We investigate a hybrid quantum-classical approach to quantum error mitigation. We propose Classically Augmented Zero-Noise Extrapolation, a hybrid error-mitigation method in which high-noise Richardson extrapolation nodes are replaced by classically simulated estimates. These classical nodes have negligible sampling variance but introduce deterministic simulation bias. We derive the resulting variance reduction under optimal shot allocation and show that, for linear node spacings and fixed index cutoff, the coefficient-level reduction can be exponential. We validate the prediction numerically using Pauli-propagation simulations and demonstrate a reduction in mean-squared error when the truncation bias is sufficiently small.
We investigate a hybrid quantum-classical approach to quantum error mitigation. We propose Classically Augmented Zero-Noise Extrapolation, a hybrid error-mitigation method in which high-noise Richardson extrapolation nodes are replaced by classically simulated estimates. These classical nodes have negligible sampling variance but introduce deterministic simulation bias. We derive the resulting variance reduction under optimal shot allocation and show that, for linear node spacings and fixed index cutoff, the coefficient-level reduction can be exponential. We validate the prediction numerically using Pauli-propagation simulations and demonstrate a reduction in mean-squared error when the truncation bias is sufficiently small.
Zero-noise extrapolation provides a practical means of suppressing gate errors in current noisy intermediate-scale quantum hardware. The accuracy of the zero-noise estimate depends sensitively on the fidelity of the assumed noise model to the actual error scaling. This work introduces a hybrid Gaussian-exponential extrapolation scheme tailored for quantum circuits with periodic structure, which are ubiquitous in quantum algorithms. Under Pauli diagonal errors, by constructing and analyzing an approximate Markov process for the transfer of Pauli operators, we prove a central limit theorem: the noise amplification factor weakly approaches a log-normal distribution, which motivates augmenting the standard exponential model with Gaussian variance corrections. The resulting model requires no prior noise characterization and applies directly to arbitrary periodic circuits. Performance is assessed on Trotterized Ising dynamics, random circuits, and Grover search algorithm using Qiskit noise simulators. For moderate to large circuit depths, the hybrid model yields measurable reductions in bias relative to previous extrapolation variants, indicating its utility for error mitigation on near-term quantum hardware.
Error mitigation techniques are crucial to achieving near-term quantum advantage. Classical post-processing of quantum computation outcomes is a popular approach for error mitigation, which includes methods such as Zero Noise Extrapolation, Virtual Distillation, and learning-based error mitigation. However, these techniques have limitations due to the propagation of uncertainty resulting from the finite shot number of a quantum measurement. In this work, we introduce general and unbiased methods for quantifying the uncertainty and error of error-mitigated observables based on the strategic sampling of error mitigation outcomes. We then extend our approach to demonstrate the optimization of performance and robustness of error mitigation under uncertainty. To illustrate our methods, we apply them to Zero Noise Extrapolation and Clifford Date Regression in the ground state of the XY model simulated using depolarizing and IBM Toronto noise models, respectively. In particular, we optimize the choice of noise levels and the allocation of shots for Zero Noise Extrapolation and the distribution of the training circuits for Clifford Data Regression. While our methods are readily applicable to any post-processing-based error mitigation approach, in practice they must not be prohibitively expensive – even though they perform optimizations of the error mitigation hyperparameters requiring sampling of a statistical distribution of error mitigation outcomes. By leveraging surrogate-based optimization, we show that our methods can efficiently perform optimal design for a Zero Noise Extrapolation implementation. We then further demonstrate the transferability of learned Zero Noise Extrapolation hyperparameters to other similar circuits.
