  Quantum criticality emerges from the collective behavior of many interacting
quantum particles, often at the transition between different phases of matter.
It is one of the cornerstones of condensed matter physics, which we access on
noisy intermediate-scale (NISQ) quantum devices by leveraging a dynamically
driven phenomenon. We probe the critical properties of the one-dimensional
quantum Ising model on a programmable superconducting quantum chip via a
Kibble-Zurek process, obtain scaling laws, and estimate critical exponents
despite inherent sources of errors on the hardware. In addition, we investigate
how the improvement of NISQ computers (more qubits, less noise) will
consolidate the computation of those universal physical properties. A
one-parameter noise model captures the effect of imperfections and reproduces
the experimental data. Its systematic study reveals that the noise, analogously
to temperature, induces a new length scale in the system. We introduce and
successfully verify modified scaling laws, directly accounting for the noise
without any prior knowledge. It makes data analyses for extracting physical
properties transparent to noise. By understanding how imperfect quantum
hardware modifies the genuine properties of quantum states of matter, we
enhance the power of NISQ processors considerably for addressing quantum
criticality and potentially other phenomena and algorithms.
