arXiv subjects

Christopher Chamberland

Publications and source records attributed to Christopher Chamberland.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Triangular color codes on trivalent graphs with flag qubits

The color code is a topological quantum error-correcting code supporting a variety of valuable fault-tolerant logical gates. Its two-dimensional version, the triangular color code, may soon be realized with currently available superconducting hardware despite constrained qubit connectivity. To guide this experimental effort, we study the storage threshold of the triangular color code against circuit-level depolarizing noise. First, we adapt the Restriction Decoder to the setting of the triangular color code and to phenomenological noise. Then, we propose a fault-tolerant implementation of the stabilizer measurement circuits, which incorporates flag qubits. We show how information from flag qubits can be used with the Restriction Decoder to maintain the effective distance of the code. We numerically estimate the threshold of the triangular color code to be 0.2%, which is competitive with the thresholds of other topological quantum codes. We also prove that 1-flag stabilizer measurement circuits are sufficient to preserve the full code distance, which may be used to find simpler syndrome extraction circuits of the color code.

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arXiv2020

Very low overhead fault-tolerant magic state preparation using redundant ancilla encoding and flag qubits

The overhead cost of performing universal fault-tolerant quantum computation for large scale quantum algorithms is very high. Despite several attempts at alternative schemes, magic state distillation remains one of the most efficient schemes for simulating non-Clifford gates in a fault-tolerant way. However, since magic state distillation circuits are not fault-tolerant, all Clifford operations must be encoded in a large distance code in order to have comparable failure rates with the magic states being distilled. In this work, we introduce a new concept which we call redundant ancilla encoding. The latter combined with flag qubits allows for circuits to both measure stabilizer generators of some code, while also being able to measure global operators to fault-tolerantly prepare magic states, all using nearest neighbor interactions. In particular, we apply such schemes to a planar architecture of the triangular color code family. In addition to our scheme being suitable for experimental implementations, we show that for physical error rates near $10^{-4}$ and under a full circuit-level noise model, our scheme can produce magic states using an order of magnitude fewer qubits and space-time overhead compared to the most competitive magic state distillation schemes. Further, we can take advantage of the fault-tolerance of our circuits to produce magic states with very low logical failure rates using encoded Clifford gates with noise rates comparable to the magic states being injected. Thus, stabilizer operations are not required to be encoded in a very large distance code. Consequently, we believe our scheme to be suitable for implementing fault-tolerant universal quantum computation with hardware currently under development.

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arXiv2020

Fault-tolerant bosonic quantum error correction with the surface-GKP code

Bosonic quantum error correction is a viable option for realizing error-corrected quantum information processing in continuous-variable bosonic systems. Various single-mode bosonic quantum error-correcting codes such as cat, binomial, and GKP codes have been implemented experimentally in circuit QED and trapped ion systems. Moreover, there have been many theoretical proposals to scale up such single-mode bosonic codes to realize large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computation. Here, we consider the concatenation of the single-mode GKP code with the surface code, namely, the surface-GKP code. In particular, we thoroughly investigate the performance of the surface-GKP code by assuming realistic GKP states with a finite squeezing and noisy circuit elements due to photon losses. By using a minimum-weight perfect matching decoding algorithm on a 3D space-time graph, we show that fault-tolerant quantum error correction is possible with the surface-GKP code if the squeezing of the GKP states is higher than 11.2dB in the case where the GKP states are the only noisy elements. We also show that the squeezing threshold changes to 18:6dB when both the GKP states and circuit elements are comparably noisy. At this threshold, each circuit component fails with probability 0.69%. Finally, if the GKP states are noiseless, fault-tolerant quantum error correction with the surface-GKP code is possible if each circuit element fails with probability less than 0.81%. We stress that our decoding scheme uses the additional information from GKP-stabilizer measurements and we provide a simple method to compute renormalized edge weights of the matching graphs. Furthermore, our noise model is general as it includes full circuit-level noise.

