Probing Qubit Noise with a Channel-Resolved Post-Markovian Master Equation

Abstract

Accurate noise characterization is essential for scaling quantum processors toward fault-tolerant operation. Although reduced qubit dynamics are often modeled with Markovian master equations, present-day devices can exhibit memory effects generated by residual qubit-qubit couplings, structured environments, and finite bath correlation times. Here we develop a channel-resolved, Post-Markovian Master Equation model for non-Markovian noise and test it in superconducting qubits. Using idle-evolution tomography on IBM Quantum processors, we identify complementary operational signatures of non-Markovianity, including violations of CP-divisibility and revivals of distinguishability-based information-backflow measures. We further derive a closed-form spectator-$ZZ$ model with local dissipation and show that it captures the observed transverse Bloch-vector revivals while leaving the longitudinal relaxation mode Markovian within the model. The fitted closed-form dynamics enable an analytical reconstruction of the transverse memory kernel, whose damped oscillatory structure captures the non-Markovian correction beyond the fitted Markovian baseline. Two-qubit tomography shows buildup and revivals of quantum mutual information on comparable timescales, supporting spectator-induced crosstalk as an important contributor to the observed memory effects. Our results connect operational non-Markovianity diagnostics, microscopic crosstalk modeling, and reduced memory-kernel reconstruction in a single experimental framework for superconducting quantum hardware.

23 pages, 6 figures