arXiv subjects

Theodore J. Yoder

Publications and source records attributed to Theodore J. Yoder.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Forced Gap Post-Selection for Quantum LDPC Codes and their Operations

We develop a simple and general post-selection strategy for high-rate quantum codes that is transferrable across decoders. After an initial baseline run, the decoder is re-run once per logical observable, and forced in these latter runs to provide a solution where the given observable has the complementary outcome. Shots are rejected that find logically complementary solutions with similar likelihoods compared to the baseline. Using the Relay-BP decoder, we benchmark the strategy on the $72$-qubit and $144$-qubit bivariate bicycle codes, as well as surgery gadgets for the latter. In comparison to previous post-selection strategies, our results offer an improved logical error rate by over a factor of $4$ on the same circuit and physical error rate, and at the same rate of post-selection. Our strategies are also lightweight, relying only on FPGA-friendly belief propagation, whereas the previous best used repeated rounds of a high-latency BP-OSD decoder.

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arXiv2026

Constant-Time Surgery on 2D Hypergraph Product Codes with Near-Constant Space Overhead

Generalized code surgery is a versatile and low-overhead technique for performing fault-tolerant computation on quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes. In many settings, surgery exhibits practical space overheads, while its time overhead remains a bottleneck at $O(d)$ syndrome rounds per operation. In this work, we construct surgery gadgets that perform parallel logical measurements on 2D hypergraph product codes in constant time overhead ($O(1)$) and near-constant space overhead ($\tilde{O}(1)$). The reduced time overhead is a result of amortization, as we show, following the formulation by Cowtan et al. (arXiv:2510.14895), that performing $d$ surgery operations in $O(d)$ time is fault tolerant. Our gadgets combine the strengths of different approaches to fault-tolerant logical operations: they partially retain the flexibility of surgery while achieving overheads comparable to transversal gates. Consequently, they are well-suited for near-term experimental realization and demonstrate new possibilities in the design of gadgets for fast logical computation.

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arXiv2025

Fail fast: techniques to probe rare events in quantum error correction

The ultimate goal of quantum error correction is to create logical qubits with very low error rates (e.g. 1e-12) and assemble them into large-scale quantum computers capable of performing many (e.g. billions) of logical gates on many (e.g. thousands) of logical qubits. However, it is necessarily difficult to directly assess the performance of such high-quality logical qubits using standard Monte Carlo sampling because logical failure events become very rare. Building on existing approaches to this problem, we develop three complementary techniques to characterize the rare-event regime for general quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes under circuit noise. (I) We propose a well-motivated, low-parameter ansatz for the failure spectrum (the fraction of fault sets of each size that fail) that empirically fits all the QEC systems we studied and predicts logical error rates at all physical error rates. (II) We find min-weight logical operators of syndrome measurement circuits and exactly compute the number of min-weight failing configurations. (III) We generalize the splitting method to qLDPC codes using multi-seeded Metropolis sampling to improve convergence for systems with many inequivalent logical operators. We apply these tools to distance-6, -12, and -18 bivariate bicycle codes under circuit noise, observing strong low-error-rate performance with the recently proposed Relay decoder but also considerable scope for further improvement.

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arXiv2025

Fast and fault-tolerant logical measurements: Auxiliary hypergraphs and transversal surgery

Quantum code surgery is a promising technique to perform fault-tolerant computation on quantum low-density parity-check codes. Recent developments have significantly reduced the space overhead of surgery. However, generic surgery operations still require $O(d)$ rounds of repeated syndrome extraction to be made fault-tolerant. In this work, we focus on reducing the time overhead of surgery. We first present a general set of conditions that ensure fault-tolerant surgery operations can be performed with constant time overhead. This fast surgery necessarily makes use of an auxiliary complex described by a hypergraph rather than a graph. We then introduce a concrete scheme called block reading, which performs transversal surgery across multiple code blocks. We further investigate surgery operations with intermediate time overhead, between $O(1)$ and $O(d)$, which apply to quantum locally testable codes. Finally, we establish a circuit equivalence between homomorphic measurement and hypergraph surgery and derive bounds on the time overhead of generic logical measurement schemes. Overall, our results demonstrate that reducing the time cost of code surgery is not reliant on the quantum memory being single-shot. Instead it is chiefly the connectivity between a code and its measurement ancilla system that determines the achievable measurement time overhead.

