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arXiv:2206.05232 · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

On the Probabilistic Quantum Error Correction

Ryszard Kukulski, Łukasz Pawela, Zbigniew Puchała

Published Mar 8, 2023• 8 citations
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Abstract

Probabilistic quantum error correction is an error-correcting procedure which uses postselection to determine if the encoded information was successfully restored. In this work, we analyze the probabilistic version of the error-correcting procedure for general noise. We generalize the Knill-Laflamme conditions for probabilistically correctable errors. We show that for some noise channels, the initial information has to be encoded into a mixed state to maximize the probability of successful error correction. Finally, the probabilistic error-correcting procedure offers an advantage over the deterministic procedure. Reducing the probability of successful error correction allows for correcting errors generated by a broader class of noise channels. Significantly, if the errors are caused by a unitary interaction with an auxiliary qubit system, we can probabilistically restore a qubit state by using only one additional physical qubit.

DOI
10.1109/tit.2023.3254054

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Probabilistic quantum error correction is an error-correcting procedure which uses postselection to determine if the encoded information was successfully restored. In this work, we analyze the probabilistic version of the error-correcting procedure for general noise. We generalize the Knill-Laflamme conditions for probabilistically correctable errors. We show that for some noise channels, the initial information has to be encoded into a mixed state to maximize the probability of successful error correction. Finally, the probabilistic error-correcting procedure offers an advantage over the deterministic procedure. Reducing the probability of successful error correction allows for correcting errors generated by a broader class of noise channels. Significantly, if the errors are caused by a unitary interaction with an auxiliary qubit system, we can probabilistically restore a qubit state by using only one additional physical qubit.
Probabilistic unitary maps and probabilistic unitary quantum channels are introduced, many quantum information applications, including (unambiguous) teleportation, can be described as probabilistic unitary quantum channels. Some properties of probabilistic unitary maps and probabilistic unitary quantum channels are derived. The property of a probabilistic unitary quantum channel ensures certain simple form for the measurements involved in realizing the probabilistic unitary quantum channel. The relation between a probabilistic unitary quantum channel and a uniformly entangled state is established. The combined operation of a noisy quantum channel and the error correction operation is a probabilistic unitary channel, from this point of view the condition for the errors to be correctable is easily derived. The condition for the errors caused by a noisy channel to be correctable with any nonzero probability is also obtained. Dense coding with a partially entangled state can also be viewed as a probabilistic unitary quantum channel when all messages are required to be transmitted with equal probability of success, the maximal achievable probability of success is derived and the optimum protocol is also obtained. 1
We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the approximate correctability of a quantum code, generalizing the Knill-Laflamme conditions for exact error correction. Our measure of success of the recovery operation is the worst-case entanglement fidelity. We show that the optimal recovery fidelity can be predicted exactly from a dual optimization problem on the environment causing the noise. We use this result to obtain an estimate of the optimal recovery fidelity as well as a way of constructing a class of near-optimal recovery channels that work within twice the minimal error. In addition to standard subspace codes, our results hold for subsystem codes and hybrid quantum-classical codes.
We present a quantum error correction code which protects a qubit of information against general one qubit errors which maybe caused by the interaction with the environment. To accomplish this, we encode the original state by distributing quantum information over five qubits, the minimal number required for this task. We give a simple circuit which takes the initial state with four extra qubits in the state |0> to the encoded state. The circuit can be converted into a decoding one by simply running it backward. Reading the extra four qubits at the decoder's output we learn which one of the sixteen alternatives (no error plus all fifteen possible 1-bit errors) was realized. The original state of the encoded qubit can then be restored by a simple unitary transformation.
We introduce a generalisation of quantum error correction, relaxing the requirement that a code should identify and correct a set of physical errors on the Hilbert space of a quantum computer exactly, instead allowing recovery up to a pre-specified admissible set of errors on the code space. We call these quantum error transmuting codes. They are of particular interest for the simulation of noisy quantum systems, and for use in algorithms inherently robust to errors of a particular character. Necessary and sufficient algebraic conditions on the set of physical and admissible errors for error transmutation are derived, generalising the Knill-Laflamme quantum error correction conditions. We demonstrate how some existing codes, including fermionic encodings, have error transmuting properties to interesting classes of admissible errors. Additionally, we report on the existence of some new codes, including low-qubit and translation invariant examples.
We present a quantum error correction code which protects a qubit of information against general one qubit errors. To accomplish this, we encode the original state by distributing quantum information over five qubits, the minimal number required for this task. We describe a circuit which takes the initial state with four extra qubits in the state ∣0〉|0〉∣0〉 to the encoded state. It can also be converted into a decoder by running it backward. The original state of the encoded qubit can then be restored by a simple unitary transformation.
Quantum error correction (QEC) codes have emerged as a powerful tool to protect quantum-enhanced metrology against noise. However, the ability to correct errors alone does not guarantee high metrological sensitivity, as the encoded states may become insensitive to the parameter of interest. Here we show that this limitation can be overcome by exploiting an intrinsic freedom of QEC codes: for a fixed set of correctable errors, the Knill-Laflamme conditions admit an equivalence class of encodings. When the correctable noise possesses unitary symmetries, these symmetries generate continuous transformations within this class, allowing systematic optimization of the encoding to increase the quantum Fisher information while preserving the correctable set of noise. Based on this observation, we develop a symmetry-based optimization approach and derive criteria identifying when such optimization can enhance metrological sensitivity. In particular, for stabilizer-sum Hamiltonians, symmetry optimization can convert a code with vanishing QFI into one achieving the standard quantum limit in general or even Heisenberg scaling in specific cases, illustrating the power of symmetry optimization for QEC-assisted quantum metrology.