arXiv subjects

Evan Sutcliffe

Publications and source records attributed to Evan Sutcliffe.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Tolerating Device Failure in Distributed Quantum Computing

It is desirable that a distributed quantum computer can operate despite the replacement or failure of its constituent components, allowing the reliability of the distributed system to exceed that of its subcomponents. We first show that when quantum error correction is performed over a modular quantum network, quantum devices can be swapped out or replaced, during operation, with minimal impact on logical error rates. We also investigate the ability of the toric and hyperbolic Floquet quantum error correcting codes to protect logical information under low rates of modular node failure. In particular, we show that under the proposed distributed quantum error scheme, the selected codes are able to maintain good logical error suppression during the failure of entire nodes. For catastrophic node failure of probability p/100, we suggest that a distributed toric code would outperform one implemented on a monolithic device below a physical error rate of 0.05%.

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arXiv2026

Impact of Topology on Multipartite Entanglement Distribution Protocols in Quantum Networks

Quantum networks will rely on entanglement distribution to enable multi-user applications such as distributed quantum computing and cryptography. While multipartite entanglement distribution routing protocols have been extensively studied on idealised grid topologies, less is understood about how real network structure shapes their performance and resource requirements. We present a systematic study of four routing protocols for multipartite entanglement distribution, each characterised by the number of paths (single-path and multi-path) and routing strategy (star-based and tree-based), over 81 real network topologies. We identified four distinct topology-dependent performance regimes, where: (i) all protocols perform poorly, (ii) tree-based protocols dominate, (iii) multi-path protocols dominate, or (iv) all protocols perform well. By correlating clusters with graph metrics, we also provide structural explanations for the varied performance of specific protocols. Additionally, motivated by the anticipated high cost of repeaters, we investigated the impact of repeater trimming on the performance of multi-path protocols. Topology strongly governs how far repeater nodes can be removed from the network while maintaining a given performance (distribution rate). For instance, in networks where only 80% of nodes operate as repeaters, well-performing topologies are able to retain over 90% of the distribution rate; whereas sparse, weakly connected graphs exhibit rapid performance degradation, retaining less than half of the distribution rate. Our results provide a topology-aware framework for protocol selection and infrastructure optimisation in future quantum networks, bridging routing design with cost-aware deployment strategies.

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arXiv2025

Fidelity-Aware Multipath Routing for Multipartite State Distribution in Quantum Networks

We consider the problem of distributing entangled multipartite states across a quantum network with improved distribution rate and fidelity. For this, we propose fidelity-aware multi-path routing protocols, assess their performance in terms of the rate and fidelity of the distributed Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, and compare such performance against that of single-path routing. Simulation results show that the proposed multi-path routing protocols select routes that require more Bell states compared to single-path routing, but also require fewer rounds of Bell state generation. We also optimised the trade-off between distribution rate and fidelity by selecting an appropriate cutoff to the quantum memory storage time. Using such a cutoff technique, the proposed multi-path protocols can achieve up to an 8.3 times higher distribution rate and up to a 28% improvement in GHZ state fidelity compared to single-path routing. These results show that multi-path routing both improves the distribution rates and enhances fidelity for multipartite state distribution.

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arXiv2025

Distributed quantum error correction based on hyperbolic Floquet codes

Quantum computing offers significant speedups, but the large number of physical qubits required for quantum error correction introduces engineering challenges for a monolithic architecture. One solution is to distribute the logical quantum computation across multiple small quantum computers, with non-local operations enabled via distributed Bell states. Previous investigations of distributed quantum error correction have largely focused on the surface code, which offers good error suppression but poor encoding rates, with each surface code instance only able to encode a single logical qubit. In this work, we argue that hyperbolic Floquet codes are particularly well-suited to distributed quantum error correction for two reasons. Firstly, their hyperbolic structure enables a high number of logical qubits to be stored efficiently. Secondly, the fact that all measurements are between pairs of qubits means that each measurement only requires a single Bell state. Under the circuit-level noise model, we demonstrate through simulations that distributed hyperbolic Floquet codes offer good performance with achievable local and non-local fidelities of approximately $99.97\%$ and $99\%$, respectively. This shows that distributed quantum error correction is not only possible but also efficiently realisable.

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arXiv2023

Multi-User Entanglement Distribution in Quantum Networks Using Multipath Routing

Quantum networks facilitate numerous applications such as secure communication and distributed quantum computation by performing entanglement distribution. Multi-user quantum applications where quantum information is shared between multiple users require access to a shared multipartite state between the users. We consider the problem of designing protocols for distributing such states, at an increased entanglement rate. We propose three protocols that increase the entanglement rate of multi-user applications by leveraging multipath routing. The protocols are evaluated on quantum networks with NISQ constraints, including limited quantum memories and probabilistic entanglement generation. Monte Carlo simulation results show that the developed protocols achieve an exponential speedup of entanglement rate compared to single-path routing techniques, with a maximum speedup of four orders of magnitude for the cases studied. The speedup was also found to improve for larger sets of users. When the protocols were tested in scaled-down real-world topologies, it was found that topology can have a significant effect on the achievable entanglement rates, with one order of magnitude difference between topologies. Finally, we find that the benefits of multipath routing are a maximum for short quantum memory decoherence times, and intermediate values of entanglement generation probability. Hence the protocols developed can benefit NISQ quantum network control and design.

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