Stability of noisy quantum computing devices

Abstract: Noisy, intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computing devices offer opportunities to test the principles of quantum computing but are prone to errors arising from various sources of noise. Fluctuations in the noise itself lead to unstable devices that undermine the reproducibility of NISQ results. Here we characterize the reliability of NISQ devices by quantifying the stability of essential performance metrics. Using the Hellinger distance, we quantify the similarity between experimental characterizations of several NISQ devices by comparing gate fidelities, duty cycles, and register addressability across temporal and spatial scales. Our observations collected over 22 months reveal large fluctuations in each metric that underscore the limited scales on which current NISQ devices may be considered reliable.