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arXiv2019

Topological and subsystem codes on low-degree graphs with flag qubits

In this work we introduce two code families, which we call the heavy hexagon code and heavy square code. Both code families are implemented by assigning physical data and ancilla qubits to both vertices and edges of low degree graphs. Such a layout is particularly suitable for superconducting qubit architectures to minimize frequency collisions and crosstalk. In some cases, frequency collisions can be reduced by several orders of magnitude. The heavy hexagon code is a hybrid surface/Bacon-Shor code mapped onto a (heavy) hexagonal lattice whereas the heavy square code is the surface code mapped onto a (heavy) square lattice. In both cases, the lattice includes all the ancilla qubits required for fault-tolerant error-correction. Naively, the limited qubit connectivity might be thought to limit the error-correcting capability of the code to less than its full distance. Therefore, essential to our construction is the use of flag qubits. We modify minimum weight perfect matching decoding to efficiently and scalably incorporate information from measurements of the flag qubits and correct up to the full code distance while respecting the limited connectivity. Simulations show that high threshold values for both codes can be obtained using our decoding protocol. Further, our decoding scheme can be adapted to other topological code families.

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arXiv2019

Fault-tolerant preparation of approximate GKP states

Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) states appear to be amongst the leading candidates for correcting errors when encoding qubits into oscillators. However the preparation of GKP states remains a significant theoretical and experimental challenge. Until now, no clear definitions for fault-tolerantly preparing GKP states have been provided. Without careful consideration, a small number of faults can lead to large uncorrectable shift errors. After proposing a metric to compare approximate GKP states, we provide rigorous definitions of fault-tolerance and introduce a fault-tolerant phase estimation protocol for preparing such states. The fault-tolerant protocol uses one flag qubit and accepts only a subset of states in order to prevent measurement readout errors from causing large shift errors. We then show how the protocol can be implemented using circuit QED. In doing so, we derive analytic expressions which describe the leading order effects of the non-linear dispersive shift and Kerr non-linearity. Using these expressions, we show that to mitigate the non-linear dispersive shift and Kerr terms would require the protocol to be implemented on time scales four orders of magnitude longer than the time scales relevant to the protocol for physically motivated parameters. Despite these restrictions, we numerically show that a subset of the accepted states of the fault-tolerant phase estimation protocol maintain good error correcting capabilities even in the presence of noise.

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arXiv2019

Flag fault-tolerant error correction, measurement, and quantum computation for cyclic CSS codes

Flag qubits have recently been proposed in syndrome extraction circuits to detect high-weight errors arising from fewer faults. The use of flag qubits allows the construction of fault-tolerant protocols with the fewest number of ancillas known to-date. In this work, we prove some critical properties of CSS codes constructed from classical cyclic codes that enable the construction of a flag fault-tolerant error correction scheme. We then develop fault-tolerant protocols as well as a family of circuits for flag fault-tolerant error correction and operator measurement, requiring only four ancilla qubits and applicable to cyclic CSS codes of distance 3. The measurement protocol can be further used for logical Clifford gate implementation via quantum gate teleportation. We also provide examples of cyclic CSS codes with large encoding rates.

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arXiv2019

Fault-tolerant magic state preparation with flag qubits

Magic state distillation is one of the leading candidates for implementing universal fault-tolerant logical gates. However, the distillation circuits themselves are not fault-tolerant, so there is additional cost to first implement encoded Clifford gates with negligible error. In this paper we present a scheme to fault-tolerantly and directly prepare magic states using flag qubits. One of these schemes uses a single extra ancilla, even with noisy Clifford gates. We compare the physical qubit and gate cost of this scheme to the magic state distillation protocol of Meier, Eastin, and Knill, which is efficient and uses a small stabilizer circuit. In some regimes, we show that the overhead can be improved by several orders of magnitude.

