Quantum information science explores ways in which quantum physical laws can be harnessed to control the acquisition, transmission, protection, and processing of information. This field has seen explosive growth in the past several years from progress on both theoretical and experimental fronts. Essential to this endeavor are methods for controlling quantum information. In this thesis, I present three new approaches for controlling quantum information. First, I present a new protocol for continuously protecting unknown quantum states from noise. This protocol combines and expands ideas from the theories of quantum error correction and quantum feedback control. The result can outperform either approach by itself. I generalize this protocol to all known quantum stabilizer codes, and study its application to the three-qubit repetition code in detail via Monte Carlo simulations. Next, I present several new protocols for controlling quantum information that are fault-tolerant. These protocols require only local quantum processing due to the topological properties of the quantum error correcting codes upon which they are built. I show that each protocol's fault-dependence behavior exhibits an order-disorder phase transition when mapped onto an associated statistical-mechanical model. I review the critical error rates of these protocols found by numerical study of the associated models, and I present new analytic bounds for them using a self-avoiding random walk argument. Moreover, I discuss fault-tolerant procedures for encoding, error-correction, computing, and decoding quantum information using these protocols, and calculate the accuracy threshold of fault-tolerant quantum memory for protocols using them. I end by presenting a new class of quantum algorithms that solve combinatorial optimization problems solely by measurement. I compute the running times of these algorithms by establishing an explicit dynamical model for the measurement process. This model, the digitized version of von Neumann's measurement model, is recognized as Kitaev's phase estimation algorithm. I show that the running times of these algorithms are closely related to the running times of adiabatic quantum algorithms. Finally, I present a two-measurement algorithm that achieves a quadratic speedup for Grover's unstructured search problem.
Quantum information science explores ways in which quantum physical laws can be harnessed to control the acquisition, transmission, protection, and processing of information. This field has seen explosive growth in the past several years from progress on both theoretical and experimental fronts. Essential to this endeavor are methods for controlling quantum information. In this thesis, I present three new approaches for controlling quantum information. First, I present a new protocol for continuously protecting unknown quantum states from noise. This protocol combines and expands ideas from the theories of quantum error correction and quantum feedback control. The result can outperform either approach by itself. I generalize this protocol to all known quantum stabilizer codes, and study its application to the three-qubit repetition code in detail via Monte Carlo simulations. Next, I present several new protocols for controlling quantum information that are fault-tolerant. These protocols require only local quantum processing due to the topological properties of the quantum error correcting codes upon which they are built. I show that each protocol's fault-dependence behavior exhibits an order-disorder phase transition when mapped onto an associated statistical-mechanical model. I review the critical error rates of these protocols found by numerical study of the associated models, and I present new analytic bounds for them using a self-avoiding random walk argument. Moreover, I discuss fault-tolerant procedures for encoding, error-correction, computing, and decoding quantum information using these protocols, and calculate the accuracy threshold of fault-tolerant quantum memory for protocols using them. I end by presenting a new class of quantum algorithms that solve combinatorial optimization problems solely by measurement. I compute the running times of these algorithms by establishing an explicit dynamical model for the measurement process. This model, the digitized version of von Neumann's measurement model, is recognized as Kitaev's phase estimation algorithm. I show that the running times of these algorithms are closely related to the running times of adiabatic quantum algorithms. Finally, I present a two-measurement algorithm that achieves a quadratic speedup for Grover's unstructured search problem.
Quantum mechanical applications range from quantum computers to quantum key distribution to teleportation. In these applications, quantum error correction is extremely important for protecting quantum states against decoherence. Here I present two main results regarding quantum error correction protocols.
The first main topic I address is the development of continuous-time quantum error correction protocols via combination with techniques from quantum control. These protocols rely on weak measurement and Hamiltonian feedback instead of the projective measurements and unitary gates usually assumed by canonical quantum error correction. I show that a subclass of these protocols can be understood as a quantum feedback protocol, and analytically analyze the general case using the stabilizer formalism; I show that in this case perfect feedback can perfectly protect a stabilizer subspace. I also show through numerical simulations that another subclass of these protocols does better than canonical quantum error correction when the time between corrections is limited.
