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arXiv:1710.00389 · Physical Review A

Efficient preparation of large-block-code ancilla states for fault-tolerant quantum computation

Yi-Cong Zheng, Ching–Yi Lai, Todd A. Brun

Published Mar 21, 2018• 13 citations
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Abstract

Fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC) schemes that use multiqubit large block codes can potentially reduce the resource overhead to a great extent. A major obstacle is the requirement for a large number of clean ancilla states of different types without correlated errors inside each block. These ancilla states are usually logical stabilizer states of the data-code blocks, which are generally difficult to prepare if the code size is large. Previously, we have proposed an ancilla distillation protocol for Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes by classical error-correcting codes. It was assumed that the quantum gates in the distillation circuit were perfect; however, in reality, noisy quantum gates may introduce correlated errors that are not treatable by the protocol. In this paper, we show that additional postselection by another classical error-detecting code can be applied to remove almost all correlated errors. Consequently, the revised protocol is fully fault tolerant and capable of preparing a large set of stabilizer states sufficient for FTQC using large block codes. At the same time, the yield rate can be boosted from $O({t}^{\ensuremath{-}2})$ to $O(1)$ in practice for an $[[n,k,d=2t+1]]$ CSS code. Ancilla preparation for the [[23,1,7]] quantum Golay code is numerically studied in detail through Monte Carlo simulation. The results support the validity of the protocol when the gate failure rate is reasonably low. To the best of our knowledge, this approach is one of the first attempts to prepare general large block stabilizer states free of correlated errors for FTQC in a fault-tolerant and efficient manner.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.032331

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The threshold theorem indicates that if errors are all local and their rates are below a certain threshold, it is possible to implement large scale quantum computation with arbitrarily small error based on active quantum error correction (QEC). However, most fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC) schemes require enormous overhead to achieve this rate by increasing either the concatenation levels for concatenated codes or the distance (hence the size) for topological codes. As a result, a logical qubit is usually encoded in more than thousands of physical qubits, even when the error rate is below the threshold. In this thesis, we try to reduce the resource overhead of FTQC. We first study a quantum computation scheme using clouds of atoms trapped on atomic chips. It suggests that this scheme is robust to noise to some extent and has potential to be scalable. Secondly, we propose a FTQC scheme of encoding many logical qubits into large code blocks. The error performance of such scheme is numerically studied. Preparation of various ancilla states necessary for computation is also explored. Thirdly, we explore the idea of introducing energy gap to suppress thermal noise on each qubit. We show that fault-tolerant holonomic quantum computation (HQC) can be implemented in stabilizer codes with the existence of such energy protection. Especially, we studied fault-tolerant HQC in surface codes in detail. This scheme opens the possibility for self-correcting quantum computation in 2D lattice.

