Coherent control of a multi-qubit dark state in waveguide quantum electrodynamics

Superconducting qubits in a waveguide have long-range interactions mediated by photons that cause the emergence of collective states. Destructive interference between the qubits decouples the collective dark states from the waveguide environment. Their inability to emit photons into the waveguide render dark states a valuable resource for preparing long-lived quantum many-body states and realizing quantum information protocols in open quantum systems. However, they also decouple from fields that drive the waveguide, making manipulation a challenge. Here we show the coherent control of a collective dark state that is realized by controlling the interactions between four superconducting transmon qubits and local drives. The dark state’s protection against decoherence results in decay times that exceed those of the waveguide-limited single qubits by more than two orders of magnitude. Moreover, we perform a phase-sensitive spectroscopy of the two-excitation manifold and reveal bosonic many-body statistics in the transmon array. Our dark-state qubit provides a starting point for implementing quantum information protocols with collective states.