AWhat changed
Fitzpatrick and colleagues drove a fabricated72-cavity superconducting microwave chain and observed an abrupt transmission change, hysteresis and stochastic switching between long-lived metastable states. Dwell-time statistics gave switching times up to about 60 ms. In a two-state rate model, the inferred slow decay rate reached roughly 10 Hz, far below intrinsic photon and qubit decay rates. Broadband emission and photon bunching further distinguished the regimes. These finite-device observations provided evidence for an approach to a dissipative phase transition.
Scientific scope
Fitzpatrick and colleagues drove a fabricated72-cavity superconducting microwave chain and observed an abrupt transmission change, hysteresis and stochastic switching between long-lived metastable states. Dwell-time statistics gave switching times up to about 60 ms. In a two-state rate model, the inferred slow decay rate reached roughly 10 Hz, far below intrinsic photon and qubit decay rates. Broadband emission and photon bunching further distinguished the regimes. These finite-device observations provided evidence for an approach to a dissipative phase transition. The experiment did not demonstrate exact gap closure in a thermodynamic limit. Its slow decay rate was inferred through thresholded trajectories and a two-state model, rather than a reconstruction of the full Liouvillian spectrum. Mean-field calculations explained qualitative features but missed switching fluctuations and strong bunching. The device had72 fabricated cavities; post-experiment inspection did not verify72 functioning qubits. The source is the complete2016 preprint, before the 2017 publication.
Evidence
The linked original works support the scoped statement and contribution attribution. WRS has not independently replayed experiments or reconstructed a full mathematical proof. The experiment did not demonstrate exact gap closure in a thermodynamic limit. Its slow decay rate was inferred through thresholded trajectories and a two-state model, rather than a reconstruction of the full Liouvillian spectrum. Mean-field calculations explained qualitative features but missed switching fluctuations and strong bunching. The device had72 fabricated cavities; post-experiment inspection did not verify72 functioning qubits. The source is the complete2016 preprint, before the 2017 publication.
Contributors
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