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arXiv2025

Tour de gross: A modular quantum computer based on bivariate bicycle codes

We present the bicycle architecture, a modular quantum computing framework based on high-rate, low-overhead quantum LDPC codes identified in prior work. For two specific bivariate bicycle codes with distances 12 and 18, we construct explicit fault-tolerant logical instruction sets and estimate the logical error rate of the instructions under circuit noise. We develop a compilation strategy adapted to the constraints of the bicycle architecture, enabling large-scale universal quantum circuit execution. Integrating these components, we perform end-to-end resource estimates demonstrating that an order of magnitude larger logical circuits can be implemented with a given number of physical qubits on the bicycle architecture than on surface code architectures. We anticipate further improvements through advances in code constructions, circuit designs, and compilation techniques.

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arXiv2025

Extractors: QLDPC Architectures for Efficient Pauli-Based Computation

In pursuit of large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computation, quantum low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have been established as promising candidates for low-overhead memory when compared to conventional approaches based on surface codes. Performing fault-tolerant logical computation on QLDPC memory, however, has been a long standing challenge in theory and in practice. In this work, we propose a new primitive, which we call an $\textit{extractor system}$, that can augment any QLDPC memory into a computational block well-suited for Pauli-based computation. In particular, any logical Pauli operator supported on the memory can be fault-tolerantly measured in one logical cycle, consisting of $O(d)$ physical syndrome measurement cycles, without rearranging qubit connectivity. We further propose a fixed-connectivity, LDPC architecture built by connecting many extractor-augmented computational (EAC) blocks with bridge systems. When combined with any user-defined source of high fidelity $|T\rangle$ states, our architecture can implement universal quantum circuits via parallel logical measurements, such that all single-block Clifford gates are compiled away. The size of an extractor on an $n$ qubit code is $\tilde{O}(n)$, where the precise overhead has immense room for practical optimizations.

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arXiv2025

Parallel Logical Measurements via Quantum Code Surgery

Quantum code surgery is a flexible and low overhead technique for performing logical measurements on quantum error-correcting codes, which generalises lattice surgery. In this work, we present a code surgery scheme, applicable to any qubit stabiliser low-density parity check (LDPC) code, that fault-tolerantly measures many logical Pauli operators in parallel. For a collection of logically disjoint Pauli product measurements supported on $t$ logical qubits, our scheme uses $O\big(t \omega (\log t + \log^3\omega)\big)$ ancilla qubits, where $\omega \geq d$ is the maximum weight of the single logical Pauli representatives involved in the measurements, and $d$ is the code distance. This is all done in time $O(d)$ independent of $t$. Our proposed scheme preserves both the LDPC property and the fault-distance of the original code, without requiring ancillary logical codeblocks which may be costly to prepare. This addresses a shortcoming of several recently introduced surgery schemes which can only be applied to measure a limited number of logical operators in parallel if they overlap on data qubits.

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arXiv2024

Architectures for Heterogeneous Quantum Error Correction Codes

Quantum Error Correction (QEC) is essential for future quantum computers due to its ability to exponentially suppress physical errors. The surface code is a leading error-correcting code candidate because of its local topological structure, experimentally achievable thresholds, and support for universal gate operations with magic states. However, its physical overhead scales quadratically with number of correctable errors. Conversely, quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes offer superior scaling but lack, on their own, a clear path to universal logical computation. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly evident is becoming that there are significant advantages to designing architectures using multiple codes. Heterogeneous architectures provide a clear path to universal logical computation as well as the ability to access different resource trade offs. To address this, we propose integrating the surface code and gross code using an ancilla bus for inter-code data movement. This approach involves managing trade-offs, including qubit overhead, a constrained instruction set, and gross code (memory) routing and management. While our focus is on the gross-surface code architecture, our method is adaptable to any code combination and the constraints generated by that specific architecture. Motivated by the potential reduction of physical qubit overhead, an ever important feature in the realization of fault tolerant computation, we perform the first full system study of heterogeneous error-correcting codes, discovering architectural trade-offs and optimizing around them. We demonstrate physical qubit reductions of up to 6.42x when executing an algorithm to a specific logical error rate, at the cost of up to a 3.43x increase in execution time.