The second main topic is development of improved overhead results for fault-tolerant computation. In particular, through analysis of topological quantum error correcting codes, it will be shown that the required blowup in depth of a noisy circuit performing a fault-tolerant computation can be reduced to a factor of O(log log L), an improvement over previous results. Showing this requires investigation into a local method of performing fault-tolerant correction on a topological code of arbitrary dimension.
The precise, human control of quantum systems, by its definition, must combine models of the classical and the quantum world into a calculus that supports both. Open, irreversible quantum systems must interact with closed, reversible quantum systems to predict evolutions that are partially open and closed. Inevitably, the problems of quantum measurement, the assumptions of scattering, and the role of spacetime comes under scrutiny. Such considerations have extraordinary practical value: the precise control of a quantum information is the cornerstone of scalable quantum computing. Traditionally, quantum control theory as well as a formalism of redundancy and partial measurements, known as quantum error correction, attempt to remedy systematic quantum- noise and random quantum-noise respectively, but have had mixed success. This dissertation examines how the imprecision of control in quantum and classical spin systems affects the flow of select information to a receiver and how such systems may be optimized against the imprecise scattering of control fields and spins. To this end, this dissertation intertwines the physics of state evolution with the physics of information control in classical and quantum systems. First in classical systems, a method for encoding and decoding classical spin- processing information provides an example of information flow. Then an analytic calculation of a semi-conductor spin channel's information capacity is performed. The results limit the rate of information processing and inform the design of materials for optimal spintronic information-processing in semiconductors. Next, noisy quantum interactions are described, so that the complexities of correcting small, random phase errors using traditional control theory and quantum error correction may be explained. How these noisy processes affect the relevant information flow of a quantum algorithm (derivatives of the Quantum Fourier Transform and Grover Search) is considered, several novel methods of source-coding for these quantum channels are presented and their efficacy calculated. These methods include Unitary- Fault Tolerance, Clifford operations of locally-variant basis, and an entropic controller. Together they show classical systems in the steady state can be used to control scalable, high-precision quantum-computing machines, and ultimately may eliminate all temporal control from quantum operations.
Quantum computers have the potential to solve several interesting problems in polynomial \ntime for which no polynomial time classical algorithms have been found. However, \none of the major challenges in building quantum devices is that quantum systems are very \nsensitive to noise arising from undesired interactions with the environment. Noise can lead \nto errors which can corrupt the results of the computation. Quantum error correction is \none way to mitigate the effects of noise arising in quantum devices. \nWith a plethora of quantum error correcting codes that can be used in various settings, \none of the main challenges of quantum error correction is understanding how well various \ncodes perform under more realistic noise models that can be observed in experiments. \nThis thesis proposes a new decoding algorithm which can optimize threshold values of \nerror correcting codes under different noise models. The algorithm can be applied to \nany Markovian noise model. Further, it is shown that for certain noise models, logical \nClifford corrections can further improve a code's threshold value if the code obeys certain \nsymmetries. \n \nSince gates and measurements cannot in general be performed with perfect precision, \nthe operations required to perform quantum error correction can introduce more errors \ninto the system thus negating the benefits of error correction. Fault-tolerant quantum \ncomputing is a way to perform quantum error correction with imperfect operations while \nretaining the ability to suppress errors as long as the noise is below a code's threshold. \nOne of the main challenges in performing fault-tolerant error correction is the high resource \nrequirements that are needed to obtain very low logical noise rates. With the use of \nflag qubits, this thesis develops new fault-tolerant error correction protocols that are applicable \nto arbitrary distance codes. Various code families are shown to satisfy the requirements \nof flag fault-tolerant error correction. We also provide circuits using a constant number of \nqubits for these codes. It is shown that the proposed flag fault-tolerant method uses fewer \nqubits than previous fault-tolerant error correction protocols. \n \nIt is often the case that the noise afflicting a quantum device cannot be fully characterized. \nFurther, even with some knowledge of the noise, it can be very challenging to use \nanalytic decoding methods to improve the performance of a fault-tolerant scheme. This \nthesis presents decoding schemes using several state of the art machine learning techniques \nwith a focus on fault-tolerant quantum error correction in regimes that are relevant to near \nterm experiments. It is shown that even in low noise rate regimes and with no knowledge \nof the noise, noise can be further suppressed for small distance codes. Limitations of machine \nlearning decoders as well as the classical resources required to perform active error \ncorrection are discussed. \n \nIn many cases, gate times can be much shorter than typical measurement times of \nquantum states. Further, classical decoding of the syndrome information used in quantum \nerror correction to compute recovery operators can also be much slower than gate times. \nFor these reasons, schemes where error correction can be implemented in a frame (known \nas the Pauli frame) have been developed to avoid active error correction. In this thesis, we \ngeneralize previous Pauli frame schemes and show how Clifford frame error correction can \nbe implemented with minimal overhead. Clifford frame error correction is necessary if the \nlogical component of recovery operators were chosen from the Clifford group, but could \nalso be used in randomized benchmarking schemes.
