Search

Simulating noninteracting fermion systems is a basic computational tool in many-body physics. In absence of translational symmetries, modeling free fermions on $N$ modes usually requires poly$(N)$ computational resources. While often moderate, these costs can be prohibitive in practice when large systems are considered. We present several noninteracting fermion problems that can be solved by a quantum algorithm with exponentially-improved, poly log$(N)$ cost. We point out that the simulation of free-fermion dynamics belongs to the BQP-hard complexity class, implying that our discovered exponential speedup is robust. The key technique in our algorithm is the block-encoding of the correlation matrix into a unitary. We demonstrate how such a unitary can be efficiently realized as a quantum circuit, in the context of dynamics and thermal states of tight-binding Hamiltonians. The special cases of disordered and inhomogeneous lattices, as well as large non-lattice graphs, are presented in detail. Finally, we show that our simulation algorithm generalizes to other promising targets, including free boson systems.

Recently, Bravyi et al. [1] proposed a set of small quantum Bivariate Bicycle (BB) codes that achieve a similar circuit-level error rate to the surface code but with an improved encoding rate. In this work, we generalise a novel parity-check circuit design principle that we call morphing circuits (first introduced in [2]) and apply this methodology to BB codes. Our construction generates a new family of BB codes -- including a new $[[144,12,12]]$ "gross" code -- whose parity check circuits require a qubit connectivity of degree five instead of six. Intriguingly, each parity check circuit requires only 6 rounds of CNOT gates -- one fewer than in Ref. [1] -- even though our new codes have weight-9 stabilisers. We also show how to perform logical input/output circuits to an ancillary rotated surface code using morphing circuits, all within a biplanar layout. The new codes perform at least as well as those of Ref. [1] under uniform circuit-level noise when decoded using BP-OSD. Finally, we develop a general framework for designing morphing circuits and present a sufficient condition for its applicability to two-block group algebra codes. [1] S. Bravyi, A. W. Cross, J. M. Gambetta, D. Maslov, P. Rall, and T. J. Yoder, Nature 627, 778 (2024). [2] C. Gidney and C. Jones, New circuits and an open source decoder for the color code (2023), arXiv:2312.08813., Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables, minor edits to fit journal length requirements

Quantum error correction enables the preservation of logical qubits with a lower logical error rate than the physical error rate, with performance depending on the decoding method. Traditional error decoding approaches, relying on the binarization (`hardening') of readout data, often ignore valuable information embedded in the analog (`soft') readout signal. We present experimental results showcasing the advantages of incorporating soft information into the decoding process of a distance-three ($d=3$) bit-flip surface code with transmons. To this end, we use the $3\times3$ data-qubit array to encode each of the $16$ computational states that make up the logical state $\ket{0_{\mathrm{L}}}$, and protect them against bit-flip errors by performing repeated $Z$-basis stabilizer measurements. To infer the logical fidelity for the $\ket{0_{\mathrm{L}}}$ state, we average across the $16$ computational states and employ two decoding strategies: minimum weight perfect matching and a recurrent neural network. Our results show a reduction of up to $6.8\%$ in the extracted logical error rate with the use of soft information. Decoding with soft information is widely applicable, independent of the physical qubit platform, and could reduce the readout duration, further minimizing logical error rates., Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, 2 table; typos corrected

During the last 30 years, stimulated by the quest to build superconducting quantum processors, a theory of quantum electrical circuits has emerged and this theory goes under the name of circuit quantum electrodynamics or circuit-QED. The goal of the theory is to provide a quantum description of the most relevant degrees of freedom. The central objects to be derived and studied are the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian governing these degrees of freedom. Central concepts in classical network theory such as impedance and scattering matrices can be used to obtain the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian description for the lossless (linear) part of the circuits. Methods of analysis, both classical and quantum, can also be developed for nonreciprocal circuits. These lecture notes aim at giving a pedagogical overview of this subject for theoretically-oriented Master or PhD students in physics and electrical engineering, as well as Master and PhD students who work on experimental superconducting quantum devices and wish to learn more theory., Comment: This text is also available as a TU Delft Open Textbook. The text is supplemented with 41 exercises and a version which includes the answers to the exercises can be found at the provided DOI

We construct local fermionic Hamiltonians with no low-energy trivial states (NLTS), providing a fermionic counterpart to the NLTS theorem. Distinctly from the qubit case, we define trivial states via finite-depth $\textit{fermionic}$ quantum circuits. We furthermore allow free access to Gaussian fermionic operations, provided they involve at most $O(n)$ ancillary fermions. The desired fermionic Hamiltonian can be constructed using any qubit Hamiltonian which itself has the NLTS property via well-spread distributions over bitstrings, such as the construction in [Anshu, Breuckmann, Nirkhe, STOC 2023]. We define a fermionic analogue of the class quantum PCP and discuss its relation with the qubit version., Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure

