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Nonlocal Games as Cross-Platform Quantum Benchmarks: Exceeding unconditional classical bounds on trapped-ion processors

by
  • Anton Than
  • Jim Furches
  • Debopriyo Biswas
  • Sarah Chehade
  • Kathleen Hamilton
  • Bahaa Harraz
  • Xingxin Liu
  • De Luo
  • Keqin Yan
  • Yichao Yu
  • Vivian Zhang
  • Liudmila Zhukas
  • Alaina Green
  • Alexander Kozhanov
  • Christopher Monroe
  • Crystal Noel
  • Carlos Marrero
  • Norbert Linke
2026 arXiv: 2603.18323   (2026)
PDF barthel     ADSabs 2026arXiv260318323T     BibTeX

Nonlocal games provide application-level benchmarks for quantum hardware whose classical performance bounds are information-theoretic, holding against all classical strategies regardless of computational resources. We implement a 14-vertex graph coloring game, the smallest graph exhibiting a quantum-classical separation for this game type, on four trapped-ion quantum processors across three institutions. One system achieved a win rate that surpasses the classical bound with statistical significance, marking the first violation of a classical bound in a graph coloring nonlocal game on quantum hardware. The remaining systems achieved win rates comparable to the best superconducting processors evaluated on the same game, further illustrating the potential of nonlocal games as cross-architecture quantum benchmarks.

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