Quantum computers promise to solve computational problems that are inaccessible to classical machines. The reliable execution of large-scale quantum algorithms requires robust operations in the presence of noise. Quantum error correction addresses this challenge by encoding quantum information redundantly across several physical qubits, such that errors can be detected and corrected during a computation. However, no single error-correcting code intrinsically supports an inherently robust, fault-tolerant implementation of all gates needed for universal quantum computing. Moreover, most modern approaches to both quantum error correction and the implementation of universal logical operations on encoded qubits rely on mid-circuit measurements and feed-forward control. These types of operations are technologically demanding, often slow, and prone to high error rates, and they limit the overall success probability of quantum algorithms. In this thesis, we develop fault-tolerant protocols and circuits for quantum error correction and universal logical computation, with an emphasis on implementations compatible with current hardware systems. We first focus on fault-tolerant quantum error correction on small codes. By comparing different protocols, we identify trade-offs between compact circuit constructions and their robustness to noise. We then assess their practical performance by comparing numerical simulations of noisy circuits with experimental data. Beyond the preservation of encoded information, we study how universal logic can be implemented in a fault-tolerant manner on encoded qubits. A central approach considered in this thesis is code switching, in which logical information is transferred between two distinct error-correcting codes that support complementary sets of inherently fault-tolerant logical gates. In combination, these codes give access to a complete universal fault-tolerant logical gate set. In this thesis, we determine conditions that allow us to construct fault-tolerant protocols for code switching. We adapt these protocols to the capabilities of current hardware, thereby enabling the first experimental realization of universal fault-tolerant logic by means of code switching. However, the overall performance of these schemes is limited by slow and noisy mid-circuit measurements. To address this bottleneck, we construct a suite of measurement-free fault-tolerant universal operations that do not require any measurements during the execution of an algorithm. In this framework, error correction and logical operations are implemented coherently as part of the quantum circuit, without mid-circuit measurements or in-sequence classical control. We introduce measurement-free code-switching schemes that can be scaled to arbitrary code distances through concatenation, and which thereby provide, in principle, arbitrarily strong error suppression. We further tailor our approach to the capabilities of current trapped-ion quantum processors. New circuit constructions support the first experimental implementation of a logical quantum algorithm without mid-circuit measurements, demonstrated through Grover's search on three encoded qubits. Together, the results of this thesis expand the toolbox for early fault-tolerant quantum computation. They show how protocols for quantum error correction and universal logical gates can be designed without mid-circuit measurements with realistic hardware constraints in mind, opening new pathways towards universal quantum logic.