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arXiv2024

Universal adapters between quantum LDPC codes

We propose the repetition code adapter as a way to perform joint logical Pauli measurements within a quantum low-density parity check (LDPC) codeblock or between separate such codeblocks, thus providing a flexible tool for fault-tolerant computation with quantum LDPC codes. This adapter is universal in the sense that it works regardless of the LDPC codes involved and the logical Paulis being measured. The construction achieves joint logical Pauli measurement of $t$ weight $O(d)$ operators using $O(d)$ time and $\tilde O(td)$ additional qubits and checks, up to a factor polylogarithmic in $d$. As a special case, for some geometrically-local codes in fixed $D\ge2$ dimensions, only $O(td)$ additional qubits and checks are required instead. By extending the adapter in the case $t=2$, we also construct a toric code adapter that uses $O(d^2)$ additional qubits and checks to perform addressable logical CNOT gates on arbitrary LDPC codes via Dehn twists. To obtain these results, we develop a novel weaker form of graph edge expansion and the $\mathsf{SkipTree}$ algorithm, which ensures a sparse transformation between different weight-2 check bases for the classical repetition code.

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arXiv2024

Low-overhead fault-tolerant quantum computation by gauging logical operators

Quantum computation must be performed in a fault-tolerant manner to be useful in practice. Recent progress has established quantum error-correcting codes with sparse connectivity requirements and constant qubit overhead suitable for quantum memory. However, existing schemes that include fault-tolerant logical measurement on such quantum memories do not always achieve low qubit overhead. Here we present a low-overhead method to implement fault-tolerant logical measurement on a quantum error-correcting code by treating the logical operator as a physical symmetry and gauging it so that it is enforced by a product of local symmetries. The gauging measurement procedure introduces a high degree of flexibility that can be exploited to achieve a qubit overhead that is linear in the weight of the operator being measured up to a polylogarithmic factor. This flexibility also allows the procedure to be adapted to arbitrary quantum codes. Our results provide a more efficient approach to performing fault-tolerant quantum computation, making it more tractable for near-term implementation.

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arXiv2024

Improved QLDPC Surgery: Logical Measurements and Bridging Codes

In this paper, we introduce the gauge-fixed QLDPC surgery scheme, an improved logical measurement scheme based on the construction of Cohen et al. (Sci. Adv. 8, eabn1717). Our scheme leverages expansion properties of the Tanner graph to substantially reduce the space overhead of QLDPC surgery. In certain cases, we only require $\Theta(w)$ ancilla qubits to fault-tolerantly measure a weight $w$ logical operator. We provide rigorous analysis for the code distance and fault distance of our schemes, and present a modular decoding algorithm that achieves maximal fault-distance. We further introduce a bridge system to facilitate fault-tolerant joint measurements of logical operators. Augmented by this bridge construction, our scheme can be used to connect different families of QLDPC codes into one universal architecture. Applying our toolbox, we show how to perform all logical Clifford gates on the [[144,12,12]] bivariate bicycle code. Our scheme adds 103 ancilla qubits into the connectivity graph, and one of the twelve logical qubits is used as an ancilla for gate synthesis. Logical measurements are combined with the automorphism gates studied by Bravyi et al. (Nature 627, 778-782) to implement 288 Pauli product measurements. We demonstrate the practicality of our scheme through circuit-level noise simulations, leveraging our proposed modular decoder that combines BPOSD with matching.

