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We experimentally demonstrate that a digitized counterdiabatic quantum protocol reduces the number of topological defects created during a fast quench across a quantum phase transition. To show this, we perform quantum simulations of one- and two-dimensional transverse-field Ising models driven from the paramagnetic to the ferromagnetic phase. We utilize superconducting cloud-based quantum processors with up to 156 qubits. Our data reveal that the digitized counterdiabatic protocol reduces defect formation by up to 48% in the fast-quench regime -- an improvement hard to achieve through digitized quantum annealing under current noise levels. The experimental results closely match theoretical and numerical predictions at short evolution times, before deviating at longer times due to hardware noise. In one dimension, we derive an analytic solution for the defect number distribution in the fast-quench limit. For two-dimensional geometries, where analytical solutions are unknown and numerical simulations are challenging, we use advanced matrix-product-state methods. Our findings indicate a practical way to control the topological defect formation during fast quenches and highlight the utility of counterdiabatic protocols for quantum optimization and quantum simulation in material design on current quantum processors., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 1 table and supplementary information

We present an enhanced bias-field digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization (BF-DCQO) algorithm to address higher-order unconstrained binary optimization (HUBO) problems. Combinatorial optimization plays a crucial role in many industrial applications, yet classical computing often struggles with complex instances. By encoding these problems as Ising spin glasses and leveraging the advancements in quantum computing technologies, quantum optimization methods emerge as a promising alternative. We apply BF-DCQO with an enhanced bias term to a HUBO problem featuring three-local terms in the Ising spin-glass model. Our protocol is experimentally validated using 156 qubits on an IBM quantum processor with a heavy-hex architecture. In the studied instances, the results outperform standard methods, including the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), quantum annealing, simulated annealing, and Tabu search. Furthermore, we perform an MPS simulation and provide numerical evidence of the feasibility of a similar HUBO problem on a 433-qubit Osprey-like quantum processor. Both studied cases, the experiment on 156 qubits and the simulation on 433 qubits, can be considered as the start of the commercial quantum advantage era, Kipu dixit, and even more when extended soon to denser industry-level HUBO problems., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

We study the current-voltage characteristics of a superconducting junction with particle losses at the contacts. We adopt the Keldysh formalism to compute the steady-state current for varying transmission of the contact. In the low transmission regime, the dissipation leads to an enhancement of the current at low bias, a nonmonotonic dependence of current on dissipation, and the emergence of new structures in the current-voltage curves. The effect of dissipation by particle loss is found to be qualitatively different from that of a finite temperature and a finite inelastic scattering rate in the reservoirs., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

We measure superfluid transport of strongly interacting fermionic lithium atoms through a quantum point contact with local, spin-dependent particle loss. We observe that the characteristic non-Ohmic superfluid transport enabled by high-order multiple Andreev reflections transitions into an excess Ohmic current as the dissipation strength exceeds the superfluid gap. We develop a model with mean-field reservoirs connected via tunneling to a dissipative site. Our calculations in the Keldysh formalism reproduce the observed nonequilibrium particle current, yet do not fully explain the observed loss rate or spin current., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Meng-Zi Huang and Jeffrey Mohan contributed equally to this work