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arXiv:2111.11700 · Physical Review A

Noise-reducing encoding strategies for spin chains

Catherine Keele, Alastair Kay

Published Mar 24, 2022• 2 citations
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Abstract

We present an encoding technique that reduces the effects of noise on quantum spin systems whose operation is driven by Hamiltonian evolution. This technique is widely applicable, being most relevant to the scenarios where there are insufficient qubits to permit full-scale error correction. Instead, our technique can be implemented over small numbers of qubits and still leads to noticeable improvements in the fidelity of operations. The encoding scheme is easy to implement, flexible with respect to choice of Hamiltonian, and close to optimal.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.105.032613

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We present an encoding technique that reduces the effects of noise on quantum spin systems whose operation is driven by Hamiltonian evolution. This technique is widely applicable, being most relevant to the scenarios where there are insufficient qubits to permit full-scale error correction. Instead, our technique can be implemented over small numbers of qubits and still leads to noticeable improvements in the fidelity of operations. The encoding scheme is easy to implement, flexible with respect to choice of Hamiltonian, and close to optimal.
In order to reduce errors, error correction codes need to be implemented fast. They can correct the errors corresponding to the first few orders in the Taylor expansion of the time evolution operator corresponding to the Hamiltonian of the interaction with the environment. If implemented fast enough, the zeroth order error predominates and the dominant effect is of error prevention by measurement (Zeno effect) rather than correction. In this ``Zeno regime,'' codes with less redundancy are sufficient for protection. We describe such a simple scheme, which uses two ``noiseless'' qubits to protect a large number, nnn, of information qubits from noise from the environment. The ``noisless qubits'' can be realized by treating them as logical qubits to be encoded by one of the previously introduced encoding schemes.
In the scope of this work the coherence of quantum information, which is encoded into a qubit register, is analysed. The qubit register is modelled by a spin chain with finite inter-spin distance. In most physically relevant realisations this spin chain irreversibly interacts with a surrounding environment, such that a spin-boson model is used to describe the setting. Due to the interaction decoherence occurs among the qubits register and quantum information gets lost. Mechanisms to slow down this decoherence process are investigated. For that purpose, the techniques of encoding qubits into decoherence-reduced subspaces and quantum error correction are used. In both cases only a linear subspace of the complete available Hilbert space of the spin chain is used as quantum code. The stability of such a code against decoherence has to be evaluated. This evaluation is performed on average over all states within the code by a code fidelity.
Concatenating quantum error correction codes scales error correction capability by driving logical error rates down double-exponentially across levels. However, the noise structure shifts under concatenation, making it hard to choose an optimal code sequence. We automate this choice by estimating the effective noise channel after each level and selecting the next code accordingly. In particular, we use learning-based methods to tailor small, non-additive encoders when the noise exhibits sufficient structure, then switch to standard codes once the noise is nearly uniform. In simulations, this level-wise adaptation achieves a target logical error rate with far fewer qubits than concatenating stabilizer codes alone--reducing qubit counts by up to two orders of magnitude for strongly structured noise. Therefore, this hybrid, learning-based strategy offers a promising tool for early fault-tolerant quantum computing.
The indirect-control paradigm offers a scalable approach to quantum computation by restricting external operations to a small subset of qubits, whereas the entire system evolves under its intrinsic many-body Hamiltonian. This framework reduces hardware complexity and limits the noise introduced through control channels. Recently, Anan et al. proposed an implementation of the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) within this indirect-control architecture. However, the impact and integration of quantum error mitigation techniques in such a setting remain largely unexplored. In particular, zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE), a widely used error mitigation strategy, has not yet been systematically adapted to indirect-control VQE. A key requirement of ZNE is the controlled amplification of noise, which is commonly achieved through circuit-level techniques such as unitary folding. In the indirect-control framework, however, quantum operations are largely governed by continuous time-evolution under the system Hamiltonian, making the construction of physically realizable inverse operations non-trivial. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of implementing ZNE within the indirect-controlVQEframework.We address the challenges associated with unitary folding in the presence of time-evolution operators and, with a minimal relaxation of the indirect-control constraint, we propose a ZNE-based error-mitigation strategy that exploits the symmetry of the one-dimensional XY spin chain.