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arXiv2023

High-threshold and low-overhead fault-tolerant quantum memory

Quantum error correction becomes a practical possibility only if the physical error rate is below a threshold value that depends on a particular quantum code, syndrome measurement circuit, and decoding algorithm. Here we present an end-to-end quantum error correction protocol that implements fault-tolerant memory based on a family of LDPC codes with a high encoding rate that achieves an error threshold of $0.8\%$ for the standard circuit-based noise model. This is on par with the surface code which has remained an uncontested leader in terms of its high error threshold for nearly 20 years. The full syndrome measurement cycle for a length-$n$ code in our family requires $n$ ancillary qubits and a depth-7 circuit composed of nearest-neighbor CNOT gates. The required qubit connectivity is a degree-6 graph that consists of two edge-disjoint planar subgraphs. As a concrete example, we show that 12 logical qubits can be preserved for nearly one million syndrome cycles using 288 physical qubits in total, assuming the physical error rate of $0.1\%$. We argue that achieving the same level of error suppression on 12 logical qubits with the surface code would require nearly 3000 physical qubits. Our findings bring demonstrations of a low-overhead fault-tolerant quantum memory within the reach of near-term quantum processors.

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arXiv2023

Encoding a magic state with beyond break-even fidelity

To run large-scale algorithms on a quantum computer, error-correcting codes must be able to perform a fundamental set of operations, called logic gates, while isolating the encoded information from noise~\cite{Harper2019,Ryan-Anderson2021,Egan2021fault, Chen2022calibrated, Sundaresan2022matching, ryananderson2022implementing, Postler2022demonstration, GoogleAI2023}. We can complete a universal set of logic gates by producing special resources called magic states~\cite{Bravyi2005universal,Maier2013magic, Chamberland2022building}. It is therefore important to produce high-fidelity magic states to conduct algorithms while introducing a minimal amount of noise to the computation. Here, we propose and implement a scheme to prepare a magic state on a superconducting qubit array using error correction. We find that our scheme produces better magic states than those we can prepare using the individual qubits of the device. This demonstrates a fundamental principle of fault-tolerant quantum computing~\cite{Shor96}, namely, that we can use error correction to improve the quality of logic gates with noisy qubits. Additionally, we show we can increase the yield of magic states using adaptive circuits, where circuit elements are changed depending on the outcome of mid-circuit measurements. This demonstrates an essential capability we will need for many error-correction subroutines. Our prototype will be invaluable in the future as it can reduce the number of physical qubits needed to produce high-fidelity magic states in large-scale quantum-computing architectures.

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arXiv2023

The qudit Pauli group: non-commuting pairs, non-commuting sets, and structure theorems

Qudits with local dimension $d>2$ can have unique structure and uses that qubits ($d=2$) cannot. Qudit Pauli operators provide a very useful basis of the space of qudit states and operators. We study the structure of the qudit Pauli group for any, including composite, $d$ in several ways. To cover composite values of $d$, we work with modules over commutative rings, which generalize the notion of vector spaces over fields. For any specified set of commutation relations, we construct a set of qudit Paulis satisfying those relations. We also study the maximum size of sets of Paulis that mutually non-commute and sets that non-commute in pairs. Finally, we give methods to find near minimal generating sets of Pauli subgroups, calculate the sizes of Pauli subgroups, and find bases of logical operators for qudit stabilizer codes. Useful tools in this study are normal forms from linear algebra over commutative rings, including the Smith normal form, alternating Smith normal form, and Howell normal form of matrices. Possible applications of this work include the construction and analysis of qudit stabilizer codes, entanglement assisted codes, parafermion codes, and fermionic Hamiltonian simulation.

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arXiv2022

Homomorphic Logical Measurements

Shor and Steane ancilla are two well-known methods for fault-tolerant logical measurements, which are successful on small codes and their concatenations. On large quantum low-density-parity-check (LDPC) codes, however, Shor and Steane measurements have impractical time and space overhead respectively. In this work, we widen the choice of ancilla codes by unifying Shor and Steane measurements into a single framework, called homomorphic measurements. For any Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) code with the appropriate ancilla code, one can avoid repetitive measurements or complicated ancilla state preparation procedures such as distillation, which overcomes the difficulties of both Shor and Steane methods. As an example, we utilize the theory of covering spaces to construct homomorphic measurement protocols for arbitrary $X$- or $Z$-type logical Pauli operators on surface codes in general, including the toric code and hyperbolic surface codes. Conventional surface code decoders, such as minimum-weight perfect matching, can be directly applied to our constructions.

