Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2503.05249 · Physical Review A

Quantum dual extended Hamming code immune to collective coherent errors

En-Jui Chang

Published Sep 26, 2025• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Collective coherent (CC) errors are inevitable, as every physical qubit undergoes free evolution under its kinetic Hamiltonian. These errors can be more damaging than stochastic Pauli errors because they affect all qubits coherently, resulting in high-weight errors that standard quantum error-correcting (QEC) codes struggle to correct. In quantum memories and communication systems, especially when storage durations are long, CC errors often dominate over stochastic noise. Trapped-ion platforms, for example, exhibit strong CC errors with minimal stochastic Pauli components. In this work, we address the regime where immunity to CC errors, high code rate (due to limited qubit availability), and moderate distance (sufficient for correcting low-weight errors) are all essential. We construct a family of constant-excitation stabilizer codes with parameters $[[{2}^{r+1},{2}^{r}\ensuremath{-}(r+1),4]]$. The smallest instance, the [[8,1,4]] code, improves the code rate and error threshold of the best previously known CE code by factors of approximately two and four, respectively.

DOI
10.1103/qzd2-b2mx

Related papers

Avoiding coherent errors with rotated concatenated stabilizer codes

Yingkai Ouyang

Abstract Coherent errors, which arise from collective couplings, are a dominant form of noise in many realistic quantum systems, and are more damaging than oft considered stochastic errors. Here, we propose integrating stabilizer codes with constant-excitation codes by code concatenation. Namely, by concatenating an [[n, k, d]] stabilizer outer code with dual-rail inner codes, we obtain a [[2n, k, d]] constant-excitation code immune from coherent phase errors and also equivalent to a Pauli-rotated stabilizer code. When the stabilizer outer code is fault-tolerant, the constant-excitation code has a positive fault-tolerant threshold against stochastic errors. Setting the outer code as a four-qubit amplitude damping code yields an eight-qubit constant-excitation code that corrects a single amplitude damping error, and we analyze this code’s potential as a quantum memory.

arXiv:2010.00538•npj Quantum Information•Jun 2, 2021•26 citations

Mitigating Coherent Noise by Balancing Weight-2 Z-Stabilizers

Jingzhen Hu, Qingzhong Liang, Narayanan Rengaswamy +1 more

Physical platforms such as trapped ions suffer from coherent noise that does not follow a simple stochastic model. Stochastic errors in quantum systems occur randomly but coherent errors are more damaging since they can accumulate in a particular direction. We consider coherent noise acting transversally, giving rise to an effective error which is a$Z$-rotation on each qubit by some angle$\theta $. Rather than address coherent noise through active error correction, we investigate passive mitigation through decoherence free subspaces. In the language of stabilizer codes, we require the noise to preserve the code space, and to act trivially (as the logical identity operator) on the protected information. Thus, we develop necessary and sufficient conditions for all transversal$Z$-rotations to preserve the code space of a stabilizer code. These conditions require the weight-$2~Z$-stabilizers to cover all the qubits that are in the support of the$X$-component of some stabilizer. Furthermore, the weight-$2~Z$-stabilizers generate a direct product of single-parity-check codes with even block length. By adjusting the sizes of these components, we are able to construct a large family of QECC codes oblivious to coherent noise, one that includes the$[[4L^{2}, 1, 2L]]$Shor codes. The Shor codes are examples of constant excitation codes, where logical qubits are encoded as a code state that is a sum of physical states indexed by binary vectors with the same weight. Constant excitation codes are oblivious to coherent noise since a transversal$Z$-rotation acts as a global phase. We prove that a CSS code is oblivious to coherent noise if and only if it is a constant excitation code, and that if the code is error-detecting, then the (constant) weights in different cosets of the$X$-stabilizers are identical.

arXiv:2011.00197•IEEE Transactions on Information Theory•Nov 23, 2021•16 citations

Simulating Quantum Error Correction beyond Pauli Stochastic Errors

Jordan Hines, Corey Ostrove, Kenneth Rudinger +4 more

Quantum error correction (QEC), the lynchpin of fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC), is designed and validated against well-behaved Pauli stochastic error models. But in real-world deployment, QEC protocols encounter a vast array of other errors -- coherent and non-Pauli errors -- whose impacts on quantum circuits are vastly different than those of stochastic Pauli errors. The impacts of these errors on QEC and FTQC protocols have been largely unpredictable to date due to exponential classical simulation cost. Here, we show how to accurately and efficiently model the effects of coherent and non-Pauli errors on FTQC, and we study the effects of such errors on syndrome extraction for surface and bivariate bicycle codes, and on magic state cultivation. Our analysis suggests that coherent error can shift fault-tolerance thresholds, increase the space-time cost of magic state cultivation, and can increase logical error rates by an order of magnitude compared to equivalent stochastic errors. These analyses are enabled by a new technique for mapping any Markovian circuit-level error model with sufficiently small error rates onto a detector error model (DEM) for an FTQC circuit. The resulting DEM enables Monte Carlo estimation of logical error rates and noise-adapted decoding, and its parameters can be analytically related to the underlying physical noise parameters to enable approximate strong simulation.

