The two-qubit amplitude damping channel: Characterization using quantum stabilizer codes

A protocol based on quantum error correction based characterization of quantum dynamics (QECCD) is developed for quantum process tomography on a two-qubit system interacting dissipatively with a vacuum bath. The method uses a 5-qubit quantum error correcting code that corrects arbitrary errors on the first two qubits, and also saturates the quantum Hamming bound. The dissipative interaction with a vacuum bath allows for both correlated and independent noise on the two-qubit system. We study the dependence of the degree of the correlation of the noise on evolution time and inter-qubit separation.     

An overview of quantum error mitigation formulas

Minimizing the effect of noise is essential for quantum computers. The conventional method to protect qubits against noise is through quantum error correction. However, for current quantum hardware in the so-called noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era, noise presents in these systems and is too high for error correction to be beneficial. Quantum error mitigation is a set of alternative methods for minimizing errors, including error extrapolation, probabilistic error cancellation, measurement error mitigation, subspace expansion, symmetry verification, virtual distillation, etc. The requirement for these methods is usually less demanding than error correction. Quantum error mitigation is a promising way of reducing errors on NISQ quantum computers. This paper gives a comprehensive introduction to quantum error mitigation. The state-of-art error mitigation methods are covered and formulated in a general form, which provides a basis for comparing, combining and optimizing different methods in future work.     

Observation of high coherence in Josephson junction qubits measured in a three-dimensional circuit QED architecture

Superconducting quantum circuits based on Josephson junctions have made rapid progress in demonstrating quantum behavior and scalability. However, the future prospects ultimately depend upon the intrinsic coherence of Josephson junctions, and whether superconducting qubits can be adequately isolated from their environment. We introduce a new architecture for superconducting quantum circuits employing a three-dimensional resonator that suppresses qubit decoherence while maintaining sufficient coupling to the control signal. With the new architecture, we demonstrate that Josephson junction qubits are highly coherent, with T2 ～ 10 to 20 μs without the use of spin echo, and highly stable, showing no evidence for 1/f critical current noise. These results suggest that the overall quality of Josephson junctions in these qubits will allow error rates of a few 10(-4), approaching the error correction threshold.     

Low-overhead fault-tolerant error correction scheme based on quantum stabilizer codes

Fault-tolerant error-correction (FTEC) circuit is the foundation for achieving reliable quantum computation and remote communication. However, designing a fault-tolerant error correction scheme with a solid error-correction ability and low overhead remains a significant challenge. In this paper, a low-overhead fault-tolerant error correction scheme is proposed for quantum communication systems. Firstly, syndrome ancillas are prepared into Bell states to detect errors caused by channel noise. We propose a detection approach that reduces the propagation path of quantum gate fault and reduces the circuit depth by splitting the stabilizer generator into X-type and Z-type. Additionally, a syndrome extraction circuit is equipped with two flag qubits to detect quantum gate faults, which may also introduce errors into the code block during the error detection process. Finally, analytical results are provided to demonstrate the fault-tolerant performance of the proposed FTEC scheme with the lower overhead of the ancillary qubits and circuit depth.     

Quantum correlation between two qubits induced by a common heat bath

In terms of geometric discord, we study quantum correlations between two qubits interacting with a common heat bath. A necessary and sufficient condition for zero discord for arbitrary two-qubit density matrix is derived. With this condition, we show that a common heat bath can always induce two-qubit quantum correlations if both qubits are initially prepared in arbitrary superposition of “pointer basis”.     

Resilient quantum computation in correlated environments: a quantum phase transition perspective

We analyze the problem of a quantum computer in a correlated environment protected from decoherence by quantum error correction using a perturbative renormalization group approach. The scaling equation obtained reflects the competition between the dimension of the computer and the scaling dimension of the correlations. For an irrelevant flow, the error probability is reduced to a stochastic form for a long time and/or a large number of qubits; thus, the traditional derivation of the threshold theorem holds for these error models. In this way, the "threshold theorem" of quantum computing is rephrased as a dimensional criterion.     

Fault-tolerant quantum computation with long-range correlated noise

We prove a new version of the quantum accuracy threshold theorem that applies to non-Markovian noise with algebraically decaying spatial correlations. We consider noise in a quantum computer arising from a perturbation that acts collectively on pairs of qubits and on the environment, and we show that an arbitrarily long quantum computation can be executed with high reliability in D spatial dimensions, if the perturbation is sufficiently weak and decays with the distance r between the qubits faster than 1/r(D).     

Quantum Secret Sharing with Error Correction

We investigate in this work a quantum error correction on a five-qubits graph state used for secret sharing through five noisy channels. We describe the procedure for the five, seven and nine qubits codes. It is known that the three codes always allow error recovery if only one among the sent qubits is disturbed in the transmitting channel. However, if two qubits and more are disturbed, then the correction will depend on the used code. We compare in this paper the three codes by computing the average fidelity between the sent secret and that measured by the receivers. We will treat the case where, at most, two qubits are affected in each one of five depolarizing channels.     

Quantum Secret Sharing with Error Correction

We investigate in this work a quantum error correction on a five-qubits graph state used for secret sharing through five noisy channels. We describe the procedure for the five, seven and nine qubits codes. It is known that the three codes always allow error recovery if only one among the sent qubits is disturbed in the transmitting channel. However, if two qubits and more are disturbed, then the correction will depend on the used code. We compare in this paper the three codes by computing the average fidelity between the sent secret and that measured by the receivers. We will treat the case where, at most, two qubits are affected in each one of five depolarizing channels.     