Neural-network decoders can achieve a lower logical error rate compared to conventional decoders, like minimum-weight perfect matching, when decoding the surface code. Furthermore, these decoders require no prior information about the physical error rates, making them highly adaptable. In this study, we investigate the performance of such a decoder using both simulated and experimental data obtained from a transmon-qubit processor, focusing on small-distance surface codes. We first show that the neural network typically outperforms the matching decoder due to better handling errors leading to multiple correlated syndrome defects, such as $Y$ errors. When applied to the experimental data of [Google Quantum AI, Nature 614, 676 (2023)], the neural network decoder achieves logical error rates approximately $25\%$ lower than minimum-weight perfect matching, approaching the performance of a maximum-likelihood decoder. To demonstrate the flexibility of this decoder, we incorporate the soft information available in the analog readout of transmon qubits and evaluate the performance of this decoder in simulation using a symmetric Gaussian-noise model. Considering the soft information leads to an approximately $10\%$ lower logical error rate, depending on the probability of a measurement error. The good logical performance, flexibility, and computational efficiency make neural network decoders well-suited for near-term demonstrations of quantum memories., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 table; Added/updated references, fixed typos, retrained some models to improve performance, and included a soft MWPM decoder comparison in Sec. III

We formally define homological quantum rotor codes which use multiple quantum rotors to encode logical information. These codes generalize homological or CSS quantum codes for qubits or qudits, as well as linear oscillator codes which encode logical oscillators. Unlike for qubits or oscillators, homological quantum rotor codes allow one to encode both logical rotors and logical qudits in the same block of code, depending on the homology of the underlying chain complex. In particular, a code based on the chain complex obtained from tessellating the real projective plane or a M\"{o}bius strip encodes a qubit. We discuss the distance scaling for such codes which can be more subtle than in the qubit case due to the concept of logical operator spreading by continuous stabilizer phase-shifts. We give constructions of homological quantum rotor codes based on 2D and 3D manifolds as well as products of chain complexes. Superconducting devices being composed of islands with integer Cooper pair charges could form a natural hardware platform for realizing these codes: we show that the $0$-$\pi$-qubit as well as Kitaev's current-mirror qubit -- also known as the M\"{o}bius strip qubit -- are indeed small examples of such codes and discuss possible extensions., Comment: 69 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables

Minimizing leakage from computational states is a challenge when using many-level systems like superconducting quantum circuits as qubits. We realize and extend the quantum-hardware-efficient, all-microwave leakage reduction unit (LRU) for transmons in a circuit QED architecture proposed by Battistel et al. This LRU effectively reduces leakage in the second- and third-excited transmon states with up to $99\% $ efficacy in $220~\mathrm{ns}$, with minimum impact on the qubit subspace. As a first application in the context of quantum error correction, we demonstrate the ability of multiple simultaneous LRUs to reduce the error detection rate and to suppress leakage buildup within $1\%$ in data and ancilla qubits over 50 cycles of a weight-2 parity measurement., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, 1 table; typos corrected

We consider the problem of approximating the ground state energy of a fermionic Hamiltonian using a Gaussian state. In sharp contrast to the dense case, we prove that strictly $q$-local $\rm {\textit {sparse}}$ fermionic Hamiltonians have a constant Gaussian approximation ratio; the result holds for any connectivity and interaction strengths. Sparsity means that each fermion participates in a bounded number of interactions, and strictly $q$-local means that each term involves exactly $q$ fermionic (Majorana) operators. We extend our proof to give a constant Gaussian approximation ratio for sparse fermionic Hamiltonians with both quartic and quadratic terms. With additional work, we also prove a constant Gaussian approximation ratio for the so-called sparse SYK model with strictly $4$-local interactions (sparse SYK-$4$ model). In each setting we show that the Gaussian state can be efficiently determined. Finally, we prove that the $O(n^{-1/2})$ Gaussian approximation ratio for the normal (dense) SYK-$4$ model extends to SYK-$q$ for even $q>4$, with an approximation ratio of $O(n^{1/2 - q/4})$. Our results identify non-sparseness as the prime reason that the SYK-$4$ model can fail to have a constant approximation ratio., Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures; v.2 - corrected typos and edited for clarity; improved discussion section

