Questions tagged [error-correction]

Quantum error correction (QEC) is a collection of techniques to protect quantum information from decoherence and other quantum noise, to realise fault-tolerant quantum computation. Quantum error correction is expected to be essential for practical quantum computation in the face of noise on stored quantum information, faulty quantum gates, faulty state preparations, and faulty measurements. (Wikipedia)

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Transversal logical gate for Stabilizer (or at least Steane code)

I know that for Steane code, we can implement transversally some gates like cNOT, Hadamard and Pauli. What I am looking for is a resource in which it is explained why implementing those gate give rise ...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
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What is the Helstrom measurement?

I have been reading the paper Belief propagation decoding of quantum channels by passing quantum messages by Joseph Renes for decoding Classical-Quantum channels and I have crossed with the concept of ...
Josu Etxezarreta Martinez's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
822 views

How to implement the Circuit of Steane's code for Quantum Error Correction?

I have referred this same question here 'Circuit for implementing Steane's code for Quantum Error Correction' . But the answer discusses the circuit to compute the syndrome and not clearly the ...
chetan waghmare's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
4k views

Is the Pauli group for $n$-qubits a basis for $\mathbb{C}^{2^n\times 2^n}$?

The $n$-fold Pauli operator set is defined as $G_n=\{I,X,Y,Z \}^{\otimes n}$, that is as the set containing all the possible tensor products between $n$ Pauli matrices. It is clear that the Pauli ...
Josu Etxezarreta Martinez's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
5k views

Twirling Quantum Channels: Pauli and Clifford Twirling

I am currently working through some papers related with approximations of more general quantum channels such as amplitude and phase damping channels to Pauli channels. The reason to do so is so that ...
Josu Etxezarreta Martinez's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is Gil Kalai's argument against topological quantum computers sound?

In a lecture, recorded on Youtube, Gil Kalai presents a 'deduction' for why topological quantum computers will not work. The interesting part is that he claims this is a stronger argument than the ...
Discrete lizard's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
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How to implement if statement based on measurement results in qiskit?

I tried to implement three qubit bit flip code in qiskit and need to get the result of measurements and then apply recovery quantum operations conditioned on the measurement results. The following is ...
Jacey Li's user avatar
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Why is the action of controlled-Z unaltered by exchanging target control qubits?

In the book "Quantum Computer Science", when explaining the error correction code, it uses this picture and says "the action of controlled-z is unaltered by exchanging the target and ...
peachnuts's user avatar
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How do we create logical qubits in the surface code: understanding check

I am learning the basics of surface code theory through this paper I am trying to understand how we create multiple logical qubits. The goal of my post is to check my understanding. What I understood ...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
27 votes
4 answers
3k views

Why can't there be an error correcting code with fewer than 5 qubits?

I read about 9-qubit, 7-qubit and 5-qubit error correcting codes lately. But why can there not be a quantum error correcting code with fewer than 5 qubits?
Aleph's user avatar
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What are magic states?

I wonder what are magic states, and a magic state gadget. While I'm reading a paper, these terms frequently appear.
김동민's user avatar
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What is the leading edge technology for creating a quantum computer with the fewest errors?

Which technological path seems most promising to produce a quantum processor with a greater quantum volume (preferring fewer errors per qubit over more qubits), than Majorana fermions? The preferred ...
Rob's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Are applications with only polynomial speedup worth chasing after? (since error correction adds a heavy overhead)

A number of ML algorithms have demonstrated to have polynomial speed-up: But this (I'm assuming) is without error correcting qubits. How practical are algorithms that only exhibit polynomial speed-up ...
Steven Sagona's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
536 views

Nielsen & Chuang Exercise Question on CSS code

I was reading the CSS ( Steane Code) from the Nielsen & Chuang book. It asked in Ex. 10.27 to prove that: suppose $C_1$ and $C_2$ are $[n,k_1]$ and $[n,k_2]$classical linear codes such that $C_2\...
Upstart's user avatar
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5 votes
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Quantum circuit for a three-qubit bit-flip code

I know a three-qubit bit-flip code has a common encoding circuit as follows, Further, as in page 35 in Gottesman's paper, the encoding circuit can also be constructed through stabilizer generators. ...
Jacey Li's user avatar
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1 answer
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How the real IBM quantum computers apply arbitrary Rz(θ) gate rotation? [closed]

I want to ask the following questions: (1) The basis gate set of IBM quantum computers is { Id, Rz(θ),√X, X, CNOT, reset}. Somebody said that IBM didn’t really apply Rz(θ) gate on the machine. The ...
劉承瀚's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
85 views

Obtaining low weight stabilizer generators

Suppose I know a set of stabilizer generators of a qubit quantum code. Is there a systematic (and possibly efficient) way to transform this set of generators to a different set (generating the same ...
user1677907's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
784 views

What is the standard noise channel that is applied in simulations?

