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1. Erasure conversion for fault-tolerant quantum computing in alkaline earth Rydberg atom arrays

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32094-6  

   Wu, Yue; Kolkowitz, Shimon; Puri, Shruti; Thompson, Jeff D. (December 2022, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Executing quantum algorithms on error-corrected logical qubits is a critical step for scalable quantum computing, but the requisite numbers of qubits and physical error rates are demanding for current experimental hardware. Recently, the development of error correcting codes tailored to particular physical noise models has helped relax these requirements. In this work, we propose a qubit encoding and gate protocol for 171 Yb neutral atom qubits that converts the dominant physical errors into erasures, that is, errors in known locations. The key idea is to encode qubits in a metastable electronic level, such that gate errors predominantly result in transitions to disjoint subspaces whose populations can be continuously monitored via fluorescence. We estimate that 98% of errors can be converted into erasures. We quantify the benefit of this approach via circuit-level simulations of the surface code, finding a threshold increase from 0.937% to 4.15%. We also observe a larger code distance near the threshold, leading to a faster decrease in the logical error rate for the same number of physical qubits, which is important for near-term implementations. Erasure conversion should benefit any error correcting code, and may also be applied to design new gates and encodings in other qubit platforms. 

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2. High-threshold fault-tolerant measurement-based quantum computing with biased noise qubits

   Claes, Jahan (January 2022, Bulletin of the American Physical Society)

   Measurement-based quantum computing (MBQC) is an alternative model of quantum computation that is equivalent to the standard gate-based model and is the preferred approach for several optical quantum computing architectures. In MBQC, a quantum computation is executed by preparing an entangled cluster state and then selectively measuring qubits. MBQC can be made fault-tolerant by creating an MBQC computation that executes the standard surface code, an approach known as "foliation." Recent results on gate-based quantum computing have demonstrated that in the presence of biased noise, a modified version of the surface code known as the XZZX code has much higher thresholds than the standard surface code. However, naively foliating the XZZX code does not result in a high-threshold fault-tolerant MBQC, because the foliation procedure does not preserve the noise bias of the physical qubits. To create a high-threshold fault-tolerant MBQC, we introduce a modified cluster state that preserves the bias, and use our modified cluster state to construct an MBQC computation that executes the XZZX code. Using full circuit-level noise simulations, we show that the threshold of our modified MBQC is higher than either the standard fault-tolerant MBQC or the naïve foliated XZZX code in the presence of biased noise, demonstrating the advantage of our approach. 

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3. Experimental demonstration of continuous quantum error correction

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29906-0  

   Livingston, William P.; Blok, Machiel S.; Flurin, Emmanuel; Dressel, Justin; Jordan, Andrew N.; Siddiqi, Irfan (December 2022, Nature Communications)

   Abstract The storage and processing of quantum information are susceptible to external noise, resulting in computational errors. A powerful method to suppress these effects is quantum error correction. Typically, quantum error correction is executed in discrete rounds, using entangling gates and projective measurement on ancillary qubits to complete each round of error correction. Here we use direct parity measurements to implement a continuous quantum bit-flip correction code in a resource-efficient manner, eliminating entangling gates, ancillary qubits, and their associated errors. An FPGA controller actively corrects errors as they are detected, achieving an average bit-flip detection efficiency of up to 91%. Furthermore, the protocol increases the relaxation time of the protected logical qubit by a factor of 2.7 over the relaxation times of the bare comprising qubits. Our results showcase resource-efficient stabilizer measurements in a multi-qubit architecture and demonstrate how continuous error correction codes can address challenges in realizing a fault-tolerant system. 

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4. Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation Using Large Spin-Cat Codes

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.020355  

   Omanakuttan, Sivaprasad; Buchemmavari, Vikas; Gross, Jonathan A; Deutsch, Ivan H; Marvian, Milad (June 2024, PRX Quantum)

   We construct a fault-tolerant quantum error-correcting protocol based on a qubit encoded in a large spin qudit using a spin-cat code, analogous to the continuous-variable cat encoding. With this, we can correct the dominant error sources, namely processes that can be expressed as error operators that are linear or quadratic in the components of angular momentum. Such codes tailored to dominant error sources can exhibit superior thresholds and lower resource overheads when compared to those designed for unstructured noise models. A key component is the gate that preserves the rank of spherical tensor operators. Categorizing the dominant errors as phase and amplitude errors, we demonstrate how phase errors, analogous to phase-flip errors for qubits, can be effectively corrected. Furthermore, we propose a measurement-free error-correction scheme to address amplitude errors without relying on syndrome measurements. Through an in-depth analysis of logical gate errors, we establish that the fault-tolerant threshold for error correction in the spin-cat encoding surpasses that of standard qubit-based encodings. We consider a specific implementation based on neutral-atom quantum computing, with qudits encoded in the nuclear spin of 87Sr, and show how to generate the universal gate set, including the rank-preserving gate, using quantum control and the Rydberg blockade. These findings pave the way for encoding a qubit in a large spin with the potential to achieve fault tolerance, high threshold, and reduced resource overhead in quantum information processing. 

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5. High-fidelity parallel entangling gates on a neutral-atom quantum computer

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06481-y  

   Evered, Simon J; Bluvstein, Dolev; Kalinowski, Marcin; Ebadi, Sepehr; Manovitz, Tom; Zhou, Hengyun; Li, Sophie H; Geim, Alexandra A; Wang, Tout T; Maskara, Nishad; et al (October 2023, Nature)

   Abstract The ability to perform entangling quantum operations with low error rates in a scalable fashion is a central element of useful quantum information processing¹. Neutral-atom arrays have recently emerged as a promising quantum computing platform, featuring coherent control over hundreds of qubits^2,3and any-to-any gate connectivity in a flexible, dynamically reconfigurable architecture⁴. The main outstanding challenge has been to reduce errors in entangling operations mediated through Rydberg interactions⁵. Here we report the realization of two-qubit entangling gates with 99.5% fidelity on up to 60 atoms in parallel, surpassing the surface-code threshold for error correction^6,7. Our method uses fast, single-pulse gates based on optimal control⁸, atomic dark states to reduce scattering⁹and improvements to Rydberg excitation and atom cooling. We benchmark fidelity using several methods based on repeated gate applications^10,11, characterize the physical error sources and outline future improvements. Finally, we generalize our method to design entangling gates involving a higher number of qubits, which we demonstrate by realizing low-error three-qubit gates^12,13. By enabling high-fidelity operation in a scalable, highly connected system, these advances lay the groundwork for large-scale implementation of quantum algorithms¹⁴, error-corrected circuits⁷and digital simulations¹⁵. 

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