We propose and analyze two types of microwave-activated gates between a fluxonium and a transmon qubit, namely a cross-resonance (CR) and a CPHASE gate. The large frequency difference between a transmon and a fluxonium makes the realization of a two-qubit gate challenging. For a medium-frequency fluxonium qubit, the transmon-fluxonium system allows for a cross-resonance effect mediated by the higher levels of the fluxonium over a wide range of transmon frequencies. This allows one to realize the cross-resonance gate by driving the fluxonium at the transmon frequency, mitigating typical problems of the cross-resonance gate in transmon-transmon chips related to frequency targeting and residual ZZ coupling. However, when the fundamental frequency of the fluxonium enters the low-frequency regime below 100 MHz, the cross-resonance effect decreases leading to long gate times. For this range of parameters, a fast microwave CPHASE gate can be implemented using the higher levels of the fluxonium. In both cases, we perform numerical simulations of the gate showing that a gate fidelity above 99% can be obtained with gate times between 100 and 300 ns. Next to a detailed gate analysis, we perform a study of chip yield for a surface code lattice of fluxonia and transmons interacting via the proposed cross-resonance gate. We find a much better yield as compared to a transmon-only architecture with the cross-resonance gate as native two-qubit gate.

We present a classical Monte Carlo (MC) scheme which efficiently estimates an imaginary-time, decaying signal for stoquastic (i.e. sign-problem-free) local Hamiltonians. The decay rates in this signal correspond to Hamiltonian eigenvalues (with associated eigenstates present in an input state) and can be classically extracted using a classical signal processing method like ESPRIT. We compare the efficiency of this MC scheme to its quantum counterpart in which one extracts eigenvalues of a general local Hamiltonian from a real-time, oscillatory signal obtained through quantum phase estimation circuits, again using the ESPRIT method. We prove that the ESPRIT method can resolve S = poly(n) eigenvalues, assuming a 1/poly(n) gap between them, with poly(n) quantum and classical effort through the quantum phase estimation circuits, assuming efficient preparation of the input state. We prove that our Monte Carlo scheme plus the ESPRIT method can resolve S = O(1) eigenvalues, assuming a 1/poly(n) gap between them, with poly(n) purely classical effort for stoquastic Hamiltonians, requiring some access structure to the input state. However, we also show that under these assumptions, i.e. S = O(1) eigenvalues, assuming a 1/poly(n) gap between them and some access structure to the input state, one can achieve this with poly(n) purely classical effort for general local Hamiltonians. These results thus quantify some opportunities and limitations of classical Monte Carlo methods for spectral estimation of Hamiltonians. We numerically compare the MC eigenvalue estimation scheme (for stoquastic Hamiltonians) and the QPE eigenvalue estimation scheme by implementing them for an archetypal stoquastic Hamiltonian system: the transverse field Ising chain., Comment: Included results on dequantization

The fault-tolerant operation of logical qubits is an important requirement for realizing a universal quantum computer. Spin qubits based on quantum dots have great potential to be scaled to large numbers because of their compatibility with standard semiconductor manufacturing. Here, we show that a quantum error correction code can be implemented using a four-qubit array in germanium. We demonstrate a resonant SWAP gate and by combining controlled-Z and controlled-$\text{S}^{-1}$ gates we construct a Toffoli-like three-qubit gate. We execute a two-qubit phase flip code and find that we can preserve the state of the data qubit by applying a refocusing pulse to the ancilla qubit. In addition, we implement a phase flip code on three qubits, making use of a Toffoli-like gate for the final correction step. Both the quality and quantity of the qubits will require significant improvement to achieve fault-tolerance. However, the capability to implement quantum error correction codes enables co-design development of quantum hardware and software, where codes tailored to the properties of spin qubits and advances in fabrication and operation can now come together to scale semiconductor quantum technology toward universal quantum computers., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Solid-state spin qubits are a promising platform for quantum computation and quantum networks. Recent experiments have demonstrated high-quality control over multi-qubit systems, elementary quantum algorithms and non-fault-tolerant error correction. Large-scale systems will require using error-corrected logical qubits that are operated fault-tolerantly, so that reliable computation is possible despite noisy operations. Overcoming imperfections in this way remains a major outstanding challenge for quantum science. Here, we demonstrate fault-tolerant operations on a logical qubit using spin qubits in diamond. Our approach is based on the 5-qubit code with a recently discovered flag protocol that enables fault-tolerance using a total of seven qubits. We encode the logical qubit using a novel protocol based on repeated multi-qubit measurements and show that it outperforms non-fault-tolerant encoding schemes. We then fault-tolerantly manipulate the logical qubit through a complete set of single-qubit Clifford gates. Finally, we demonstrate flagged stabilizer measurements with real-time processing of the outcomes. Such measurements are a primitive for fault-tolerant quantum error correction. While future improvements in fidelity and the number of qubits will be required, our realization of fault-tolerant protocols on the logical-qubit level is a key step towards large-scale quantum information processing based on solid-state spins.

