Ben Harper, Azar C. Nakhl, Martin Sevior, Muhammad Usman (May 29 2026).
Abstract: Scalable realisation of quantum computing is reliant on the development of fault tolerant devices. Analysis of quantum error correction protocols typically considers incoherent noise models or noise-free syndrome measurements. While this is simple to simulate classically and straightforward to compute analytically, these simplifications are unable to capture the full dynamics of a noisy quantum system. In this work we use advanced hybrid stabilizer-tensor network simulation techniques to simulate coherent quantum crosstalk noise during syndrome extraction on a surface code. We show that the inclusion of coherence increases logical error rates and lowers the code threshold. In addition, we show that the specific distribution of the noise can quantitatively change logical error rates. The methods in this work allow simulation of quantum error correction with noise models previously inaccessible to classical simulation, providing new insights on the effect of crosstalk noise on quantum error correction codes.