I know there are various quantum noise channels, which include the depolarizing channel, the dephasing channel and the bit-flip channel; We can apply them in simulators easily. However, is there any ...
Henry_Fordham's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
241 views

Stabilizer codes and 1,-1 coefficients

A lot of well known codes (5 qubit code, 7 qubit Steane code, 9 qubit Shor code) have logical zero and local one which can be written as (a global scalar times) a linear combination of computational ...
Ian Gershon Teixeira's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
252 views

Link between distance of a stabilizer code and number of errors it is able to correct

I am confused by a property. In the N&Chuang it is said that an $[n,k,2t+1]$ stabilizer code is able to correct up to $t$ errors. But for me if the code has distance $d$ it should be able to ...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
394 views

Necessary and sufficient condition to define logical operation (stabilizer code)

My question is highly related to this topic It is about defining logical operation on a Stabilizer code. I call $S$ the stabilizer group of a code space $C$, and I assumed it is generated by a family $...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
317 views

Laflamme's perfect quantum error correcting code (5 qubit) - Not getting the correct syndrome bits

I am trying to implement 5 qubit encoding and decoding circuit which results into generation of syndrome bits that pin points the location of error so that we can correct it afterwards. Please have a ...
Sid's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
577 views

Mitigating the noise in a quantum circuit

I'm using Qiskit and I have a Quantum Circuit (say, circuit) that gives reasonable results when using the simulator, namely ...
Vitality's user avatar
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1 answer
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Analytical Approximation of Pseudothreshold for Steane Code

Is there an analytical way by which one can approximately find the pseudothreshold of the Steane code? My supervisor told me that there is a way, using the physical error rate and the number of gates ...
MatthewS1990's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
264 views

how to go from matrix to tableau to circuit in qiskit or stim

I'm working with QECC using a non-python based platform. I'd like to move the results into python to do calculations that are better handled by packages like qiskit or stim. So the output of the non-...
unknown's user avatar
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2 votes
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How to read a graph representing the stabilizers and data qubits in surface code

I am trying to understand to properly read the graph below, provided in this post It is said that the black elements are the $Z$ stabilizers and the grey ones are the $X$ stabilizers. I am trying to ...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
43 votes
2 answers
17k views

What is the "surface code" in the context of quantum error correction?

I am studying Quantum Computing and Information, and have come across the term "surface code", but I can't find a brief explanation of what it is and how it works. Hopefully you guys can ...
Ivanovitch's user avatar
26 votes
4 answers
2k views

Is error correction necessary?

Why do you need error correction? My understanding is that error correction removes errors from noise, but noise should average itself out. To make clear what I'm asking, why can't you, instead of ...
auden's user avatar
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24 votes
3 answers
891 views

Which quantum error correction code has the highest threshold (as proven at the time of writing this)?

Which quantum error correction code currently holds the record in terms of the highest threshold for fault-tolerance? I know that the surface code is pretty good ($\approx10^{-2}$?), but finding exact ...
M. Stern's user avatar
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24 votes
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What level of "confidence" of the result from a quantum computer is possible?

At a very basic level, reading or measuring a qubit forces it to be in one state or the other, so the operation of a quantum computer to gain a result collapses the state into one of many ...
Rory Alsop's user avatar
18 votes
5 answers
5k views

What is a Bacon-Shor code and what is its significance?

I'm at the AQC conference at NASA and everybody seems to suddenly be talking about the Bacon-Shor code but there is no Wikipedia page and the pdf that I gave a link to does not really explain what it ...
user1271772's user avatar
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16 votes
1 answer
782 views

Violation of the Quantum Hamming bound

The quantum Hamming bound for a non-degenerate $[[N,k,d]]$ quantum error correction code is defined as: \begin{equation} 2^{N-k}\geq\sum_{n=0}^{\lfloor d/2\rfloor}3^n\begin{pmatrix}N \\ n\end{...
Josu Etxezarreta Martinez's user avatar
14 votes
5 answers
686 views

Why do error correction protocols only work when the error rates are already significantly low to begin with?

Quantum error correction is a fundamental aspect of quantum computation, without which large-scale quantum computations are practically unfeasible. One aspect of fault-tolerant quantum computing that ...
glS's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
2k views

What does quantum error correction code notation stand for?

