansatz leading to an inherent uncertainty in how best to perform the chiral extrapolation that we are reluctant to reduce with model-dependent assumptions about higher order corrections. Our main results include $f_\pi=124(2)_{\rm stat}(5)_{\rm syst}$\,MeV, $f_K/f_\pi=1.204(7)(25)$ where $f_K$ is the kaon decay constant, $m_s^{\bar{\textrm{MS}}}(2\,\textrm{GeV})=(96.2\pm 2.7)$\,MeV and $m_{ud}^{\bar{\textrm{MS}}}(2\,\textrm{GeV})=(3.59\pm 0.21)$\,MeV\, ($m_s/m_{ud}=26.8\pm 1.4$) where $m_s$ and $m_{ud}$ are the mass of the strange-quark and the average of the up and down quark masses respectively, $[\Sigma^{\msbar}(2 {\rm GeV})]^{1/3} = 256(6)\; {\rm MeV}$, where $\Sigma$ is the chiral condensate, the Sommer scale $r_0=0.487(9)$\,fm and $r_1=0.333(9)$\,fm., Comment: 129 pages, 59 figures, Published version containing an extended discussion of reweighting and including a new appendix (Appendix C)

We have investigated macroscopic quantum tunneling in Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ intrinsic Josephson junctions at millikelvin temperatures using microwave irradiation. Measurements show that the escape rate for uniformly switching stacks of N junctions is about $N^2$ times higher than that of a single junction having the same plasma frequency. We argue that this gigantic enhancement of macroscopic quantum tunneling rate in stacks is boosted by current fluctuations which occur in the series array of junctions loaded by the impedance of the environment., Comment: 4 pages and 5 figures