Numerical Modeling of Quasiparticle-Induced Dissipation in Fluxonium Qubits

Quantum Physics arXiv:2607.24946 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 27 Jul 2026] Title:Numerical Modeling of Quasiparticle-Induced Dissipation in Fluxonium Qubits Authors:Kate Azar, Max Hays, Kyle Serniak View a PDF of the paper titled Numerical Modeling of Quasiparticle-Induced Dissipation in Fluxonium Qubits, by Kate Azar and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Nonequilibrium quasiparticles (QPs) generated by stray infrared and ionizing radiation can limit the performance of superconducting quantum processors and present challenges for quantum error correction schemes. Models of QP-induced energy relaxation commonly assume that the characteristic energy of the QPs and the qubit transition energy are both small relative to the superconducting gap. Under these assumptions, certain qubits such as the fluxonium would exhibit protection against QP-induced dissipation at specific bias points. Here, we show that this is not necessarily the case, numerically analyzing the predicted rate of QP-induced dissipation in fluxonium qubits for different QP energy distributions and for QPs created via photon-assisted tunneling processes. We find that accounting for small numerical factors, existing theoretical models predict sensitivity to QP-induced errors at bias points previously thought to be protected. We find that inclusion of asymmetry in the superconducting gap energy across the junction can reintroduce suppression of QP-induced relaxation, as expected. Additionally, for QPs created by photon-assisted tunneling, we predict that $T_1$ protection will only occur for a specific energy of pair-breaking radiation. This understanding of fluxonium sensitivity to QP-induced dissipation informs the development of fluxonium-based processors and future QP-mitigation strategies. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) Cite as: arXiv:2607.24946 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2607.24946v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.24946 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Kate Azar [view email] [v1] Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:01:17 UTC (2,070 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Numerical Modeling of Quasiparticle-Induced Dissipation in Fluxonium Qubits, by Kate Azar and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-07 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.mes-hall References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)