Generation and verification of 27-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states in a superconducting quantum computer

Generating and detecting genuine multipartite entanglement (GME) of sizeable quantum states prepared on physical devices is an important benchmark for highlighting the progress of near-term quantum computers. A common approach to certify GME is to prepare a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state and measure a GHZ fidelity of at least 0.5. We measure the fidelities using multiple quantum coherences of GHZ states on 11 to 27 qubits prepared on the IBM Quantum ibmq_montreal device. Combinations of quantum readout error mitigation (QREM) and parity verification error detection are applied to the states. A fidelity of 0.546 +/- 0.017 was recorded for a 27-qubit GHZ state when QREM was used, demonstrating GME across the full device with a confidence level of 98.6%. We benchmarked the effect of parity verification on GHZ fidelity for two GHZ state preparation embeddings on the heavy-hexagon architecture. The results show that the effect of parity verification, while relatively modest, led to a detectable improvement of GHZ fidelity.

Automated summary

By utilizing quantum readout error mitigation and parity verification error detection on the IBM Quantum ibmq_montreal device, a fidelity of 0.546 for a 27-qubit GHZ state was recorded with a confidence level of 98.6% demonstrating genuine multipartite entanglement (GME) across the full device. The effect of parity verification on GHZ fidelity, although relatively modest, led to a detectable improvement in the fidelity of GHZ states.