This thesis is concerned with fault-tolerant quantum information processing using quantum error-correcting codes. It contains two major pieces of work. The first is a study of coherent noise in the context of stabilizer error-correcting codes. The second is a proposed scheme for a universal set of fault-tolerant logical gates in a particular code family built out of the 3D toric code. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to quantum computation and fault tolerance. Many basic concepts in error-correcting codes are defined. Special attention is paid to the set of code properties that are most likely to determine how easily a given fault-tolerant scheme might be implemented on a physical device. These include the fault-tolerant noise threshold and the overhead. In Chapters 2 and 3 we study the effectiveness of quantum error correction against coherent noise. Coherent errors (for example, unitary noise) can interfere constructively, so that in some cases the average infidelity of a quantum circuit subjected to coherent errors may increase quadratically with the circuit size; in contrast, when errors are incoherent (for example, depolarizing noise), the average infidelity increases at worst linearly with circuit size. We consider the performance of quantum stabilizer codes against a noise model in which a unitary rotation is applied to each qubit, where the axes and angles of rotation are nearly the same for all qubits. In Chapter 2 we introduce coherent noise and incoherent noise and a number of methods that are useful for the study of coherent noise. We study the repetition code as a basic example, and we also study a correlated noise model. In Chapter 3 we show that for the toric code subject to such independent coherent noise, and for minimal-weight decoding, the logical channel after error correction becomes increasingly incoherent as the length of the code increases, provided the noise strength decays inversely with the code distance. A similar conclusion holds for weakly correlated coherent noise. Our methods can also be used for analyzing the performance of other codes and fault-tolerant protocols against coherent noise. However, our result does not show that the coherence of the logical channel is suppressed in the more physically relevant case where the noise strength is held constant as the code block grows, and we recount the difficulties that prevented us from extending the result to that case. Nevertheless our work supports the idea that fault-tolerant quantum computing schemes will work effectively against coherent noise, providing encouraging news for quantum hardware builders who worry about the damaging effects of control errors and coherent interactions with the environment. Chapter 4 is connected to another aspect of fault tolerance, fault-tolerant logical gates. The toric code is a promising candidate for fault-tolerant quantum computation because of its high threshold and low-weight stabilizers. A universal gate set in the toric code generally requires magic state distillation, which can incur a significant qubit overhead. In this work we construct an error-correcting code in three dimensions based on the toric code that features a fault-tolerant T gate with no magic state distillation required. We further describe a subsystem version of our code which supports a universal set of fault-tolerant gates. This code can be converted into the stabilizer version using gauge-fixing. We also argue that our code can be converted to a (2+1)-D protocol, where a 2D lattice undergoes a measurement-based protocol over time. In this way, a fault-tolerant logical T gate can be realized in a 2D toric code structure.
Quantum computing exists at the intersection of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering; the main goal of quantum computing is the creation of devices and algorithms which use the properties of quantum mechanics to store, manipulate and measure information. There exist many families of algorithms, which, using non-classical logical operations, can outperform traditional, classical algorithms in terms of memory and processing requirements. In addition, quantum computing devices are fundamentally smaller than classical processors and memory elements; since the physical models governing their performance are applicable on all scales, as opposed to classical logic elements, whose underlying principles rely on the macroscopic nature of the device in question. \n \nQuantum algorithms, for the most part, are predicated on a theory of resources. It is often assumed that quantum computers can be placed in a precise fiducial state prior to computation, and that logical operations are perfect, inducing no error on the system which they affect. These assumptions greatly simplify algorithmic design, but are fundamentally unrealistic. In order to justify their use, it is necessary to develop a framework for using a large number of imperfect devices to simulate the action of a perfect device, with some acceptable probability of failure. This is the study of fault-tolerant quantum computing. In order to pursue this study effectively, it is necessary to understand the fundamental nature of generic quantum states and operations, as well as the means by which one can correct quantum errors. Additionally, it is important to attempt to minimize the use of computational resources in achieving error reduction and fault-tolerant computing. \n \nThis thesis is concerned with three projects related to the use of error-prone quantum systems to transmit and manipulate information. The first of these is concerned with the use of imperfectly-prepared states in error-correction routines. Using optimal quantum error correction, we are able to deduce a method of partially protecting encoded quantum information against preparation errors prior to encoding, using no additional qubits. The second of these projects details the search for entangled states which can be used to transmit classical information over quantum channels at a rate superior to classical states. The third of these projects concerns the transcoding of data from one quantum code into another using few ancillary resources. The descriptions of these projects are preceded by a brief introduction to representations of quantum states and channels, for completeness. \n \nThree techniques of general interest are presented in appendices. The first is an introduction to, and a minor advance in the development of optimal error correction codes. The second is a more efficient means of calculating the action of a quantum channel on a given state, given that the channel acts non-trivially only on a subsystem, rather than the entire system. Finally, we include documentation on a software package developed to aid the search for quantum transcoding operations.