Coupling annealing-capable high-coherence flux qubits*

Despite progress in quantum annealing algorithms and hardware development, key questions remain regarding the role of quantum coherence, entanglement, etc., on key figures of merit needed for real world applications. In this talk we will discuss results of small scale annealing experiments with high-coherence superconducting flux qubits as a part of the Quantum Enhanced Optimization program, which seeks to understand and address these issues. Using systems of two and three fully-connected qubits, we demonstrate controllable, scalable couplings between the Z-like fields of individual qubits. We will discuss the impact of coupling on the coherence of the system as it relates to both multi-qubit measurement fidelity as well as the potential importance as a source of error during computation.