Muzhou Ma

Modern quantum devices require high-precision Hamiltonian dynamics, but environmental noise can cause calibrated Hamiltonian parameters to drift over time, necessitating expensive recalibration. Detecting when recalibration is needed is challenging, especially since the very gates required for sophisticated verification protocols may themselves be miscalibrated. While cloud quantum computing services implement heuristic routines for triggering recalibration, the fundamental limits of optimal recalibration have yet to be illuminated. Here we study the recalibration problem by developing efficient Hamiltonian certification and \changepoint{} detection protocols in the \emph{autonomous} setting. In this setting we use only single-qubit gates and measurements and do not use any ancilla qubits, making the protocols robust to the calibration issues for multi-qubit operations they aim to detect. For an unknown $n$-qubit $M$-sparse Hamiltonian $H$, our certification protocol distinguishes whether $\|H - H_0\|_F \geq \epsilon$ or $\|H - H_0\|_F \leq O(\epsilon/\sqrt{n})$ with sample complexity $\mathcal{O}(nM^2\ln(1/\delta)/\epsilon^2)$ and total evolution time $\mathcal{O}(nM\ln(1/\delta)/\epsilon^2)$, where $H_0$ is the target Hamiltonian and $\delta$ bounds the failure probability. The protocol achieves this by evolving random stabilizer product states and performing adaptive single-qubit measurements based on a classically simulable hypothesis state. Extending this to continuous monitoring, we develop an online \changepoint{} detection algorithm using the CUSUM procedure that achieves a detection delay bound of $\mathcal{O}(nM\ln(M\falsealarm{T})/\epsilon^2)$, matching the known asymptotically optimal scaling with respect to false alarm run length $\falsealarm{T}$. Our approach enables quantum devices to autonomously monitor their own calibration status without requiring ancillary systems, entangling operations, or a trusted reference device, and provides maximum-likelihood estimates of \changepoint{} locations to identify and rerun affected computations, offering a practical solution for robust quantum computing with contemporary noisy devices.