Self-consistent tomography of temporally correlated errors

The error model of a quantum computer is essential for optimizing quantum algorithms to minimize the impact of errors using quantum error correction or error mitigation. Noise with temporal correlations, e.g. low-frequency noise and context-dependent noise, is common in quantum computation devices and sometimes even significant. However, conventional tomography methods have not been developed for obtaining an error model describing temporal correlations. In this paper,we propose self-consistent tomography protocols to obtain a model of temporally correlated errors, and we demonstrate that our protocols are efficient for low-frequency noise and context-dependent noise.     

三量子比特系统中单个谐振子诱导的量子关联

我们考虑初始无关联并且与由一个谐振子构成的环境之间互相耦合的三量子比特系统。通过研究量子比特-环境的耦合强度以及量子比特初始态对量子关联的影响,我们发现环境可以诱导量子关联,提出并证明了四个命题阐述谐振子如何调控三个量子比特中量子关联的分布。给出了产生量子关联的条件。特别地,对于弱耦合,我们不但能够获得很多的量子关联,而且还使量子比特系统和环境始终处于分离态。一般地,量子关联动力学是很复杂 的,这是由于环境起着两个互相竞争的作用：一方面诱导出各个比特之间的量子关联;另一方面又使它们发生消相干,从而破坏量子关联。     

三量子比特系统中单个谐振子诱导的量子关联

我们考虑初始无关联并且与由一个谐振子构成的环境之间互相耦合的三量子比特系统。通过研究量子比特-环境的耦合强度以及量子比特初始态对量子关联的影响,我们发现环境可以诱导量子关联,提出并证明了四个命题阐述谐振子如何调控三个量子比特中量子关联的分布。给出了产生量子关联的条件。特别地,对于弱耦合,我们不但能够获得很多的量子关联,而且还使量子比特系统和环境始终处于分离态。一般地,量子关联动力学是很复杂 的,这是由于环境起着两个互相竞争的作用：一方面诱导出各个比特之间的量子关联;另一方面又使它们发生消相干,从而破坏量子关联。     

Enhanced quantum state detection efficiency through quantum information processing

We investigate theoretically and experimentally how quantum state-detection efficiency is improved by the use of quantum information processing (QIP). Experimentally, we encode the state of one 9Be(+) ion qubit with one additional ancilla qubit. By measuring both qubits, we reduce the state-detection error in the presence of noise. The deviation from the theoretically allowed reduction is due to infidelities of the QIP operations. Applying this general scheme to more ancilla qubits suggests that error in the individual qubit measurements need not be a limit to scalable quantum computation.     

Error correction in ensemble registers for quantum repeaters and quantum computers

We propose to use a collective excitation blockade mechanism to identify errors that occur due to disturbances of single atoms in ensemble quantum registers where qubits are stored in the collective population of different internal atomic states. A simple error correction procedure and a simple decoherence-free encoding of ensemble qubits in the hyperfine states of alkali-metal atoms are presented.     

Active suppression of dephasing in Josephson-junction qubits

Simple majority code correcting k dephasing errors by encoding a qubit of information into 2k+1 physical qubits is studied quantitatively. We derive an equation for quasicontinuous evolution of the density matrix of encoded quantum information under the error correction procedure in the presence of correlated dephasing noise. A specific design of a Josephson-junction nanocircuit implementing this scheme is suggested.     

Experimental purification of single qubits

We report the experimental realization of the purification protocol for single qubits sent through a depolarizing channel. The qubits are associated with polarization states of single photons and the protocol is achieved by means of passive linear optical elements. The present approach may represent a convenient alternative to the distillation and error correction protocols of quantum information.     

Description of a quantum convolutional code

We describe a quantum error correction scheme aimed at protecting a flow of quantum information over long distance communication. It is largely inspired by the theory of classical convolutional codes which are used in similar circumstances in classical communication. The particular example shown here uses the stabilizer formalism. We provide an explicit encoding circuit and its associated error estimation algorithm. The latter gives the most likely error over any memoryless quantum channel, with a complexity growing only linearly with the number of encoded qubits.     

Benchmarking quantum computers: the five-qubit error correcting code.

The smallest quantum code that can correct all one-qubit errors is based on five qubits. We experimentally implemented the encoding, decoding, and error-correction quantum networks using nuclear magnetic resonance on a five spin subsystem of labeled crotonic acid. The ability to correct each error was verified by tomography of the process. The use of error correction for benchmarking quantum networks is discussed, and we infer that the fidelity achieved in our experiment is sufficient for preserving entanglement.     

Two-qubit correlations via a periodic plasmonic nanostructure

We theoretically investigate the generation of quantum correlations by using two distant qubits in free space or mediated by a plasmonic nanostructure. We report both entanglement of formation as well as quantum discord and classical correlations. We have found that for proper initial state of the two-qubit system and distance between the two qubits we can produce quantum correlations taking significant value for a relatively large time interval so that it can be useful in quantum information and computation processes.     

High-fidelity quantum operations on superconducting qubits in the presence of noise

We present a scheme for implementing quantum operations with superconducting qubits. Our approach uses a "coupler" qubit to mediate a controllable interaction between data qubits, pulse sequences which strongly mitigate the effects of 1/f flux noise, and a high-Q resonator-based local memory. We develop a Monte Carlo simulation technique capable of describing arbitrary noise-induced dephasing and decay, and demonstrate in this system a set of universal gate operations with O(10(-5)) error probabilities in the presence of experimentally measured levels of 1/f noise. We then add relaxation and quantify the decay times required to maintain this error level.