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arXiv2018

Deep neural decoders for near term fault-tolerant experiments

Finding efficient decoders for quantum error correcting codes adapted to realistic experimental noise in fault-tolerant devices represents a significant challenge. In this paper we introduce several decoding algorithms complemented by deep neural decoders and apply them to analyze several fault-tolerant error correction protocols such as the surface code as well as Steane and Knill error correction. Our methods require no knowledge of the underlying noise model afflicting the quantum device making them appealing for real-world experiments. Our analysis is based on a full circuit-level noise model. It considers both distance-three and five codes, and is performed near the codes pseudo-threshold regime. Training deep neural decoders in low noise rate regimes appears to be a challenging machine learning endeavour. We provide a detailed description of our neural network architectures and training methodology. We then discuss both the advantages and limitations of deep neural decoders. Lastly, we provide a rigorous analysis of the decoding runtime of trained deep neural decoders and compare our methods with anticipated gate times in future quantum devices. Given the broad applications of our decoding schemes, we believe that the methods presented in this paper could have practical applications for near term fault-tolerant experiments.

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arXiv2018

The Small Stellated Dodecahedron Code and Friends

We explore a distance-3 homological CSS quantum code, namely the small stellated dodecahedron code, for dense storage of quantum information and we compare its performance with the distance-3 surface code. The data and ancilla qubits of the small stellated dodecahedron code can be located on the edges resp. vertices of a small stellated dodecahedron, making this code suitable for 3D connectivity. This code encodes 8 logical qubits into 30 physical qubits (plus 22 ancilla qubits for parity check measurements) as compared to 1 logical qubit into 9 physical qubits (plus 8 ancilla qubits) for the surface code. We develop fault-tolerant parity check circuits and a decoder for this code, allowing us to numerically assess the circuit-based pseudo-threshold.

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arXiv2018

Theory of adiabatic quantum control in the presence of cavity-photon shot noise

Many areas of physics rely upon adiabatic state transfer protocols, allowing a quantum state to be moved between different physical systems for storage and retrieval or state manipulation. However, these state-transfer protocols suffer from dephasing and dissipation. In this thesis we go beyond the standard open-systems treatment of quantum dissipation allowing us to consider non-Markovian environments. We use adiabatic perturbation theory in order to give analytic descriptions for various quantum state-transfer protocols. The leading-order corrections will give rise to additional terms adding to the geometric phase preventing us from achieving a perfect fidelity. We obtain analytical descriptions for the effects of the geometric phase in non-Markovian regimes. The Markovian regime is usually treated by solving a standard Bloch-Redfield master equation, while in the non-Markovian regime, we perform a secular approximation allowing us to obtain a solution to the density matrix without solving master equations. This solution contains all the relevant phase information for our state-transfer protocol. After developing the general theoretical tools, we apply our methods to adiabatic state transfer between a four-level atom in a driven cavity. We explicitly consider dephasing effects due to unavoidable photon shot noise and give a protocol for performing a phase gate. These results will be useful to ongoing experiments in circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems.

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arXiv2018

Flag fault-tolerant error correction with arbitrary distance codes

In this paper we introduce a general fault-tolerant quantum error correction protocol using flag circuits for measuring stabilizers of arbitrary distance codes. In addition to extending flag error correction beyond distance-three codes for the first time, our protocol also applies to a broader class of distance-three codes than was previously known. Flag circuits use extra ancilla qubits to signal when errors resulting from $v$ faults in the circuit have weight greater than $v$. The flag error correction protocol is applicable to stabilizer codes of arbitrary distance which satisfy a set of conditions and uses fewer qubits than other schemes such as Shor, Steane and Knill error correction. We give examples of infinite code families which satisfy these conditions and analyze the behaviour of distance-three and -five examples numerically. Requiring fewer resources than Shor error correction, flag error correction could potentially be used in low-overhead fault-tolerant error correction protocols using low density parity check quantum codes of large code length.

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arXiv2017

Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing in the Pauli or Clifford Frame with Slow Error Diagnostics

We consider the problem of fault-tolerant quantum computation in the presence of slow error diagnostics, either caused by measurement latencies or slow decoding algorithms. Our scheme offers a few improvements over previously existing solutions, for instance it does not require active error correction and results in a reduced error-correction overhead when error diagnostics is much slower than the gate time. In addition, we adapt our protocol to cases where the underlying error correction strategy chooses the optimal correction amongst all Clifford gates instead of the usual Pauli gates. The resulting Clifford frame protocol is of independent interest as it can increase error thresholds and could find applications in other areas of quantum computation.