Quantum phase estimation is a cornerstone in quantum algorithm design, allowing for the inference of eigenvalues of exponentially-large sparse matrices.The maximum rate at which these eigenvalues may be learned, --known as the Heisenberg limit--, is constrained by bounds on the circuit complexity required to simulate an arbitrary Hamiltonian. Single-control qubit variants of quantum phase estimation that do not require coherence between experiments have garnered interest in recent years due to lower circuit depth and minimal qubit overhead. In this work we show that these methods can achieve the Heisenberg limit, {\em also} when one is unable to prepare eigenstates of the system. Given a quantum subroutine which provides samples of a `phase function' $g(k)=\sum_j A_j e^{i \phi_j k}$ with unknown eigenphases $\phi_j$ and overlaps $A_j$ at quantum cost $O(k)$, we show how to estimate the phases $\{\phi_j\}$ with (root-mean-square) error $\delta$ for total quantum cost $T=O(\delta^{-1})$. Our scheme combines the idea of Heisenberg-limited multi-order quantum phase estimation for a single eigenvalue phase [Higgins et al (2009) and Kimmel et al (2015)] with subroutines with so-called dense quantum phase estimation which uses classical processing via time-series analysis for the QEEP problem [Somma (2019)] or the matrix pencil method. For our algorithm which adaptively fixes the choice for $k$ in $g(k)$ we prove Heisenberg-limited scaling when we use the time-series/QEEP subroutine. We present numerical evidence that using the matrix pencil technique the algorithm can achieve Heisenberg-limited scaling as well., Comment: 25 pages + 5 page appendix, 3 figures, accepted in Quantum

We present a Dicke state preparation scheme which uses global control of $N$ spin qubits: our scheme is based on the standard phase estimation algorithm, which estimates the eigenvalue of a unitary operator. The scheme prepares a Dicke state non-deterministically by collectively coupling the spins to an ancilla qubit via a $ZZ$-interaction, using $\ceil*{\log_2 N} + 1$ ancilla qubit measurements. The preparation of such Dicke states can be useful if the spins in the ensemble are used for magnetic sensing: we discuss a possible realization using an ensemble of electronic spins located at diamond Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers coupled to a single superconducting flux qubit. We also analyze the effect of noise and limitations in our scheme.

We realize a suite of logical operations on a distance-two logical qubit stabilized using repeated error detection cycles. Logical operations include initialization into arbitrary states, measurement in the cardinal bases of the Bloch sphere, and a universal set of single-qubit gates. For each type of operation, we observe higher performance for fault-tolerant variants over non-fault-tolerant variants, and quantify the difference through detailed characterization. In particular, we demonstrate process tomography of logical gates, using the notion of a logical Pauli transfer matrix. This integration of high-fidelity logical operations with a scalable scheme for repeated stabilization is a milestone on the road to quantum error correction with higher-distance superconducting surface codes., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

Leakage outside of the qubit computational subspace poses a threatening challenge to quantum error correction (QEC). We propose a scheme using two leakage-reduction units (LRUs) that mitigate these issues for a transmon-based surface code, without requiring an overhead in terms of hardware or QEC-cycle time as in previous proposals. For data qubits we consider a microwave drive to transfer leakage to the readout resonator, where it quickly decays, ensuring that this negligibly affects the coherence within the computational subspace for realistic system parameters. For ancilla qubits we apply a $|1\rangle\leftrightarrow|2\rangle$ $\pi$ pulse conditioned on the measurement outcome. Using density-matrix simulations of the distance-3 surface code we show that the average leakage lifetime is reduced to almost 1 QEC cycle, even when the LRUs are implemented with limited fidelity. Furthermore, we show that this leads to a significant reduction of the logical error rate. This LRU scheme opens the prospect for near-term scalable QEC demonstrations.

