Every year, the APS March Meeting brings together thousands of physicists from around the world to share new ideas, results, and discoveries. From March 16-20, the community will gather in Denver, and the Alice & Bob team will be there as well.
Throughout the week, several of our researchers will be presenting new and ongoing work across theory and experiment. If you’re attending the meeting, we’d also love to meet you in person – come say hello at booth #901 (see the map to find out exactly where we will be)
Here’s a look at the talks our team will be giving during the week:
MONDAY
High-fidelity magic-state preparation with biased noise qubits in practice
By Hugo Jacinto – Theoretical Physicist
Hugo will present a protocol for producing magic states with error rates below 10⁻¹⁰, a requirement for large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computation. Traditional approaches rely on multi-layer surface-code distillation. This work adapts the framework to noise-biased qubits, exploiting architectural synergies to reduce overhead. Using logical error models fitted from Monte Carlo simulations, the team provides layouts and resource estimates for a two-layer distillation scheme that significantly lowers hardware requirements compared to state-of-the-art surface-code implementations.
Monday March 16th | 9:36 – 9:48 a.m. | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 1E
Protecting bosonic codes from ancilla-induced logical errors with continuous-variable flags
By Thomas Décultot – Theoretical Physicist
Thomas will present a method to protect bosonic codes from ancilla-induced logical errors using continuous-variable flags. While ancillary transmons are essential for syndrome extraction, their errors can propagate and limit logical lifetimes. This approach enables detection and correction of such errors within circuit QED architectures, reducing transmon-induced faults during syndrome measurements of rotation- and translation-symmetric bosonic codes.
Monday March 16th | 10:48 – 11:00 am | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4D
Tensor networks for non-perturbative driven black-box quantization of superconducting circuits
By Emilio Rui – Theoretical Physicist
Emilio will present a non-perturbative tensor-network framework for modeling driven many-mode circuit-QED systems. We showcase how Floquet theory combined with the DMRG-X algorithm can be used to study driven superconducting circuits, providing a scalable approach for analyzing many-body dynamics relevant to quantum information processing.
Monday March 16th | 10:12 – 10:24 am | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4AB
TUESDAY
Tensor Network methods for the simulation of the dynamic of superconducting circuits
By Adrien Moulinas – Theoretical Physicist
Adrien will present a study on extending Tensor Network (TN) methods beyond traditional many-body problems to efficiently simulate large bosonic quantum systems. As superconducting platforms scale, accurately modeling open-system dynamics becomes increasingly challenging. This work applies TN techniques to represent and evolve open bosonic systems within a reduced manifold, leveraging low entanglement and purity in qubit density matrices to obtain compressed representations. The method enables Lindblad simulations with exponential speed-up in system size, opening a scalable path for simulating open many-body bosonic systems.
Tuesday March 17th | 9:36 – 9:48 a.m. | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4C
WEDNESDAY
Variational Perturbation Theory in Open Quantum Systems for Efficient Steady State Computation
By André Melo – Theoretical Physicist
André will present advances in computing steady states of open quantum systems across multiple parameter regimes. While perturbation theory avoids recomputing steady states independently, it is limited by pseudo-inverse calculations and a restricted convergence radius. This work introduces variational perturbation theory (VPT) and a multipoint extension that remains effective even near dissipative phase transitions. Two numerical strategies eliminate pseudo-inverses, significantly improving efficiency and applicability compared to standard perturbative approaches.
Wednesday March 18th | 8:48 – 9:00 a.m. | Convention Center, Meeting Room 302
Demonstration of single-shot microwave quantum key distribution
By Florian Fesquet – Quantum Experimentalist
Florian will present the first experimental realization of continuous-variable quantum key distribution in the microwave regime, implemented using superconducting circuits. Based on propagating displaced squeezed microwave states, this work demonstrates achievable unconditional security with enhanced key rates as well as security thresholds through the usage of trusted preparation noise. The protocol is shown to operate under cryogenic while demonstrating a potential feasibility in open-air conditions. Lastly, the author discuss prospects for integrating microwave quantum memories via spin ensembles.
Wednesday March 18th | 8:12 – 8:24 a.m. | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 1E
Sampling ridiculously low logical error rates via efficient Monte Carlo algorithms
By Elie Gouzien – Quantum Physicist
Elie will present a new approach to estimate ultra-low logical error rates required for teraquops-scale quantum computation. Direct Monte Carlo sampling becomes impractical in this regime, while extrapolation-based methods raise reliability concerns. By adapting rare-event sampling techniques from statistical physics, this work enables efficient reconstruction of extremely low logical error rates, reducing dependence on fitting ansatz formulas and proving confidence in resource estimates.