quant-pharXiv:2603.18457•Mar 20, 2026•0 citations

Fault-Tolerant Quantum Error Correction for Constant-Excitation Stabilizer Codes under Coherent Noise

Ching–Yi Lai, Pei-Hao Liou, Yingkai Ouyang

Collective coherent (CC) noise poses challenges for fault-tolerant error correction (FTEC), as it is not captured by conventional stochastic noise models. Constant-excitation (CE) codes are inherently immune to CC errors, but a fault-tolerant framework for operating these codes under circuit-level noise has not yet been established. Here, we develop an FTEC framework for CE CSS codes based on dual-rail concatenation. We show that conventional transversal CNOT gates violate the CE constraint and develop CE-preserving logical CNOT gates together with modified Shor- and Steane-type syndrome extraction schemes using zero-controlled NOT gates and CE-compatible ancilla states. We further develop an extended stabilizer simulation algorithm that tracks both stochastic and CC noise. Using this framework, we identify small distance-3 CE CSS codes demonstrate that the $[[14,1,3]]$ code maintains robust performance under coherent noise. Our results establish a fault-tolerant framework for CE codes under circuit-level noise and demonstrate their potential for quantum processors affected by CC noise.

arXiv:2507.10395•Jul 14, 2025•0 citations

Modeling coherent errors in quantum error correction

Daniel Greenbaum, Zachary Dutton

Analysis of quantum error correcting codes is typically done using a stochastic, Pauli channel error model for describing the noise on physical qubits. However, it was recently found that coherent errors (systematic rotations) on physical data qubits result in both physical and logical error rates that differ significantly from those predicted by a Pauli model. Here we examine the accuracy of the Pauli approximation for noise containing coherent errors (characterized by a rotation angle ) under the repetition code. We derive an analytic expression for the logical error channel as a function of arbitrary code distance d and concatenation level n , in the small error limit. We find that coherent physical errors result in logical errors that are partially coherent and therefore non-Pauli. However, the coherent part of the logical error is negligible at fewer than error correction cycles when the decoder is optimized for independent Pauli errors, thus providing a regime of validity for the Pauli approximation. Above this number of correction cycles, the persistent coherent logical error will cause logical failure more quickly than the Pauli model would predict, and this may need to be combated with coherent suppression methods at the physical level or larger codes.

arXiv:1612.03908•Quantum Science and Technology•Dec 20, 2017•81 citations

Correcting coherent quantum errors by going with the flow

Wayne M. Witzel, Anand Ganti, Tzvetan S. Metodi

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.

