Observation of quantum Zeno effect in a superconducting flux qubit

When a quantum state is subjected to frequent measurements, the time evolution of the quantum state is frozen. This is called the quantum Zeno effect. Here, we observe such an effect by performing frequent discrete measurements in a macroscopic quantum system, a superconducting quantum bit. The quantum Zeno effect induced by discrete measurements is similar to the original idea of the quantum Zeno effect. By using a Josephson bifurcation amplifier pulse readout, we have experimentally suppressed the time evolution of Rabi oscillation using projective measurements, and also observed the enhancement of the quantum state holding time by shortening the measurement period time. This is a crucial step to realize quantum information processing using the quantum Zeno effect.