Qubit Zoo

Qubit Zoo Inclusion & Editorial Policy

2 min read

This document defines what belongs in the Zoo, what belongs in References only, and the minimum quality bar for public-facing entries.

1) Inclusion criteria (Zoo)

A note belongs in Zoo/ only if it is a hardware modality, architecture primitive, or fault-tolerant logical qubit construct that has enduring value beyond a single paper.

Include if the item is one of:

  • Physical qubit modality (e.g., transmon, trapped-ion, spin qubit, neutral-atom, photonic)
  • Architecture primitive with stable identity (e.g., tunable coupler, circuit-QED as coupling stack)
  • Logical/topological code family used as a qubit abstraction (e.g., surface-code logical qubit)

Exclude from Zoo (References-only):

  • Generic algorithm papers
  • Software-stack/tooling reviews
  • Application-domain surveys (finance, CFD, digital health, etc.)
  • Single-paper findings that do not define a durable modality/primitive

2) Reference handling

  • Every Zoo entry should link at least one seminal reference.
  • New papers about an existing Zoo entry should generally update References/ and cross-links, not overwrite the Zoo page.

3) Minimum quality bar for status: demonstrated

A demonstrated Zoo page must contain:

  1. Clear modality-level description (not title/abstract boilerplate)
  2. At least one governing Hamiltonian or stabilizer formalism
  3. Metrics table including a Fidelity reference column
  4. At least one seminal linked paper
  5. Related-entry links to neighboring modalities/primitives

Optional but encouraged:

  • Figure/schematic
  • Explicit scaling bottlenecks
  • Typical operating regime values

4) Metadata policy

  • first_proposed_year = year of first proposal of the modality, not year of latest processed paper.
  • technology_family should never be Unknown for stable Zoo entries.
  • generated_by values:
    • scibok-curation for human-curated/public-facing entries
    • seed-ingest-v1 only for legacy seed notes pending promotion

5) Protection policy

Pipeline safety rule:

  • Curated/demonstrated Zoo entries are protected from automated overwrite.
  • Automated processing may append References and side artifacts, but cannot downgrade entry quality.

6) Promotion workflow (seed → demonstrated)

To promote a seed entry:

  1. Verify historical metadata (year, seminal refs)
  2. Add physics section + Hamiltonian
  3. Add metrics table with fidelity source references
  4. Validate links and taxonomy conventions
  5. Set status: demonstrated, generated_by: scibok-curation

Graph View

Backlinks