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Phonon-Mediated Decay of Singlet-Triplet Qubits in Double Quantum Dots

We study theoretically the phonon-induced relaxation ($T_1$) and decoherence times ($T_2$) of singlet-triplet qubits in lateral GaAs double quantum dots (DQDs). When the DQD is biased, Pauli exclusion enables strong dephasing via two-phonon processes. This mechanism requires neither hyperfine nor spin-orbit interaction and yields $T_2 \ll T_1$, in contrast to previous calculations of phonon-limited lifetimes. When the DQD is unbiased, we find $T_2 \simeq 2 T_1$ and much longer lifetimes than in the biased DQD. For typical setups, the decoherence and relaxation rates due to one-phonon processes are proportional to the temperature $T$, whereas the rates due to two-phonon processes reveal a transition from $T^2$ to higher powers as $T$ is decreased. Remarkably, both $T_1$ and $T_2$ exhibit a maximum when the external magnetic field is applied along a certain axis within the plane of the two-dimensional electron gas. We compare our results with recent experiments and analyze the dependence of $T_1$ and $T_2$ on system properties such as the detuning, the spin-orbit parameters, the hyperfine coupling, and the orientation of the DQD and the applied magnetic field with respect to the main crystallographic axes.