quant-pharXiv:2602.21076•Feb 25, 2026•0 citations
Collective coherent (CC) errors are inevitable, as every physical qubit undergoes free evolution under its kinetic Hamiltonian. These errors can be more damaging than stochastic Pauli errors because they affect all qubits coherently, resulting in high-weight errors that standard quantum error-correcting (QEC) codes struggle to correct. In quantum memories and communication systems, especially when storage durations are long, CC errors often dominate over stochastic noise. Trapped-ion platforms, for example, exhibit strong CC errors with minimal stochastic Pauli components. In this work, we address the regime where immunity to CC errors, high code rate (due to limited qubit availability), and moderate distance (sufficient for correcting low-weight errors) are all essential. We construct a family of constant-excitation stabilizer codes with parameters [[2r+1,2r\ensuremath−(r+1),4]][[{2}^{r+1},{2}^{r}\ensuremath{-}(r+1),4]][[2r+1,2r\ensuremath−(r+1),4]]. The smallest instance, the [[8,1,4]] code, improves the code rate and error threshold of the best previously known CE code by factors of approximately two and four, respectively.
Abstract Coherent errors, which arise from collective couplings, are a dominant form of noise in many realistic quantum systems, and are more damaging than oft considered stochastic errors. Here, we propose integrating stabilizer codes with constant-excitation codes by code concatenation. Namely, by concatenating an [[n, k, d]] stabilizer outer code with dual-rail inner codes, we obtain a [[2n, k, d]] constant-excitation code immune from coherent phase errors and also equivalent to a Pauli-rotated stabilizer code. When the stabilizer outer code is fault-tolerant, the constant-excitation code has a positive fault-tolerant threshold against stochastic errors. Setting the outer code as a four-qubit amplitude damping code yields an eight-qubit constant-excitation code that corrects a single amplitude damping error, and we analyze this code’s potential as a quantum memory.
Physical platforms such as trapped ions suffer from coherent noise that does not follow a simple stochastic model. Stochastic errors in quantum systems occur randomly but coherent errors are more damaging since they can accumulate in a particular direction. We consider coherent noise acting transversally, giving rise to an effective error which is aZZZ-rotation on each qubit by some angle$\theta .Ratherthanaddresscoherentnoisethroughactiveerrorcorrection,weinvestigatepassivemitigationthroughdecoherencefreesubspaces.Inthelanguageofstabilizercodes,werequirethenoisetopreservethecodespace,andtoacttrivially(asthelogicalidentityoperator)ontheprotectedinformation.Thus,wedevelopnecessaryandsufficientconditionsforalltransversal. Rather than address coherent noise through active error correction, we investigate passive mitigation through decoherence free subspaces. In the language of stabilizer codes, we require the noise to preserve the code space, and to act trivially (as the logical identity operator) on the protected information. Thus, we develop necessary and sufficient conditions for all transversal.Ratherthanaddresscoherentnoisethroughactiveerrorcorrection,weinvestigatepassivemitigationthroughdecoherencefreesubspaces.Inthelanguageofstabilizercodes,werequirethenoisetopreservethecodespace,andtoacttrivially(asthelogicalidentityoperator)ontheprotectedinformation.Thus,wedevelopnecessaryandsufficientconditionsforalltransversalZ$-rotations to preserve the code space of a stabilizer code. These conditions require the weight-2 Z2~Z2 Z-stabilizers to cover all the qubits that are in the support of theXXX-component of some stabilizer. Furthermore, the weight-2 Z2~Z2 Z-stabilizers generate a direct product of single-parity-check codes with even block length. By adjusting the sizes of these components, we are able to construct a large family of QECC codes oblivious to coherent noise, one that includes the[[4L2,1,2L]][[4L^{2}, 1, 2L]][[4L2,1,2L]]Shor codes. The Shor codes are examples of constant excitation codes, where logical qubits are encoded as a code state that is a sum of physical states indexed by binary vectors with the same weight. Constant excitation codes are oblivious to coherent noise since a transversalZZZ-rotation acts as a global phase. We prove that a CSS code is oblivious to coherent noise if and only if it is a constant excitation code, and that if the code is error-detecting, then the (constant) weights in different cosets of theXXX-stabilizers are identical.
Quantum error correction (QEC), the lynchpin of fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC), is designed and validated against well-behaved Pauli stochastic error models. But in real-world deployment, QEC protocols encounter a vast array of other errors -- coherent and non-Pauli errors -- whose impacts on quantum circuits are vastly different than those of stochastic Pauli errors. The impacts of these errors on QEC and FTQC protocols have been largely unpredictable to date due to exponential classical simulation cost. Here, we show how to accurately and efficiently model the effects of coherent and non-Pauli errors on FTQC, and we study the effects of such errors on syndrome extraction for surface and bivariate bicycle codes, and on magic state cultivation. Our analysis suggests that coherent error can shift fault-tolerance thresholds, increase the space-time cost of magic state cultivation, and can increase logical error rates by an order of magnitude compared to equivalent stochastic errors. These analyses are enabled by a new technique for mapping any Markovian circuit-level error model with sufficiently small error rates onto a detector error model (DEM) for an FTQC circuit. The resulting DEM enables Monte Carlo estimation of logical error rates and noise-adapted decoding, and its parameters can be analytically related to the underlying physical noise parameters to enable approximate strong simulation.
Collective coherent (CC) noise poses challenges for fault-tolerant error correction (FTEC), as it is not captured by conventional stochastic noise models. Constant-excitation (CE) codes are inherently immune to CC errors, but a fault-tolerant framework for operating these codes under circuit-level noise has not yet been established. Here, we develop an FTEC framework for CE CSS codes based on dual-rail concatenation. We show that conventional transversal CNOT gates violate the CE constraint and develop CE-preserving logical CNOT gates together with modified Shor- and Steane-type syndrome extraction schemes using zero-controlled NOT gates and CE-compatible ancilla states. We further develop an extended stabilizer simulation algorithm that tracks both stochastic and CC noise. Using this framework, we identify small distance-3 CE CSS codes demonstrate that the [[14,1,3]][[14,1,3]][[14,1,3]] code maintains robust performance under coherent noise. Our results establish a fault-tolerant framework for CE codes under circuit-level noise and demonstrate their potential for quantum processors affected by CC noise.
Analysis of quantum error correcting codes is typically done using a stochastic, Pauli channel error model for describing the noise on physical qubits. However, it was recently found that coherent errors (systematic rotations) on physical data qubits result in both physical and logical error rates that differ significantly from those predicted by a Pauli model. Here we examine the accuracy of the Pauli approximation for noise containing coherent errors (characterized by a rotation angle ) under the repetition code. We derive an analytic expression for the logical error channel as a function of arbitrary code distance d and concatenation level n , in the small error limit. We find that coherent physical errors result in logical errors that are partially coherent and therefore non-Pauli. However, the coherent part of the logical error is negligible at fewer than error correction cycles when the decoder is optimized for independent Pauli errors, thus providing a regime of validity for the Pauli approximation. Above this number of correction cycles, the persistent coherent logical error will cause logical failure more quickly than the Pauli model would predict, and this may need to be combated with coherent suppression methods at the physical level or larger codes.
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.