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arXiv2022

Optimal algorithms for learning quantum phase states

We analyze the complexity of learning $n$-qubit quantum phase states. A degree-$d$ phase state is defined as a superposition of all $2^n$ basis vectors $x$ with amplitudes proportional to $(-1)^{f(x)}$, where $f$ is a degree-$d$ Boolean polynomial over $n$ variables. We show that the sample complexity of learning an unknown degree-$d$ phase state is $\Theta(n^d)$ if we allow separable measurements and $\Theta(n^{d-1})$ if we allow entangled measurements. Our learning algorithm based on separable measurements has runtime $\textsf{poly}(n)$ (for constant $d$) and is well-suited for near-term demonstrations as it requires only single-qubit measurements in the Pauli $X$ and $Z$ bases. We show similar bounds on the sample complexity for learning generalized phase states with complex-valued amplitudes. We further consider learning phase states when $f$ has sparsity-$s$, degree-$d$ in its $\mathbb{F}_2$ representation (with sample complexity $O(2^d sn)$), $f$ has Fourier-degree-$t$ (with sample complexity $O(2^{2t})$), and learning quadratic phase states with $\varepsilon$-global depolarizing noise (with sample complexity $O(n^{1+\varepsilon})$). These learning algorithms give us a procedure to learn the diagonal unitaries of the Clifford hierarchy and IQP~circuits.

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arXiv2022

Matching and maximum likelihood decoding of a multi-round subsystem quantum error correction experiment

Quantum error correction offers a promising path for performing quantum computations with low errors. Although a fully fault-tolerant execution of a quantum algorithm remains unrealized, recent experimental developments, along with improvements in control electronics, are enabling increasingly advanced demonstrations of the necessary operations for applying quantum error correction. Here, we perform quantum error correction on superconducting qubits connected in a heavy-hexagon lattice. The full processor can encode a logical qubit with distance three and perform several rounds of fault-tolerant syndrome measurements that allow the correction of any single fault in the circuitry. Furthermore, by using dynamic circuits and classical computation as part of our syndrome extraction protocols, we can exploit real-time feedback to reduce the impact of energy relaxation error in the syndrome and flag qubits. We show that the logical error varies depending on the use of a perfect matching decoder compared to a maximum likelihood decoder. We observe a logical error per syndrome measurement round as low as $\sim0.04$ for the matching decoder and as low as $\sim0.03$ for the maximum likelihood decoder. Our results suggest that more significant improvements to decoders are likely on the horizon as quantum hardware has reached a new stage of development towards fully fault-tolerant operations.

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arXiv2021

Density theorems with applications in quantum signal processing

We study the approximation capabilities of two families of univariate polynomials that arise in applications of quantum signal processing. Although approximation only in the domain $[0,1]$ is physically desired, these polynomial families are defined by bound constraints not just in $[0,1]$, but also with additional bound constraints outside $[0,1]$. One might wonder then if these additional constraints inhibit their approximation properties within $[0,1]$. The main result of this paper is that this is not the case -- the additional constraints do not hinder the ability of these polynomial families to approximate arbitrarily well any continuous function $f:[0,1] \rightarrow [0,1]$ in the supremum norm, provided $f$ also matches any polynomial in the family at $0$ and $1$. We additionally study the specific problem of approximating the step function on $[0,1]$ (with the step from $0$ to $1$ occurring at $x=\frac{1}{2}$) using one of these families, and propose two subfamilies of monotone and non-monotone approximations. For the non-monotone case, under some additional assumptions, we provide an iterative heuristic algorithm that finds the optimal polynomial approximation.

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