Benchmarking Quantum Gates and Circuits

Abstract

Accurate noise characterization in quantum gates and circuits is vital for the development of reliable quantum simulations for chemically relevant systems and fault-tolerant quantum computing. This paper reviews a variety of key benchmarking techniques, including Randomized Benchmarking, Quantum Process Tomography, Gate Set Tomography, Process Fidelity Estimation, Direct Fidelity Estimation, and Cross-Entropy Benchmarking. We evaluate each method’s complexities, the resources they require, and their effectiveness in addressing coherent, incoherent, and state preparation and measurement (SPAM) errors. Furthermore, we introduce Deterministic Benchmarking (DB), a novel protocol that minimizes the number of experimental runs, exhibits resilience to SPAM errors, and effectively characterizes both coherent and incoherent errors. The implementation of DB is experimentally validated using a superconducting transmon qubit, and the results are substantiated with a simple analytical model and master equation simulations. With the addition of DB to the toolkit of available benchmarking methods, this article serves as a practical guide for choosing and applying benchmarking protocols to advance quantum computing technologies.