Validity of the rotating-wave approximation in nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation

Abstract

We examine the validity of the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) in nonadiabatic holonomic single-qubit gates [New J. Phys. 14, 103035 (2012)]. We demonstrate that the adoption of RWA may lead to a sharp decline in fidelity for rapid gate implementation and small energy separation between the excited and computational states. The validity of the RWA in the recent experimental realization [Nature (London) 496, 482 (2013)] of nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation for a superconducting qubit is examined.