We present a discussion of the continuous-time quantum error correction introduced by J. P. Paz and W. H. Zurek [Proc. R. Soc. A 454, 355 (1998)]. We study the general Lindbladian which describes the effects of both noise and error correction in the weak-noise (or strong-correction) regime through a perturbative expansion. We use this tool to derive quantitative aspects of the continuous-time dynamics both in general and through two illustrative examples: the three-qubit and five-qubit stabilizer codes, which can be independently solved by analytical and numerical methods and then used as benchmarks for the perturbative approach. The perturbatively accessible time frame features a short initial transient in which error correction is ineffective, followed by a slow decay of the information content consistent with the known facts about discrete-time error correction in the limit of fast operations. This behavior is explained in the two case studies through a geometric description of the continuous transformation of the state space induced by the combined action of noise and error correction.
We present a discussion of the continuous-time quantum error correction introduced by J. P. Paz and W. H. Zurek [Proc. R. Soc. A 454, 355 (1998)]. We study the general Lindbladian which describes the effects of both noise and error correction in the weak-noise (or strong-correction) regime through a perturbative expansion. We use this tool to derive quantitative aspects of the continuous-time dynamics both in general and through two illustrative examples: the three-qubit and five-qubit stabilizer codes, which can be independently solved by analytical and numerical methods and then used as benchmarks for the perturbative approach. The perturbatively accessible time frame features a short initial transient in which error correction is ineffective, followed by a slow decay of the information content consistent with the known facts about discrete-time error correction in the limit of fast operations. This behavior is explained in the two case studies through a geometric description of the continuous transformation of the state space induced by the combined action of noise and error correction.
Quantum computing has increasingly gained attention for decades since it can surpass classical computing in various aspects. A crucial issue of quantum computing is how to protect information from noise interference such that the error rate during quantum information processing can be limited within an acceptable bound. The technique to address this issue is quantum error correction (QEC). Developing QEC technologies needs to define noise as formal error models and design QEC approaches for these error models. Discrete error models and continuous error models are two kinds of definitions of noise. The former assumes noise occurs independently and can be discretized into a set of basic errors. The former also has a tool, named quantum operations, to describe a specific error model. The latter describes that noise is continuous in time by using differential equations. In this paper, we categorize QEC approaches into three types according to the different error models: discrete error models, specific error models, and continuous error models. We also analyze the state-of-the-art QEC approaches and discuss some future directions. Furthermore, we propose the perturbed error models and their possible definitions, aiming to find the effect of the perturbation during quantum information processing.
We address the standard quantum error correction using the three-qubit bit-flip code, yet in continuous-time. This entails rendering a target manifold of quantum states globally attractive. Previous feedback designs could feature spurious equilibria, or resort to discrete kicks pushing the system away from these equilibria to ensure global asymptotic stability. We present a new approach that consists of introducing controls driven by Brownian motions. Unlike the previous methods, the resulting closed-loop dynamics can be shown to stabilize the target manifold exponentially. We further present a reduced-order filter formulation with classical probabilities. The exponential property is important to quantify the protection induced by the closed-loop error-correction dynamics against disturbances. We study numerically the performance of this control law and of the reduced filter.
The performance of a given quantum error correction (QEC) code depends upon the noise model that is assumed. Independent Pauli noise, applied after each quantum operation, is a simplistic noise model that is easy to simulate and understand in the context of stabilizer codes. Although such a noise model is artificial, it is equivalent to independent, random, unbiased qubit rotations. What about spatially or temporally correlated qubit rotations? Such a noise model is applicable to global operations (e.g., NMR or ESR), common control sources (e.g., lasers), or slow drift (e.g., charge or magnetic noise) in various qubit technologies. In the worst case, such errors can combine constructively and result in a post-correction failure rate that increases with the number of error correction cycles. However, we show that this worst case does not generally arise unless taking active corrective actions while performing QEC. That is, by employing virtual Pauli frame updates ("passive" error correction) rather than physical corrections ("active" error correction), coherent errors do not compound appreciably. Starting in a random Pauli frame is also advantageous. In fact, through perturbation theory arguments and supporting numerical simulations, we show that the logical qubit performance beyond distance 3 for correlated single-qubit Hamiltonian noise models (i.e., global errant qubit rotations), when employing these "lazy" strategies, essentially matches the performance of Pauli noise model with the same process fidelity (fidelity after one application). In a more general circuit model of noise, correlations may add constructively within syndrome extraction rounds but Pauli frame randomization from passive error correction mitigates this effect across multiple rounds.
We investigate continuous quantum error correction, comparing performance under a Markovian error model to two distinct non-Markovian models. The first non-Markovian model involves an interaction Hamiltonian between the system and an environmental qubit via an X-X coupling, with a "cooling" bath acting on the environment qubit. This model is known to exhibit abrupt transitions between Markovian and non-Markovian behavior. The second non-Markovian model uses the post-Markovian master equation (PMME), which represents the bath correlation through a memory kernel; we consider an exponentially decaying kernel and both underdamped and overdamped dynamics. We systematically compare these non-Markovian error models against the Markovian case and against each other, for a variety of different codes. We start with a single qubit, which can be solved analytically. We then consider the three-qubit repetition code and the five-qubit "perfect" code. In all cases, we find that the fidelity decays more rapidly in the Markovian case than in either non-Markovian model, suggesting that continuous quantum error correction has enhanced performance against non-Markovian noise. We attribute this difference to the presence of a quantum Zeno regime in both non-Markovian models.
Continuous-time quantum error correction (CTQEC) is an approach to protecting quantum information from noise in which both the noise and the error correcting operations are treated as processes that are continuous in time. This chapter investigates CTQEC based on continuous weak measurements and feedback from the point of view of the subsystem principle, which states that protected quantum information is contained in a subsystem of the Hilbert space. We study how to approach the problem of constructing CTQEC protocols by looking at the evolution of the state of the system in an encoded basis in which the subsystem containing the protected information is explicit. This point of view allows us to reduce the problem to that of protecting a known state, and to design CTQEC procedures from protocols for the protection of a single qubit. We show how previously studied CTQEC schemes with both direct and indirect feedback can be obtained from strategies for the protection of a single qubit via weak measurements and weak unitary operations. We also review results on the performance of CTQEC with direct feedback in cases of Markovian and non-Markovian decoherence, where we have shown that due to the existence of a Zeno regime in non-Markovian dynamics, the performance of CTQEC can exhibit a quadratic improvement if the time resolution of the weak error-correcting operations is high enough to reveal the non-Markovian character of the noise process.
We analyze the performance of a quantum error-correction code subject to physically motivated noise modeled by a Lindblad master equation. We consider dissipative and coherent single-qubit terms and two-qubit crosstalk, studying how different approximations of the noise capture the success rate of a code. Focusing on the five-qubit code and adapting it to partially correct two-qubit errors in relevant parameter regimes according to the noise model, we find that a composite-channel approximation where every noise term is considered separately captures the behavior in many physical cases up to long timescales, eventually failing due to the effect of noncommuting terms. In contrast, we find that single-qubit approximations do not properly capture the error-correction dynamics with two-qubit noise, even for short times. A Pauli approximation going beyond a single-qubit channel is sensitive to the details of the noise, state, and decoder and succeeds at short timescales relative to the noise strength, beyond which it fails. Furthermore, we point out a mechanism for a Pauli model failure where it underestimates the success rate of a code even with frequent syndrome projection and correction cycles. These results shed light on the performance of error correction in the presence of realistic noise and can advance the ongoing efforts towards useful quantum error correction.