We analyze whether circuit-QED Hamiltonians are stoquastic focusing on systems of coupled flux qubits: we show that scalable sign-problem free path integral Monte Carlo simulations can typically be performed for such systems. Despite this, we corroborate the recent finding [arXiv:1903.06139] that an effective, non-stoquastic qubit Hamiltonian can emerge in a system of capacitively coupled flux qubits. We find that if the capacitive coupling is sufficiently small, this non-stoquasticity of the effective qubit Hamiltonian can be avoided if we perform a canonical transformation prior to projecting onto an effective qubit Hamiltonian. Our results shed light on the power of circuit-QED Hamiltonians for the use of quantum adiabatic computation and the subtlety of finding a representation which cures the sign problem in these systems

We elucidate the distinction between global and termwise stoquasticity for local Hamiltonians and prove several complexity results. We show that the stoquastic local Hamiltonian problem is $\textbf{StoqMA}$-complete even for globally stoquastic Hamiltonians. We study the complexity of deciding whether a local Hamiltonian is globally stoquastic or not. In particular, we prove $\textbf{coNP}$-hardness of deciding global stoquasticity in a fixed basis and $\Sigma_2^p$-hardness of deciding global stoquasticity under single-qubit transformations. As a last result, we expand the class of sign-curing transformations by showing how Clifford transformations can sign-cure a class of disordered 1D $XYZ$ Hamiltonians.

We review some of the recent efforts in devising and engineering bosonic qubits for superconducting devices, with emphasis on the Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) qubit. We present some new results on decoding repeated GKP error correction using finitely-squeezed GKP ancilla qubits, exhibiting differences with previously studied stochastic error models. We discuss circuit-QED ways to realize CZ gates between GKP qubits and we discuss different scenario's for using GKP and regular qubits as building blocks in a scalable superconducting surface code architecture., Comment: 54 pages; 18 Figs; 3 Appendices; invited topical review for Quantum Science & Technology. v2 has a few corrections and some additional references. v3 has a few additional corrections and references

Leakage outside of the qubit computational subspace, present in many leading experimental platforms, constitutes a threatening error for quantum error correction (QEC) for qubits. We develop a leakage-detection scheme via Hidden Markov models (HMMs) for transmon-based implementations of the surface code. By performing realistic density-matrix simulations of the distance-3 surface code (Surface-17), we observe that leakage is sharply projected and leads to an increase in the surface-code defect probability of neighboring stabilizers. Together with the analog readout of the ancilla qubits, this increase enables the accurate detection of the time and location of leakage. We restore the logical error rate below the memory break-even point by post-selecting out leakage, discarding about 47% of the data. Leakage detection via HMMs opens the prospect for near-term QEC demonstrations, targeted leakage reduction and leakage-aware decoding and is applicable to other experimental platforms., Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures

Based on numerically-optimized real-device gates and parameters we study the performance of the phase-flip (repetition) code on a linear array of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) quantum dots hosting singlet-triplet qubits. We first examine the expected performance of the code using simple error models of circuit-level and phenomenological noise, reporting, for example, a circuit-level depolarizing noise threshold of approximately 3%. We then perform density-matrix simulations using a maximum-likelihood and minimum-weight matching decoder to study the effect of real-device dephasing, read-out error, quasi-static as well as fast gate noise. Considering the trade-off between qubit read-out error and dephasing time (T2) over measurement time, we identify a sub-threshold region for the phase-flip code which lies within experimental reach., Comment: 22 pages

One of the most direct preparations of a Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill qubit in an oscillator uses a tunable photon-pressure (also called optomechanical) coupling of the form $g \hat{q} a^{\dagger} a$, enabling to imprint the modular value of the position $\hat{q}$ of one oscillator onto the state of an ancilla oscillator. We analyze the practical feasibility of executing such modular quadrature measurements in a parametric circuit-QED realization of this coupling. We provide estimates for the expected GKP squeezing induced by the protocol and discuss the effect of photon loss and other errors on the resulting squeezing., Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures. Comments welcome

We examine the problem of determining whether a multi-qubit two-local Hamiltonian can be made stoquastic by single-qubit unitary transformations. We prove that when such a Hamiltonian contains one-local terms, then this task can be NP-hard. This is shown by constructing a class of Hamiltonians for which performing this task is equivalent to deciding $3$-SAT. In contrast, we show that when such a Hamiltonian contains no one-local terms then this task is easy, namely we present an algorithm which decides, in a number of arithmetic operations over $\mathbb{R}$ which is polynomial in the number of qubits, whether the sign problem of the Hamiltonian can be cured by single-qubit rotations., Comment: v2: improved presentation of the algorithm and other minor changes

We introduce spectral quantum tomography, a simple method to extract the eigenvalues of a noisy few-qubit gate, represented by a trace-preserving superoperator, in a SPAM-resistant fashion, using low resources in terms of gate sequence length. The eigenvalues provide detailed gate information, supplementary to known gate-quality measures such as the gate fidelity, and can be used as a gate diagnostic tool. We apply our method to one- and two-qubit gates on two different superconducting systems available in the cloud, namely the QuTech Quantum Infinity and the IBM Quantum Experience. We discuss how cross-talk, leakage and non-Markovian errors affect the eigenvalue data., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures v2: various minor changes, close to accepted version

