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F. H. B. Somhorst, J. Saied, N. Kannan, B. Kassenberg, J. Marshall, M. de Goede, H. J. Snijders, P. Stremoukhov, A. Lukianenko, P. Venderbosch, T. B. Demille, A. Roos, N. Walk, J. Eisert, E. G. Rieffel, D. H. Smith, J. J. Renema (Jan 12 2026).
Abstract: Photonic quantum computers use the bosonic statistics of photons to construct, through quantum interference, the large entangled states required for measurement-based quantum computation. Therefore, any which-way information present in the photons will degrade quantum interference and introduce errors. While quantum error correction can address such errors in principle, it is highly resource-intensive and operates with a low error threshold, requiring numerous high-quality optical components. We experimentally demonstrate scalable, optimal photon distillation as a substantially more resource-efficient strategy to reduce indistinguishability errors in a way that is compatible with fault-tolerant operation. Photon distillation is an intrinsically bosonic, coherent error-mitigation technique which exploits quantum interference to project single photons into purified internal states, thereby reducing indistinguishability errors at both a higher efficiency and higher threshold than quantum error correction. We observe unconditional error reduction (i.e., below-threshold behaviour) consistent with theoretical predictions, even when accounting for noise introduced by the distillation gate, thereby achieving actual net-gain error mitigation under conditions relevant for fault-tolerant quantum computing. We anticipate photon distillation will find uses in large-scale quantum computers. We also expect this work to inspire the search for additional intrinsically bosonic error-reduction strategies, even for fault-tolerant architectures.
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