arXiv subjects

Heather Leitch

Publications and source records attributed to Heather Leitch.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Learning unknown stabilizer codes using product measurements

Efficiently characterizing quantum error correcting codes is a key challenge on the path to fault-tolerant quantum computation. Stabilizer codes, a central class of such codes, are defined by a set of stabilizer generators. Here, we present an algorithm that uses random single-qubit measurements to learn the stabilizer generators of any stabilizer code from $N$ copies of stabilizer states in its codespace, requiring no prior knowledge of the code's structure. This also enables verification that a device implements its intended code. We derive a lower bound on $N$ needed to recover the stabilizer generators with high probability, together with a bound on the algorithm's overall probability of success. When applied to quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes, a leading candidate for practical fault-tolerant architectures, our approach requires a number of states that scales polylogarithmically with $n$, the number of qubits.

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arXiv2026

Magic state distillation with permutation-invariant codes and a two-qubit example

Magic states, by allowing non-Clifford gates through gate teleportation, are important building blocks of fault-tolerant quantum computation. Magic state distillation protocols aim to create clean copies of magic states from many noisier copies. However, the prevailing protocols require substantial qubit overhead. We present a distillation protocol based on permutation-invariant gnu codes, as small as two qubits. The two-qubit protocol achieves a 0.5 error threshold and 1/2 distillation rate, surpassing prior schemes for comparable codes. Our protocol furthermore distils magic states with arbitrary magic by varying the position of the ideal input states on the Bloch sphere. We achieve this by departing from the usual magic state distillation formalism, allowing the use of non-Clifford gates in the distillation protocol, and allowing the form of the output state to differ from the input state. Our protocol is compatible for use in tandem with existing magic state distillation protocols to enhance their performance.

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arXiv2025

Transversal Gates for Highly Asymmetric qLDPC Codes

Transversal gates are the ideal gates in a fault-tolerant scenario; relatively easy to implement, and minimally error propagating. Their availability will maximise fault tolerant thresholds, enabling universal quantum computation in a wider range of noisy hardware. Transversal gates in quantum low density parity check (qLDPC) codes are largely unstudied, with the early results of Burton & Browne suggesting that transversal non-Clifford gates may be impossible. In this paper, we contradict this expectation with constructions for both hypergraph product codes and balanced product codes, although these first examples have weak properties. We find qLDPC codes with transversal phase gates that have a number of logical qubits that grows linearly with $n$, the number of physical qubits. The distance is highly asymmetric; while the distance against bit flip errors also grows (almost) linearly in $n$, the distance against phase flip errors is limited to $O(1)$. Moreover, existing distance rebalancing techniques are one-sided; we show that they only preserve the transversality when rebalancing to increase the asymmetry, not decrease it. We also collate a toolbox of techniques that identify a single transversal gate from which we can individuate a large range of different transversal gates. This is critical when addressing the question of what a transversal phase gate truly means when there are many logical qubits in the system.

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arXiv2025

Demystifying the Balanced Product Code: A Review

The discovery of the family of balanced product codes was pivotal in the subsequent development of 'good' low density quantum error correcting codes that have optimal scaling of the key parameters of distance and storage density. We review this family, giving a completely different presentation to the original, minimising the abstraction and technicalities wherever possible. The target audience is anyone familiar with the stabilizer formalism for error correction wanting to understand how parity-check matrices can be constructed for high storage density quantum codes.

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arXiv2023

Thermodynamics of hybrid quantum rotor devices

We investigate the thermodynamics of a hybrid quantum device consisting of two qubits collectively interacting with a quantum rotor and coupled dissipatively to two equilibrium reservoirs at different temperatures. By modelling the dynamics and the resulting steady state of the system using a collision model, we identify the functioning of the device as a thermal engine, a refrigerator or an accelerator. In addition, we also look into the device's capacity to operate as a heat rectifier, and optimise both the rectification coefficient and the heat flow simultaneously. Drawing an analogy to heat rectification and since we are interested in the conversion of energy into the rotor's kinetic energy, we introduce the concept of angular momentum rectification which may be employed to control work extraction through an external load.

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arXiv2022

Implementing Clifford Gates on Stabilizer Codes via Measurement

We describe a method to use measurements and correction operations in order to implement the Clifford group in a stabilizer code, generalising a result from [Bombin,2011] for topological subsystem colour codes. In subsystem stabilizer codes of distance at least $3$ the process can be implemented fault-tolerantly. In particular this provides a method to implement a logical Hadamard-type gate within the 15-qubit Reed-Muller quantum code by measuring and correcting only three observables. This is an alternative to the method proposed by [Paetznick and Reichardt, 2013] to generate a set of gates which is universal for quantum computing for this code. The construction is inspired by the description of code rewiring from [Colladay and Mueller, 2018]. Inspired by the code rewiring strategy of [Colladay and Mueller, 2018], we describe a method to use measurements and correction operations in order to implement the Clifford group in the code space of any stabilizer code, and we specify a sufficient set of conditions under which the distance of the code is preserved throughout. In particular this provides a method to implement a logical Hadamard-type gate within the 15-qubit Reed-Muller quantum code by measuring and correcting only two observables, providing the only non-transversal gate required for universality. Furthermore this approach is applicable to the toric code and quantum LDPC code

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arXiv2022

Exploiting coherence for quantum thermodynamic advantage

The introduction of the quantum analogue of a Carnot engine based on a bath comprising of particles with a small amount of coherence initiated an active line of research on the harnessing of different quantum resources for the enhancement of thermal machines beyond the standard reversible limit, with an emphasis on non-thermal baths containing quantum coherence. In our work, we investigate the impact of coherence on the thermodynamic tasks of a collision model which is composed of a system interacting, in the continuous time limit, with a series of coherent ancillas of two baths at different temperatures. Our results show the advantages of utilising coherence as a resource in the operation of the machine, and allows it: (i) to exhibit unconventional behaviour such as the appearance of a hybrid refrigerator, capable of simultaneous refrigeration and generation of work, and (ii) to function as an engine or a refrigerator with efficiencies larger than the Carnot bound. Moreover, we find an effective upper bound to the efficiency of the thermal machine operating as an engine in the presence of a coherent reservoir.

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arXiv2022

Driven quantum harmonic oscillators: A working medium for thermal machines

The study of quantum thermodynamics is key to the development of quantum thermal machines. In contrast to most of the previous proposals based on discrete strokes, here we consider a working substance that is permanently coupled to two or more baths at different temperatures and continuously driven. To this end, we investigate parametrically driven quantum harmonic oscillators coupled to heat baths via a collision model. Using a thermodynamically consistent local master equation, we derive the heat flows and power of the working device which can operate as an engine, refrigerator or accelerator and analyze the instantaneous and average efficiencies and coefficients of performance. Studying the regimes of both slow and fast driving of the system, we find that an increased driving frequency can lead to a change of functioning to a dissipator. Finally, we investigate the effect of squeezing one of the thermal baths: it leads to an apparent higher efficiency compared to the corresponding Carnot value of an equilibrium bath with the same temperature and to sustained entanglement between the working substance oscillators in the limit cycle.

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