A common approach to realize conditional-phase (CZ) gates in transmon qubits relies on flux control of the qubit frequency to make computational states interact with non-computational ones using a fast-adiabatic trajectory to minimize leakage. We develop a bipolar flux-pulsing method with two key advantages over the traditional unipolar variant. First, the action of the bipolar pulse is robust to long-timescale linear-dynamical distortions in the flux-control line, facilitating tuneup and ensuring atomic repeatability. Second, the flux symmetry of the transmon Hamiltonian makes the conditional phase and the single-qubit phase of the pulsed qubit first-order insensitive to low-frequency flux noise, increasing fidelity. By harnessing destructive interference to minimize leakage, the bipolar pulse can approach the speed limit set by the exchange coupling. We demonstrate a repeatable, high-fidelity ($99.1\%$), low-leakage ($0.1\%$), and fast ($40~\mathrm{ns}$) CZ gate in a circuit QED quantum processor. Detailed numerical simulations with excellent match to experiment show that leakage is dominated by remaining short-timescale distortions and fidelity is limited by high-frequency flux noise.

We consider how the Hamiltonian Quantum Computing scheme introduced in [arXiv:1509.01278] can be implemented using a 2D array of superconducting transmon qubits. We show how the scheme requires the engineering of strong attractive cross-Kerr and weak flip-flop or hopping interactions and we detail how this can be achieved. Our proposal uses a new electric circuit for obtaining the attractive cross-Kerr coupling between transmons via a dipole-like element. We discuss and numerically analyze the forward motion and execution of the computation and its dependence on coupling strengths and their variability. We extend [arXiv:1509.01278] by explicitly showing how to construct a direct Toffoli gate, thus establishing computational universality via the Hadamard and Toffoli gate or via controlled-Hadamard, Hadamard and CNOT.

The large-scale execution of quantum algorithms requires basic quantum operations to be implemented fault-tolerantly. The most popular technique for accomplishing this, using the devices that can be realised in the near term, uses stabilizer codes which can be embedded in a planar layout. The set of fault-tolerant operations which can be executed in these systems using unitary gates is typically very limited. This has driven the development of measurement-based schemes for performing logical operations in these codes, known as lattice surgery and code deformation. In parallel, gauge fixing has emerged as a measurement-based method for performing universal gate sets in subsystem stabilizer codes. In this work, we show that lattice surgery and code deformation can be expressed as special cases of gauge fixing, permitting a simple and rigorous test for fault-tolerance together with simple guiding principles for the implementation of these operations. We demonstrate the accuracy of this method numerically with examples based on the surface code, some of which are novel., Comment: 37 pages, 21 figures

We examine the performance of the single-mode GKP code and its concatenation with the toric code for a noise model of Gaussian shifts, or displacement errors. We show how one can optimize the tracking of errors in repeated noisy error correction for the GKP code. We do this by examining the maximum-likelihood problem for this setting and its mapping onto a 1D Euclidean path-integral modeling a particle in a random cosine potential. We demonstrate the efficiency of a minimum-energy decoding strategy as a proxy for the path integral evaluation. In the second part of this paper, we analyze and numerically assess the concatenation of the GKP code with the toric code. When toric code measurements and GKP error correction measurements are perfect, we find that by using GKP error information the toric code threshold improves from $10\%$ to $14\%$. When only the GKP error correction measurements are perfect we observe a threshold at $6\%$. In the more realistic setting when all error information is noisy, we show how to represent the maximum likelihood decoding problem for the toric-GKP code as a 3D compact QED model in the presence of a quenched random gauge field, an extension of the random-plaquette gauge model for the toric code. We present a new decoder for this problem which shows the existence of a noise threshold at shift-error standard deviation $\sigma_0 \approx 0.243$ for toric code measurements, data errors and GKP ancilla errors. If the errors only come from having imperfect GKP states, this corresponds to states with just 4 photons or more. Our last result is a no-go result for linear oscillator codes, encoding oscillators into oscillators. For the Gaussian displacement error model, we prove that encoding corresponds to squeezing the shift errors. This shows that linear oscillator codes are useless for quantum information protection against Gaussian shift errors., Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures

