Identifying dominant noise mechanisms is a central challenge in today’s noisy quantum devices, where every operation is affected by hardware imperfections. To investigate how noise manifests in quantum operations, this study employed a three-qubit teleportation circuit as an experimental probe. Ideal simulations, noisy simulations in Qiskit Aer (readout misassignment, depolarizing, biased Pauli, thermal relaxation), and runs on IBM Brisbane were compared after applying standard X and Z corrections in post-processing. Distinct patterns in the bitstring distributions showed that IBM hardware is dominated by readout-driven effects with mild bias in Pauli error probabilities. A short teleportation “probe” thus provides a simple, circuit-specific diagnostic test to guide noise mitigation. This study aims to determine whether bitstring distributions can serve as fingerprints for identifying dominant noise sources in quantum teleportation circuits.
Identifying dominant noise mechanisms is a central challenge in today’s noisy quantum devices, where every operation is affected by hardware imperfections. To investigate how noise manifests in quantum operations, this study employed a three-qubit teleportation circuit as an experimental probe. Ideal simulations, noisy simulations in Qiskit Aer (readout misassignment, depolarizing, biased Pauli, thermal relaxation), and runs on IBM Brisbane were compared after applying standard X and Z corrections in post-processing. Distinct patterns in the bitstring distributions showed that IBM hardware is dominated by readout-driven effects with mild bias in Pauli error probabilities. A short teleportation “probe” thus provides a simple, circuit-specific diagnostic test to guide noise mitigation. This study aims to determine whether bitstring distributions can serve as fingerprints for identifying dominant noise sources in quantum teleportation circuits.
This work presents a simulation-based study of quantum teleportation for secure communication under ideal, noisy, and adversarial conditions using IBM’s Qiskit framework and the Qiskit Aer simulator. The study begins with the verification of Bell-state entanglement to establish quantum correlation, followed by the implementation of a standard three-qubit quantum teleportation protocol. The teleportation system is evaluated across four experimental scenarios: (i) ideal noiseless teleportation, (ii) depolarizing noise environments, (iii) basis disturbance attacks using unauthorized Hadamard operations, and (iv) entanglement injection attacks introducing an external qubit into the communication channel. Each scenario is analyzed using measurement statistics, probability distributions, and state behavior of the receiver qubit. The results demonstrate that quantum teleportation achieves high fidelity under ideal conditions, while environmental noise introduces statistical degradation in state reconstruction. Furthermore, adversarial interference significantly disrupts teleportation performance, with basis disturbance producing near-uniform probability distributions and entanglement injection altering receiver-side measurement statistics. This study highlights both the robustness and vulnerability of quantum communication protocols and emphasizes the importance of noise mitigation, entanglement security, and attack detection mechanisms in future quantum networking systems. The work is entirely simulation-based and implemented using Python and Qiskit.
Noise is a major challenge in quantum computing, affecting the reliability of quantum protocols. In this work, we analytically study the impact of various noise processes, such as depolarization, bit flip, and phase flip, on the quantum state teleportation protocol. Each noise process is modeled as a quantum channel and is applied individually to all qubits after the corresponding unitary operations to simulate realistic conditions. We evaluate the fidelity between the ideal and noisy teleported states to quantify the effect of noise. Our analysis shows that the fidelity decreases polynomially, in general, as the noise strength increases for all noise types, highlighting the sensitivity of state teleportation to different noise mechanisms. However, in the low noise regime, the fidelity decreases only linearly, indicating the robustness of the teleportation protocol. These results provide insight into error characterization and can inform strategies for noise mitigation in practical quantum computing applications.
This study examines how noise affects the reliability of quantum circuits through two complementary approaches: a controlled simulation using Qiskit Aer and an execution study on real IBM Quantum hardware. In simulation, five noise models (bit-flip, phase-flip, depolarizing, readout, and thermal-relaxation) were applied to a parameterized benchmark circuit across varying qubit counts, circuit depths, and noise strengths, producing 6,000 experimental observations. Success probability declined substantially as qubit count and circuit depth increased, with bit-flip, phase-flip, and depolarizing noise degrading performance far more severely (mean success probabilities of 0.597, 0.580, and 0.607) than readout noise (0.917) or thermal-relaxation noise (0.982). The same benchmark circuit was then executed on the ibm_marrakesh processor across 150 hardware runs (150,000 shots). Hardware performance remained consistently high (mean success probability 0.992), declining with qubit count (0.998 at two qubits to 0.986 at six) but showing little sensitivity to circuit depth. These results indicate that controlled noise mechanisms and real hardware degrade circuit performance through different dynamics, with implications for interpreting simulated noise models relative to physical device behavior.
Quantum teleportation is a fundamental primitive of quantum information theory, enabling the transfer of an unknown qubit state by means of shared entanglement and classical communication. In an ideal system the teleportation protocol implements the identity quantum channel. In real quan- tum hardware, however, the process becomes a noisy quantum channel. In this work, we reconstruct and analyze the teleportation channel using Quantum Process Tomography (QPT) on three platforms: (i) the AerSimulator (reference ideal channel), and (ii) the real IBM ibm_fez and ibm_torino quantum processors (Heron family). We compute Choi matrices, process fidelities, Choi-state purity, Pauli-noise decomposition, and CP/TP consis- tency tests. We further assess the impact of enforcing physicality (CP/TP) on the reconstructed process, providing a reproducible workflow for hardware-level channel characterization. Results highlight a strong degradation on real hardware, dominated by dephasing and depolarizing-like contributions, and show that raw linear-inversion tomography may violate complete positivity unless physical constraints are enforced.
Abstract This practical guide presents methods for constructing noise models using the Qiskit Aer noise module within the IBM Q ecosystem. The objective is to simulate quantum circuits under realistic error conditions, enabling accurate emulation of noisy quantum processors. The guide demonstrates how to: Use the Qiskit Aer noise module to define custom noise models. Incorporate gate errors, readout errors, and decoherence effects into simulations. Apply noise channels (e.g., depolarizing, amplitude damping, phase damping). Attach noise models to quantum circuit simulations. Analyze how noise affects algorithm performance and output distributions. Building noise models is essential for studying the behavior of quantum algorithms in the NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) era. It allows researchers to evaluate algorithm robustness, optimize circuit depth, and test error mitigation strategies before execution on real IBM Quantum hardware. This approach provides a bridge between ideal theoretical circuits and physically realistic quantum devices, enhancing the reliability and applicability of quantum computing experiments.
Multipartite entangled states are essential for controlled quantum teleportation (CQT). CQT enables secure and conditional quantum information transfer among multiple parties. Recently, the six-qubit “tetrahedron” state was identified as a novel candidate for enabling CQT of a two-qubit state by Z. M. McIntyre and W. A. Coish (2024). Despite its theoretical promise, this state has yet to be experimentally realized. We will employ IBM Qiskit, a quantum computing software package, to perform a classical simulation of the tetrahedron state, modeling realistic conditions that include decoherence, state preparation errors, and measurement imperfections. By examining the influence of noise on entanglement and teleportation fidelity, we aim to gain insights into the state’s feasibility for near-term quantum hardware. This approach involves constructing the quantum circuit for the tetrahedron state, incorporating realistic noise models, and analyzing the cumulative effect of errors at each gate operation. Our ultimate goal is to identify critical noise thresholds that limit the state’s performance and inform future hardware implementations. The insights from these simulations will guide experimental efforts to realize the six-qubit tetrahedron state and advance controlled quantum teleportation protocols for multi-qubit systems.