Dynamics of measurement-induced state transitions in superconducting qubits

Abstract: We have investigated temporal fluctuation of superconducting qubits via the time-resolved measurement for an IBM Quantum system. We found that the qubit error rate abruptly changes during specific time intervals. Each high error state persists for several tens of seconds, and exhibits an on-off behavior. The observed temporal instability can be attributed to qubit transitions induced by a measurement stimulus. Resonant transition between fluctuating dressed states of the qubits coupled with high-frequency resonators can be responsible for the error-rate change.