Towards a Digital Twin of Noisy Quantum Computers: Calibration-Driven Emulation of Transmon Qubits

Abstract: We develop a parametric error model to construct a digital twin of a superconducting transmon qubit device. The model parameters are extracted from hardware calibration data and supplementary benchmarking circuits, providing a dynamic, system-specific representation of noise and gate imperfections. Given the strong dependence of qubit performance on calibration procedures, our approach captures real-time device fluctuations. By incorporating predominant noise sources derived from underlying physical processes, we enhance the emulation's accuracy while reducing the data required for model fitting. Finally, we validate our model by comparing its predictions with experimental results from a 5-qubit QPU, achieving a mean total variation distance of 0.15 between the shot distributions. This digital twin can be leveraged for predictive performance analysis, error mitigation strategies, and the optimization of quantum protocols, contributing to more reliable quantum computations.