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arXiv:1204.0443 · New Journal of Physics

High threshold distributed quantum computing with three-qubit nodes

Ying Li, Simon C Benjamin

Published Sep 5, 2012• 40 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In the distributed quantum computing paradigm, well-controlled few-qubit 'nodes' are networked together by connections which are relatively noisy and failure prone. A practical scheme must offer high tolerance to errors while requiring only simple (i.e. few-qubit) nodes. Here we show that relatively modest, three-qubit nodes can support advanced purification techniques and so offer robust scalability: the infidelity in the entanglement channel may be permitted to approach 10% if the infidelity in local operations is of order 0.1%. Our tolerance of network noise is therefore an order of magnitude beyond prior schemes, and our architecture remains robust even in the presence of considerable decoherence rates (memory errors). We compare the performance with that of schemes involving nodes of lower and higher complexity. Ion traps, and NV-centres in diamond, are two highly relevant emerging technologies: they possess the requisite properties of good local control, rapid and reliable readout, and methods for entanglement-at-a-distance.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/14/9/093008

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In the distributed quantum computing paradigm, well-controlled few-qubit 'nodes' are networked together by connections which are relatively noisy and failure prone. A practical scheme must offer high tolerance to errors while requiring only simple (i.e. few-qubit) nodes. Here we show that relatively modest, three-qubit nodes can support advanced purification techniques and so offer robust scalability: the infidelity in the entanglement channel may be permitted to approach 10% if the infidelity in local operations is of order 0.1%. Our tolerance of network noise is therefore an order of magnitude beyond prior schemes, and our architecture remains robust even in the presence of considerable decoherence rates (memory errors). We compare the performance with that of schemes involving nodes of lower and higher complexity. Ion traps, and NV-centres in diamond, are two highly relevant emerging technologies: they possess the requisite properties of good local control, rapid and reliable readout, and methods for entanglement-at-a-distance.
Abstract. In the distributed quantum computing paradigm, well-controlled few-qubit ‘nodes ’ are networked together by connections which are relatively noisy and failure prone. A practical scheme must offer high tolerance to errors while requiring only simple (i.e. few-qubit) nodes. Here we show that relatively modest, three-qubit nodes can support advanced purification techniques and so offer robust scalability: the infidelity in the entanglement channel may be permitted to approach 10 % if the infidelity in local operations is of order 0.1%. Our tolerance of network noise is therefore a order of magnitude beyond prior schemes, and our architecture remains robust even in the presence of considerable decoherence rates (memory errors). We compare the performance with that of schemes involving nodes of lower and higher complexity. Ion traps, and NV- centres in diamond, are two highly relevant emerging technologies. ar X iv
Quantum computing has the potential to transform information technology by offering algorithms for certain tasks, such as quantum simulation, that are vastly more efficient than what is possible with any classical device. But experimentally implementing practical quantum information processing is a very difficult task. Here we study two important, and closely related, aspects of this challenge: architectures for quantum computing, and quantum error correction Exquisite quantum control has now been achieved in small ion traps, in nitrogen-vacancy centres and in superconducting qubit clusters, but the challenge remains of how to scale these systems to build practical quantum devices. In Part I of this thesis we analyse one approach to building a scalable quantum computer by networking together many simple processor cells, thus avoiding the need to create a single complex structure. The difficulty is that realistic quantum links are very error prone. Here we describe a method by which even these error-prone cells can perform quantum error correction. Groups of cells generate and purify shared resource states, which then enable stabilization of topologically encoded data. Given a realistically noisy network (10% error rate) we find that our protocol can succeed provided that all intra-cell error rates are below 0.8%. Furthermore, we show that with some adjustments, the protocols we employ can be made robust also against high levels of loss in the network interconnects. We go on to analyse the potential running speed of such a device. Using levels of fidelity that are either already achievable in experimental systems, or will be in the near-future, we find that employing a surface code approach in a highly noisy and lossy network architecture can result in kilohertz computer clock speeds. In Part II we consider the question of quantum error correction beyond the surface code. We consider several families of topological codes, and determine the minimum requirements to demonstrate proof-of-principle error suppression in each type of code. A particularly promising code is the gauge color code, which admits a universal transversal gate set. Furthermore, a recent result of Bombin shows the gauge color code supports an error-correction protocol that achieves tolerance to noisy measurements without the need for repeated measurements, so called single-shot error correction. Here, we demonstrate the promise of single-shot error correction by designing a decoder and investigating its performance. We simulate fault-tolerant error correction with the gauge color code, and estimate a sustainable error rate, i.e. the threshold for the long time limit, of ~0.31% for a phenomenological noise model using a simple decoding algorithm.
In certain approaches to quantum computing the operations between qubits are nondeterministic and likely to fail. For example, a distributed quantum processor would achieve scalability by networking together many small components; operations between components should be assumed to be failure prone. In the ultimate limit of this architecture each component contains only one qubit. Here we derive thresholds for fault-tolerant quantum computation under this extreme paradigm. We find that computation is supported for remarkably high failure rates (exceeding 90%) providing that failures are heralded; meanwhile the rate of unknown errors should not exceed 2 in 10(4) operations.
A major challenge for quantum computation in ion trap systems is scalable integration of error correction and fault tolerance. We analyze a distributed architecture with rapid high-fidelity local control within nodes and entangled links between nodes alleviating long-distance transport. We demonstrate fault-tolerant operator measurements which are used for error correction and nonlocal gates. This scheme is readily applied to linear ion traps which cannot be scaled up beyond a few ions per individual trap but which have access to a probabilistic entanglement mechanism. A proof-of-concept system is presented which is within the reach of current experiment.
Fault tolerant quantum computation over distributed quantum computing (DQC) platforms requires careful evaluation of resource requirements and noise thresholds. As quantum hardware advances toward modular and networked architectures, various fault tolerant DQC schemes have been proposed, which can be broadly categorized into three architectural types. Type 1 architectures consist of small quantum nodes connected via Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, enabling nonlocal stabilizer measurements. Type 2 architectures distribute a large error correcting code block across multiple modules, with most stabilizer measurements remaining local, except for a small subset at patch boundaries that are performed using nonlocal CNOT gates. Type 3 architectures assign code blocks to distinct modules and can perform fault tolerant operations such as transversal gates, lattice surgery, and teleportation to implement logical operations between code blocks. Using the planar surface code and toric code as representative examples, we analyze how the resource requirements, particularly the number of Bell pairs and the average number of generation attempts, scale with increasing code distance across different architectural designs. This analysis provides valuable insights for identifying architectures well suited to fault tolerant distributed quantum computation under near term hardware and resource constraints.
Tremendous efforts have been paid for realization of fault-tolerant quantum computation so far. However, preexisting fault-tolerant schemes assume that a lot of qubits live together in a single quantum system, which is incompatible with actual situations of experiment. Here we propose a novel architecture for practically scalable quantum computation, where quantum computation is distributed over small-size (four-qubit) local systems, which are connected by quantum channels. We show that the proposed architecture works even with the error probability 0.1% of local operations, which breaks through the consensus by one order of magnitude. Furthermore, the fidelity of quantum channels can be very low ∼\sim∼ 0.7, which substantially relaxes the difficulty of scaling-up the architecture. All key elements and their accuracy required for the present architecture are within reach of current technology. The present architecture allows us to achieve efficient scaling of quantum computer, as has been achieved in today's classical computer.