Quantum phase estimation is the workhorse behind any quantum algorithm and a promising method for determining ground state energies of strongly correlated quantum systems. Low-cost quantum phase estimation techniques make use of circuits which only use a single ancilla qubit, requiring classical post-processing to extract eigenvalue details of the system. We investigate choices for phase estimation for a unitary matrix with low-depth noise-free or noisy circuits, varying both the phase estimation circuits themselves as well as the classical post-processing to determine the eigenvalue phases. We work in the scenario when the input state is not an eigenstate of the unitary matrix. We develop a new post-processing technique to extract eigenvalues from phase estimation data based on a classical time-series (or frequency) analysis and contrast this to an analysis via Bayesian methods. We calculate the variance in estimating single eigenvalues via the time-series analysis analytically, finding that it scales to first order in the number of experiments performed, and to first or second order (depending on the experiment design) in the circuit depth. Numerical simulations confirm this scaling for both estimators. We attempt to compensate for the noise with both classical post-processing techniques, finding good results in the presence of depolarizing noise, but smaller improvements in $9$-qubit circuit-level simulations of superconducting qubits aimed at resolving the electronic ground-state of a $H_4$-molecule., Comment: 29 pages (1 column, 12pt), 13 page appendix, 11 figures. New version contains explicit demonstration of convergence for multiple eigenvalues in the absence of noise, some comparison between different measures of estimator performance, and more references

We examine the problem of determining if a 2-local Hamiltonian is stoquastic by local basis changes. We analyze this problem for two-qubit Hamiltonians, presenting some basic tools and giving a concrete example where using unitaries beyond Clifford rotations is required in order to decide stoquasticity. We report on simple results for $n$-qubit Hamiltonians with identical 2-local terms on bipartite graphs. Our most significant result is that we give an efficient algorithm to determine whether an arbitrary $n$-qubit XYZ Heisenberg Hamiltonian is stoquastic by local basis changes., Comment: 24 pages

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., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, comments welcome! v2 includes updates which conforms with the journal version

Grid (or comb) states are an interesting class of bosonic states introduced by Gottesman, Kitaev and Preskill to encode a qubit into an oscillator. A method to generate or `breed' a grid state from Schr\"odinger cat states using beam splitters and homodyne measurements is known, but this method requires post-selection. In this paper we show how post-processing of the measurement data can be used to entirely remove the need for post-selection, making the scheme much more viable. We bound the asymptotic behavior of the breeding procedure and demonstrate the efficacy of the method numerically., Comment: 10 pages + 5 page appendix, 5 figures

We describe a computationally-efficient heuristic algorithm based on a renormalization-group procedure which aims at solving the problem of finding minimal surface given its boundary (curve) in any hypercubic lattice of dimension $D>2$. We use this algorithm to correct errors occurring in a four-dimensional variant of the toric code, having open as opposed to periodic boundaries. For a phenomenological error model which includes measurement errors we use a five-dimensional version of our algorithm, achieving a threshold of $4.35\pm0.1\%$. For this error model, this is the highest known threshold of any topological code. Without measurement errors, a four-dimensional version of our algorithm can be used and we find a threshold of $7.3\pm0.1\%$. For the gate-based depolarizing error model we find a threshold of $0.31\pm0.01\%$ which is below the threshold found for the two-dimensional toric code., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Comments are welcome

The early Gottesman, Kitaev, and Preskill (GKP) proposal for encoding a qubit in an oscillator has recently been followed by cat- and binomial-code proposals. Numerically optimized codes have also been proposed, and we introduce new codes of this type here. These codes have yet to be compared using the same error model; we provide such a comparison by determining the entanglement fidelity of all codes with respect to the bosonic pure-loss channel (i.e., photon loss) after the optimal recovery operation. We then compare achievable communication rates of the combined encoding-error-recovery channel by calculating the channel's hashing bound for each code. Cat and binomial codes perform similarly, with binomial codes outperforming cat codes at small loss rates. Despite not being designed to protect against the pure-loss channel, GKP codes significantly outperform all other codes for most values of the loss rate. We show that the performance of GKP and some binomial codes increases monotonically with increasing average photon number of the codes. In order to corroborate our numerical evidence of the cat/binomial/GKP order of performance occurring at small loss rates, we analytically evaluate the quantum error-correction conditions of those codes. For GKP codes, we find an essential singularity in the entanglement fidelity in the limit of vanishing loss rate. In addition to comparing the codes, we draw parallels between binomial codes and discrete-variable systems. First, we characterize one- and two-mode binomial as well as multi-qubit permutation-invariant codes in terms of spin-coherent states. Such a characterization allows us to introduce check operators and error-correction procedures for binomial codes. Second, we introduce a generalization of spin-coherent states, extending our characterization to qudit binomial codes and yielding a new multi-qudit code., Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. v3: published version. See related talk at https://absuploads.aps.org/presentation.cfm?pid=13511