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Fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC) schemes that use multiqubit large block codes can potentially reduce the resource overhead to a great extent. A major obstacle is the requirement for a large number of clean ancilla states of different types without correlated errors inside each block. These ancilla states are usually logical stabilizer states of the data-code blocks, which are generally difficult to prepare if the code size is large. Previously, we have proposed an ancilla distillation protocol for Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes by classical error-correcting codes. It was assumed that the quantum gates in the distillation circuit were perfect; however, in reality, noisy quantum gates may introduce correlated errors that are not treatable by the protocol. In this paper, we show that additional postselection by another classical error-detecting code can be applied to remove almost all correlated errors. Consequently, the revised protocol is fully fault tolerant and capable of preparing a large set of stabilizer states sufficient for FTQC using large block codes. At the same time, the yield rate can be boosted from O(t\ensuremath−2)O({t}^{\ensuremath{-}2})O(t\ensuremath−2) to O(1)O(1)O(1) in practice for an [[n,k,d=2t+1]][[n,k,d=2t+1]][[n,k,d=2t+1]] CSS code. Ancilla preparation for the [[23,1,7]] quantum Golay code is numerically studied in detail through Monte Carlo simulation. The results support the validity of the protocol when the gate failure rate is reasonably low. To the best of our knowledge, this approach is one of the first attempts to prepare general large block stabilizer states free of correlated errors for FTQC in a fault-tolerant and efficient manner.
Stabilizer states are extensively studied in quantum information theory for their structures based on the Pauli group. Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) stabilizer states are of particular importance in their application to fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC). However, how to fault-tolerantly prepare arbitrary CSS stabilizer states for general CSS stabilizer codes is still unknown, and their preparation can be highly costly in computational resources. In this paper, we show how to prepare a large class of CSS stabilizer states useful for FTQC. We propose distillation protocols using syndrome encoding by classical codes or quantum CSS codes. Along the same lines, we show that classical coding techniques can reduce the ancilla consumption in Steane syndrome extraction by using additional transversal controlled-not gates and classical computing power. In the scenario of a fixed ancilla consumption rate, we can increase the frequency of quantum error correction and effectively lower the error rate.
Fault-tolerant state preparation is essential for reliable quantum error correction, particularly in Steane-type error correction, which relies on robust ancilla states for syndrome readout. One method of fault-tolerant state preparation is to initialize multiple ancilla states and check them against each other to detect problematic errors. In the worst case, the number of states required for successful initialization grows polynomially with the code distance, but it has been shown that this can be reduced to constant ancilla overhead-in the best case, only four states are required. However, existing techniques for finding low-overhead initialization schemes are limited to codes with large symmetry groups, such as the Golay code. In this work, we propose a general, automated synthesis methodology for Steane-type fault-tolerant state preparation circuits that applies to arbitrary Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes and does not rely on code symmetries. We apply the proposed methods to various CSS codes up to a distance of seven and simulate the successful fault-tolerant initialization of logical basis states under circuit-level depolarizing noise. The circuits synthesized using the proposed methodology provide an important step towards experimental realizations of high-fidelity ancilla states for near-term demonstration of fault-tolerant quantum computation.
One of the major challenges in realizing fault-tolerant quantum computers (FTQCs) is the requirement for a large number of physical qubits. To address this issue, high-rate quantum error correcting codes, which efficiently embed logical qubits into physical qubits, have recently attracted considerable attention. Among such codes, quantum BCH codes, which offer both high rates and large code distances, are promising yet underexplored candidates. However, no fault-tolerant ancilla preparation method specialized for this class had been established. We employ a two-stage approach (non-fault-tolerant preparation + entanglement distillation) for ancilla preparation. We then propose a framework for designing low-overhead distillation method that strategically leverages the cyclic symmetry of quantum BCH codes to determine which non-fault-tolerant circuits can successfully produce a fault-tolerant state. Numerical simulations on several high-performance quantum BCH codes up to 127 qubits demonstrate that our method achieves lower spatial overhead and logical error rates than conventional distillation circuits. Furthermore, we evaluated the logical error rates under a circuit-level noise model, and obtained performance benchmarks in realistic settings. This efficient state preparation technique is expected to contribute to the early realization of practical FTQCs, particularly on highly connected quantum platforms such as neutral atom systems.
Abstract Fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC) schemes using large block codes that encode k > 1 qubits in n physical qubits can potentially reduce the resource overhead to a great extent because of their high encoding rate. However, the fault-tolerant (FT) logical operations for the encoded qubits are difficult to find and implement, which usually takes not only a very large resource overhead but also long in situ computation time. In this paper, we focus on Calderbank–Shor–Steane [[ n , k , d ]] (CSS) codes and their logical FT Clifford circuits. We show that the depth of an arbitrary logical Clifford circuit can be implemented fault-tolerantly in O (1) steps in situ via either Knill or Steane syndrome measurement circuit, with the qualified ancilla states efficiently prepared. Particularly, for those codes satisfying k / n ∼ Θ(1), the resource scaling for Clifford circuits implementation on the logical level can be the same as on the physical level up to a constant, which is independent of code distance d . With a suitable pipeline to produce ancilla states, our scheme requires only a modest resource cost in physical qubits, physical gates, and computation time for very large scale FTQC.
Fault-tolerant preparation of non-Clifford resource states is a major contributor to the overhead of quantum computation, motivating protocols that achieve high output fidelity with minimal qubit and circuit costs. We introduce a low-cost magic-state preparation protocol in which the choice of stabilizer generators is co-designed with the flag gadgets, allowing the syndrome-extraction circuit itself to filter correlated faults across a non-Clifford layer. The protocol prepares a logical plus state in the 15-qubit quantum Reed-Muller code, applies a transversal T gate, and gauge-fixes the same register into the seven-qubit Steane code. By reorganizing equivalent Z-type stabilizer generators into jointly flagged measurement groups, the protocol eliminates all accepted logical-error contributions arising from one or two circuit faults under destructive error detection. Under a uniform circuit-level depolarizing noise model, the postselected infidelity is 210.2p3+O(p4)210.2p^3+O(p^4)210.2p3+O(p4). At p=10−3p=10^{-3}p=10−3, exact low-order enumeration combined with stratified sampling bounds the infidelity by 2.2×10−72.2\times10^{-7}2.2×10−7 at 99.9% joint confidence, while retaining an acceptance probability of 86.9%. The complete circuit requires only 19 qubits and 82 CNOT gates. These results demonstrate that stabilizer-generator design can substantially reduce the cost of postselected magic-state preparation, although corrected operation and the fidelity of an unmeasured output block require separate analysis.
The threshold theorem indicates that if errors are all local and their rates are below a certain threshold, it is possible to implement large scale quantum computation with arbitrarily small error based on active quantum error correction (QEC). However, most fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC) schemes require enormous overhead to achieve this rate by increasing either the concatenation levels for concatenated codes or the distance (hence the size) for topological codes. As a result, a logical qubit is usually encoded in more than thousands of physical qubits, even when the error rate is below the threshold. In this thesis, we try to reduce the resource overhead of FTQC. We first study a quantum computation scheme using clouds of atoms trapped on atomic chips. It suggests that this scheme is robust to noise to some extent and has potential to be scalable. Secondly, we propose a FTQC scheme of encoding many logical qubits into large code blocks. The error performance of such scheme is numerically studied. Preparation of various ancilla states necessary for computation is also explored. Thirdly, we explore the idea of introducing energy gap to suppress thermal noise on each qubit. We show that fault-tolerant holonomic quantum computation (HQC) can be implemented in stabilizer codes with the existence of such energy protection. Especially, we studied fault-tolerant HQC in surface codes in detail. This scheme opens the possibility for self-correcting quantum computation in 2D lattice.