I understand the notation for classical error correcting codes. E.g., "Hamming(7,4)" stands for a Hamming code that uses 7 bits to encode blocks of 4 bits. What does the notation for quantum error ...
Alexander Pozdneev's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
643 views

Are all $[[n, k, d]]$ quantum codes equivalent to additive self-orthogonal $GF(4)^n$ classical codes?

Theorem 2 of [1] states: Suppose $C$ is an additive self-orthogonal sub-code of $\textrm{GF}(4)^n$, containing $2^{n-k}$ vectors, such that there are no vectors of weight $<d$ in $C^\perp/C$. ...
SLesslyTall's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
669 views

Why can't there be an error detecting code with fewer than 4 qubits?

Essentially this boils down to: Is it possible to encode a single logical qubit in three physical qubits so that the resulting code has distance two? In other words, does a $[\![3,1,2]\!]$ code exist? ...
Ian Gershon Teixeira's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
838 views

How to calculate the distance of stabilizer code?

How to calculate the distance of the stabilizer code [[n,k,d]]? It's better if you can make a 3-qubit example. And what's the relationship between d and Pauli group?
Zeo's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
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Allowed CNOT gates for IBM Q 5 quantum computer

I trying to do some tests in the IBM Q5 computer of IBM quantm experience for some simple error correction protocols, but as I can see, some operations between the qubits are not allowed. For example,...
Josu Etxezarreta Martinez's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
527 views

How does the size of a toric code torus affect its ability to protect qubits?

The Toric code Hamiltonian is: $\sum_{x,y}\left( \prod_{i\in p(x,y)} Z_{ixy} + \prod_{i\in v(x,y)} X_{ixy} \right),$ where the $v$ and $p$ are defined according to this picture (courtesy of James ...
user1271772's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
962 views

What quantum channels are considered in quantum communication, and how does this choice affect the construction of error correction codes?

The so-called depolarizing channel is the channel model that is mostly used when constructing quantum error correction codes. The action of such channel over a quantum state $\rho$ is $$\rho\...
Josu Etxezarreta Martinez's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
538 views

Intuition for Shor code failure probability

Consider the 9 qubit Shor code. This can detect and correct arbitrary single qubit errors, but if there are 2 or more single qubit errors before a correction round, the correction will fail. (In the ...
anon1802's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
559 views

Practical Implementations of QECCs in IBM Q Experience

I am learning how to program the IBM Q Experience quantum computers in order to learn more about how does it work and in order to perform some experiments in it. By doing so I was wondering what are ...
Josu Etxezarreta Martinez's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
929 views

CSS Code in disguise

Suppose I have a quantum error correcting code described by a set of stabilizers. Is there any easy way of checking whether or not it is equivalent to a code constructed using the CSS construction, ...
guest-20's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
409 views

Magic state distillation: why is it harder to prepare the encoded $|A_{\pi/4}\rangle$ than $|0 \rangle$

My question is the following Let's assume I am using Steane concatenated code to do error correction. I consider that the stabilizers are extracted fault-tolerantly through the Steane method. The ...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
527 views

What is (formally) a transversal operator?

This question concerns about a formal definition of transversal operator. I understood that transversal operator are a group of operators which are efficient in terms of circuit depth and can be used ...
Daniele Cuomo's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
826 views

CSS codes are the only stabilizer codes with transversal CNOT?

Given a stabilizer code $\mathcal{C}$ then $$ \mathcal{C} \text{ is CSS} \iff \text{CNOT} \text{ is transversal}. $$ The forward implication is well known, see for example Transversal logical gate ...
Eric Kubischta's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
292 views

Why do we need to keep of history of $d$ cycle for surface code in order to resist against data *and* measurement errors

I am trying to understand why we need to keep in memory $d$ clock cycles in order to correct efficiently for the surface code where the syndrome qubits are also faulty ($d$ is the code distance). [...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
395 views

Lower bound for Degenerate Codes?

According to (Macchiavello, Palma, Zeilinger, 2001; pg82) a lower bound of the encoding Hilbert space of a non degenerate code is given by the quantum version of the Hamming bound: $$2^k \sum_{i=0}^t ...
Quantum spaghettification's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
373 views

Simulating flag qubits and conditional branches using Stim

In a quantum error correcting code using flag qubits, it's common to have flag measurements that tell you it's necessary to do some extra measurements for safety. So, for example, I want to say: ...
Craig Gidney's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
665 views

Why is the $N$-qubit stabilizer group abelian?

In Devitt et al. 2013's introduction to quantum error correction, the authors mention (bottom of page 12) how the stabilizer group for $N$ qubits is abelian. More specifically, here is the quote: ...
glS's user avatar
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