Quantum error mitigation is a key concept for the development of practical applications based on current noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices. One of the most promising methods is Richardson extrapolation to the zero noise limit. While its main idea is rather simple, the full potential of Richardson extrapolation has not been completely uncovered yet. We give an in-depth analysis of the relevant parameters of Richardson extrapolation and propose an optimized protocol for its implementation. This protocol allows for a precise control of the increase in statistical uncertainty and lays the foundation for a significant improvement of the mitigation performance achieved by increasing the number of nodes. Furthermore, we present a set of nodes that, on average, outperforms the linear, exponential, or Chebyshev nodes frequently used for Richardson extrapolation without requiring any additional resources.
We propose a general framework for quantum error mitigation that combines and generalizes two techniques: probabilistic error cancellation (PEC) and zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE). Similar to PEC, the proposed method represents ideal operations as linear combinations of noisy operations that are implementable on hardware. However, instead of assuming a fixed level of hardware noise, we extend the set of implementable operations by noise scaling. By construction, this method encompasses both PEC and ZNE as particular cases and allows us to investigate a larger set of hybrid techniques. For example, gate extrapolation can be used to implement PEC without requiring knowledge of the device's noise model, e.g., avoiding gate-set tomography. Alternatively, probabilistic error reduction can be used to estimate expectation values at intermediate virtual noise strengths (below the hardware level), leading to partially mitigated results at a lower sampling cost. Moreover, multiple results obtained with different noise-reduction factors can be further postprocessed with ZNE to better approximate the zero-noise limit.
Partially error-corrected logical executions are expected to become available before fully fault-tolerant quantum computation, but such executions usually take much longer runtime than physical, unencoded ones. We formulate zero-noise extrapolation in this regime as a statistical resource-allocation problem in which the physical/logical execution mode is itself an extrapolation design variable. In the proposed mixed strategy, one or a few logical circuits provide low-noise anchor points, while cheaper folded physical circuits provide a larger extrapolation lever arm. Within an effective error suppression model pL=γp, we derive Richardson variance prefactors for all-logical and mixed data sets, include folded-circuit runtime accounting, obtain the optimal shot allocation for a prescribed target variance, and state the bias--variance criterion determining when the mixed estimator improves finite-runtime accuracy. We illustrate the mixed-data strategy via simulating dynamics of transverse-field Ising model. For error suppression factor γ≲0.1 the mixed strategy can significantly(orders-of-magnitude) reduce the runtime needed to reach a fixed estimator variance, as well as provide better mean-square-error estimators in reasonable parameter regions.
Variational Quantum Eigensolvers (VQE) promise molecular ground-state energies on today's noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) processors, but device noise biases the estimated energy severely — under a device-calibrated noise model, the hydrogen molecule's energy error grows from 0.000 mHa (noiseless) to 303.6 mHa (noisy), roughly 190× the "chemical accuracy" threshold of 1.6 mHa that computational chemistry requires. Error-mitigation techniques repair such biases in software, but published results usually report each technique in isolation, making it impossible to know which mitigation to buy with a fixed shot budget. This work answers that question with a controlled comparison. Under identical circuits, noise profiles and shot budgets, I measure the bias and variance of four estimator stacks — raw sampling, twirled-readout extinction (TREX-style calibrated readout inversion), zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE), and ZNE+TREX — across independent random seeds. Three findings emerge. (1) ZNE is a bias–variance tradeoff, not a free lunch: a 7-point Richardson extrapolant reduces the deterministic bias 3200-fold (303.6 → 0.094 mHa) but amplifies statistical noise by a measured factor of up to 25× per run, while TREX removes readout bias with no variance penalty. (2) ZNE has a finite operating window in circuit depth: error recovery falls 99.97% → 99.1% → 95.5% as CX count grows 56 → 112 → 168, and is exhausted entirely for a 1616-CX lithium-hydride circuit at near-term error rates. (3) A noise-bias-tailored repetition code corrects the dominant error axis with logical error rates matching theory (3p², 10p³, 35p⁴ for distances 3, 5, 7) at strictly linear gate overhead (gates = 6d − 6). The results reframe mitigation selection as budget allocation on an empirically measured bias–variance frontier and provide open-source tooling to reproduce every number.