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arXiv2017

Error suppression via complementary gauge choices in Reed-Muller codes

Concatenation of two quantum error correcting codes with complementary sets of transversal gates can provide a means towards universal fault-tolerant computation. We first show that it is generally preferable to choose the inner code with the higher pseudo-threshold in order to achieve lower logical failure rates. We then explore the threshold properties of a wide range of concatenation schemes. Notably, we demonstrate that the concatenation of complementary sets of Reed-Muller codes can increase the code capacity threshold under depolarizing noise when compared to extensions of previously proposed concatenation models. We also analyze the properties of logical errors under circuit level noise, showing that smaller codes perform better for all sampled physical error rates. Our work provides new insights into the performance of universal concatenated quantum codes for both code capacity and circuit level noise.

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arXiv2017

Overhead analysis of universal concatenated quantum codes

We analyze the resource overhead of recently proposed methods for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation using concatenated codes. Namely, we examine the concatenation of the 7-qubit Steane code with the 15-qubit Reed-Muller code, which allows for the construction of the 49 and 105-qubit codes that do not require the need for magic state distillation for universality. We compute a lower bound for the adversarial noise threshold of the 105-qubit code and find it to be $8.33\times 10^{-6}.$ We obtain a depolarizing noise threshold for the 49-qubit code of $9.69\times 10^{-4}$ which is competitive with the 105-qubit threshold result of $1.28\times 10^{-3}$. We then provide lower bounds on the resource requirements of the 49 and 105-qubit codes and compare them with the surface code implementation of a logical $T$ gate using magic state distillation. For the sampled input error rates and noise model, we find that the surface code achieves a smaller overhead compared to our concatenated schemes.

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arXiv2017

Hard decoding algorithm for optimizing thresholds under general Markovian noise

Quantum error correction is instrumental in protecting quantum systems from noise in quantum computing and communication settings. Pauli channels can be efficiently simulated and threshold values for Pauli error rates under a variety of error-correcting codes have been obtained. However, realistic quantum systems can undergo noise processes that differ significantly from Pauli noise. In this paper, we present an efficient hard decoding algorithm for optimizing thresholds and lowering failure rates of an error-correcting code under general completely positive and trace-preserving (i.e., Markovian) noise. We use our hard decoding algorithm to study the performance of several error-correcting codes under various non-Pauli noise models by computing threshold values and failure rates for these codes. We compare the performance of our hard decoding algorithm to decoders optimized for depolarizing noise and show improvements in thresholds and reductions in failure rates by several orders of magnitude. Our hard decoding algorithm can also be adapted to take advantage of a code's non-Pauli transversal gates to further suppress noise. For example, we show that using the transversal gates of the 5-qubit code allows arbitrary rotations around certain axes to be perfectly corrected. Furthermore, we show that Pauli twirling can increase or decrease the threshold depending upon the code properties. Lastly, we show that even if the physical noise model differs slightly from the hypothesized noise model used to determine an optimized decoder, failure rates can still be reduced by applying our hard decoding algorithm.

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arXiv2016

Thresholds for universal concatenated quantum codes

Quantum error correction and fault-tolerance make it possible to perform quantum computations in the presence of imprecision and imperfections of realistic devices. An important question is to find the noise rate at which errors can be arbitrarily suppressed. By concatenating the 7-qubit Steane and 15-qubit Reed-Muller codes, the 105-qubit code enables a universal set of fault-tolerant gates despite not all of them being transversal. Importantly, the CNOT gate remains transversal in both codes, and as such has increased error protection relative to the other single qubit logical gates. We show that while the level-1 pseudo-threshold for the concatenated scheme is limited by the logical Hadamard, the error suppression of the logical CNOT gates allows for the asymptotic threshold to increase by orders of magnitude at higher levels. We establish a lower bound of $1.28~\times~10^{-3}$ for the asymptotic threshold of this code which is competitive with known concatenated models and does not rely on ancillary magic state preparation for universal computation.

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