Wednesday, March 18th | 2:24 – 2:36 p.m | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 1E
Flux Noise Spectroscopy Using Pound-Drever-Hall Tracking of a SQUID-Array based Resonator
By Efe Gümüs – Senior Quantum Experimentalist
Efe will present a flux-noise spectroscopy technique designed to characterize magnetic noise in flux-tunable superconducting circuits. Flux noise can induce drifts and dephasing, making reliable and rapid characterization essential for improving device stability. This work uses a flux-tunable resonator based on a DC SQUID array and monitors its frequency in real time using Pound-Drever-Hall locking. By tracking frequency fluctuations, the method extracts flux-noise power spectra with high sensitivity to magnetic fluctuations at the chip level, enabling detection of both broadband background noise and discrete spurs. The technique provides a compact tool for characterizing flux noise and guiding improvements in superconducting qubit environments.
Wednesday March 18th | 5:18 – 5:30 p.m | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4AB
GPU-Accelerated, Differentiable Fitting of Transient Correlation Functions for Resonator Characterization
By Roberto Negrin – Quantum Experimentalist
Roberto will present a GPU-accelerated, end-to-end differentiable framework for extracting resonator parameters from transient time-domain data. Unlike traditional spectroscopy-based methods, this approach fits explicit differentiable models to correlation functions, enabling fast and robust parameter estimation through batched optimization. The method lays the groundwork for characterizing more complex superconducting systems using richer experimental protocols.
Wednesday March 18th | 6:18 – 6:30 pm | Convention Center, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
THURSDAY
Towards Dissipative Stabilization of Four-Legged Cat Qubits in Superconducting Circuits
By Louis Lattier – Quantum Experimentalist
Louis will present recent progress towards stabilizing four-component Schrödinger cat qubits through dissipation engineering. While preserving the exponential bit-flips suppression, extending the code allows for first order protection against phase-flips. But it requires control over higher-order nonlinearity. This work outlines spurious processes in high-impedance Josephson circuits, and propose mitigation techniques.
Thursday March 19th | 3:42 – 3:54 p.m. | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4AB
Operating the autoparametric cat qubit at the sweet spot in flux of the memory frequency
By Simon Dupouy – Quantum Experimentalist
Simon will present a redesigned autoparametric cat-qubit architecture operating at a flux sweet spot to minimize dephasing. The original design achieved record two-photon dissipation without microwave pumping but constrained flux tuning. By introducing an additional SQUID to independently tune the buffer frequency, this work aims at reducing memory dephasing, moving towards increased bit-flip times and operating regimes suitable for stabilizing four-component cat qubits.
Thursday March 19th | 4:54 – 5:06 pm | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4AB
Cat qubit stabilization with a DC-biased Josephson junction
By Marco Paradina – Quantum Experimentalist
Marco will introduce a new method for stabilizing cat qubits using a DC-biased Josephson junction. Instead of microwave pumping, two-photon dissipation is generated via inelastic Cooper-pair tunneling under voltage bias, suppressing unwanted nonlinearities. The approach could enable dissipation rates up to 100 times higher than existing techniques. Experimental results demonstrate tunable single- and two-photon dissipation and the first engineered dissipation of a quantum memory using this method.
Thursday March 19th | 5:06 – 5:18 p.m. | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4AB
Cats, Chaos, Dissipation
By Fabrizio Minganti – Senior Quantum Theorist
Fabrizio will present a study on the interplay between stabilization mechanisms and chaos in cat qubits. While Kerr nonlinearities and two-photon processes provide intrinsic error correction, chaos-assisted tunneling limits protection. This work analyzes dissipative, Kerr-confined, and hybrid regimes, examining how single-photon loss and colored dephasing affect stability. The results connect the onset of chaos to thermal-like excitations and breakdown of adiabaticity, identifying parameter constraints for robust cat-state operation.
Thursday March 19th | 6:18 – 6:30 pm | Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4AB
If you’re attending APS March Meeting this year, we hope you’ll join us at one (or more) of the talks above. Our team will be sharing their latest work throughout the week.
And if you’d like to continue the conversation, feel free to stop by booth #901 – we’d be happy to meet you.