The toric code based on Majorana fermions on mesoscopic superconducting islands is a promising candidate for quantum information processing. In the limit of vanishing Cooper-pair tunneling, it has been argued that the phase transition separating the topologically ordered phase of the toric code from the trivial one is in the universality class of (2+1)D-XY. On the other hand, in the limit of infinitely large Cooper-pair tunneling, the phase transition is in the universality class of (2+1)D-Ising. In this work, we treat the case of finite Cooper-pair tunneling and address the question of how the continuous XY symmetry breaking phase transition turns into a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry breaking one when the Cooper-pair tunneling rate is increased. We show that this happens through a couple of tricritical points and first order phase transitions. Using a Jordan-Wigner transformation, we map the problem to that of spins coupled to quantum rotors and subsequently, propose a Landau field theory for this model that matches the known results in the respective limits. We calculate the effective field theories and provide the relevant critical exponents for the different phase transitions. Our results are relevant for predicting the stability of the topological phase in realistic experimental implementations., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

We show how a hyperbolic surface code could be used for overhead-efficient quantum storage. We give numerical evidence for a noise threshold of 1.3% for the {4,5}-hyperbolic surface code in a phenomenological noise model (as compared to 2.9% for the toric code). In this code family parity checks are of weight 4 and 5 while each qubit participates in 4 different parity checks. We introduce a family of semi-hyperbolic codes which interpolate between the toric code and the {4,5}-hyperbolic surface code in terms of encoding rate and threshold. We show how these hyperbolic codes outperform the toric code in terms of qubit overhead for a target logical error probability. We show how Dehn twists and lattice code surgery can be used to read and write individual qubits to this quantum storage medium., Comment: 28 pages, 21 figures

Current experiments are taking the first steps toward noise-resilient logical qubits. Crucially, a quantum computer must not merely store information, but also process it. A fault-tolerant computational procedure ensures that errors do not multiply and spread. This review compares the leading proposals for promoting a quantum memory to a quantum processor. We compare magic state distillation, color code techniques and other alternative ideas, paying attention to relative resource demands. We discuss the several no-go results which hold for low-dimensional topological codes and outline the potential rewards of using high-dimensional quantum (LDPC) codes in modular architectures., Comment: A concise review paper. 9 pages + references. V2 includes a correction to Fig1b which had gates Z^b and X^{a+c} interchanged. This version is the one before review and editing by Nature

We analyze the performance of decoders for the 2D and 4D toric code which are local by construction. The 2D decoder is a cellular automaton decoder formulated by Harrington which explicitly has a finite speed of communication and computation. For a model of independent $X$ and $Z$ errors and faulty syndrome measurements with identical probability we report a threshold of $0.133\%$ for this Harrington decoder. We implement a decoder for the 4D toric code which is based on a decoder by Hastings arXiv:1312.2546 . Incorporating a method for handling faulty syndromes we estimate a threshold of $1.59\%$ for the same noise model as in the 2D case. We compare the performance of this decoder with a decoder based on a 4D version of Toom's cellular automaton rule as well as the decoding method suggested by Dennis et al. arXiv:quant-ph/0110143 ., Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures; fixed typos, updated Figures 6,7,8,9

We analyze the properties of a 2D topological code derived by concatenating the [[4, 2, 2]] code with the toric/surface code, or alternatively by removing check operators from the 2D square-octagon or 4.8.8 color code. We show that the resulting code has a circuit-based noise threshold of $\sim 0.41\%$ (compared to $\sim 0.6\%$ for the toric code in a similar scenario), which is higher than any known 2D color code. We believe that the construction may be of interest for hardware in which one wants to use both long-range two-qubit gates as well as short-range gates between small clusters of qubits., Comment: 19 pages, 22 figures

We show that one can determine both parameters of a displacement acting on an oscillator with an accuracy which scales inversely with the square root of the number of photons in the oscillator. Our results are obtained by using a grid state as a sensor state for detecting small translations in phase space (displacements). Grid states were first proposed in (see https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.64.012310 ) for encoding a qubit into an oscillator: an efficient preparation protocol of such states, using a coupling to a qubit, was developed in (see https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.93.012315 ). We compare the performance of the grid state with the quantum compass or cat code state and place our results in the context of the two-parameter quantum Cram\'er-Rao lower bound on the variances of the displacement parameters. We show that the accessible information about the displacement for a grid state increases with the number of photons in the state when we measure and prepare the state using a phase estimation protocol. This is in contrast with the accessible information in the quantum compass state which we show is always upper bounded by a constant, independent of the number of photons. We present numerical simulations of a phase estimation based preparation protocol of a grid state in the presence of photon loss, nonlinearities and qubit measurement, using no post-selection, showing how the two effective squeezing parameters which characterize the grid state change during the preparation. The idea behind the phase estimation protocol is a simple maximal-information gain strategy., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Version 4: Extensive numerical section added