Evaluating the reliability of noisy quantum circuits is essential for implementing quantum algorithms on noisy quantum devices. While state fidelity is the most faithful indicator of circuit reliability, it is experimentally and computationally prohibitive to obtain. Alternative metrics, although easier to compute, often fail to accurately reflect circuit reliability. We propose a fine-grained, scalable, and interpretable framework for efficient reliability evaluation of noisy quantum circuits. We introduce the Noise Proxy Circuit (NPC), which removes all logical operations while preserving the complete sequence of noise channels, thereby providing an abstraction of cumulative noise effects. Based on the NPC, we define Proxy Fidelity, a reliability metric that quantifies both qubit-level and circuit-level reliability. We further develop an analytical algorithm to estimate Proxy Fidelity under depolarizing, thermal relaxation, and SPAM error channels. The proposed framework achieves fidelity-level reliability estimation while remaining execution-free, scalable, and interpretable. Experimental results on real and simulated IBM quantum devices show that our method accurately estimates circuit fidelity, with an average absolute difference (AAD) ranging from 0.031 to 0.069 across diverse circuits and devices.
Evaluating the reliability of noisy quantum circuits is essential for implementing quantum algorithms on noisy quantum devices. While state fidelity is the most faithful indicator of circuit reliability, it is experimentally and computationally prohibitive to obtain. Alternative metrics, although easier to compute, often fail to accurately reflect circuit reliability. We propose a fine-grained, scalable, and interpretable framework for efficient reliability evaluation of noisy quantum circuits. We introduce the Noise Proxy Circuit (NPC), which removes all logical operations while preserving the complete sequence of noise channels, thereby providing an abstraction of cumulative noise effects. Based on the NPC, we define Proxy Fidelity, a reliability metric that quantifies both qubit-level and circuit-level reliability. We further develop an analytical algorithm to estimate Proxy Fidelity under depolarizing, thermal relaxation, and SPAM error channels. The proposed framework achieves fidelity-level reliability estimation while remaining execution-free, scalable, and interpretable. Experimental results on real and simulated IBM quantum devices show that our method accurately estimates circuit fidelity, with an average absolute difference (AAD) ranging from 0.031 to 0.069 across diverse circuits and devices.
Evaluating the reliability of noisy quantum circuits is essential for implementing quantum algorithms on noisy quantum devices. While state fidelity is the most faithful indicator of circuit reliability, it is experimentally and computationally prohibitive to obtain. Alternative metrics, although easier to compute, often fail to accurately reflect circuit reliability. We propose a fine-grained, scalable, and interpretable framework for efficient reliability evaluation of noisy quantum circuits. We introduce the Noise Proxy Circuit (NPC), which removes all logical operations while preserving the complete sequence of noise channels, thereby providing an abstraction of cumulative noise effects. Based on the NPC, we define Proxy Fidelity, a reliability metric that quantifies both qubit-level and circuit-level reliability. We further develop an analytical algorithm to estimate Proxy Fidelity under depolarizing, thermal relaxation, and SPAM error channels. The proposed framework achieves fidelity-level reliability estimation while remaining execution-free, scalable, and interpretable. Experimental results on real and simulated IBM quantum devices show that our method accurately estimates circuit fidelity, with an average absolute difference (AAD) ranging from 0.031 to 0.069 across diverse circuits and devices.
Evaluating the reliability of noisy quantum circuits is essential for implementing quantum algorithms on noisy quantum devices. However, current quantum hardware exhibits diverse noise mechanisms whose compounded effects make accurate and efficient reliability evaluation challenging. While state fidelity is the most faithful indicator of circuit reliability, it is experimentally and computationally prohibitive to obtain. Alternative metrics, although easier to compute, often fail to accurately reflect circuit reliability, lack universality across circuit types, or offer limited interpretability. To address these challenges, we propose a fine-grained, scalable, and interpretable framework for efficient and accurate reliability evaluation of noisy quantum circuits. Our approach performs a state-independent analysis to model how circuit reliability progressively degrades during execution. We introduce the Noise Proxy Circuit (NPC), which removes all logical operations while preserving the complete sequence of noise channels, thereby providing an abstraction of cumulative noise effects. Based on the NPC, we define Proxy Fidelity, a reliability metric that quantifies both qubit-level and circuit-level reliability. We further develop an analytical algorithm to estimate Proxy Fidelity under depolarizing, thermal relaxation, and readout error channels. The proposed framework achieves fidelity-level reliability estimation while remaining execution-free, scalable, and interpretable. Experimental results show that our method accurately estimates circuit fidelity, with an average absolute difference (AAD) ranging from 0.031 to 0.069 across diverse circuits and devices.
Abstract Fidelity is one of the most valuable and commonly used metrics for assessing the performance of quantum circuits on error-prone quantum processors. Several approaches have been proposed to estimate circuit fidelity without executing it on quantum hardware, but they often face limitations in scalability or accuracy. In this work, we present a comprehensive theoretical framework to predict the fidelity of quantum circuits under depolarizing noise. Building on theoretical results, we propose an efficient fidelity estimation algorithm based on device calibration data. The method is thoroughly validated through simulation and execution on real hardware, demonstrating improved accuracy compared to state-of-the-art alternatives, with enhancements in prediction R 2 ranging from 4.96% to 213.54%. The proposed approach provides a scalable and practical tool for benchmarking quantum hardware, comparing quantum software techniques such as compilation methods, obtaining computation bounds for quantum systems, and guiding hardware design decisions, making it a critical resource for developing and evaluating quantum computing technologies.
Abstract Accurately characterizing and mitigating the impact of noise is essential for improving the fidelity of quantum simulations on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices. In this work, we introduce a circuit-structure-preserving error-mitigation framework designed for parameterized quantum circuits. Unlike conventional approaches that alter circuit topology or require heavy post-processing, our method preserves the native architecture while systematically diagnosing gate noise. This structure-preserving feature enables robust, high-fidelity simulations even in the presence of significant hardware noise, making the approach particularly effective for small-scale circuits executed at high sampling rates, such as those used in variational algorithms and quantum neural networks. To benchmark its performance, we apply the method to variational quantum simulations of a non-Hermitian ferromagnetic transverse-field Ising chain implemented on IBM Quantum processors. The mitigated results exhibit excellent agreement with exact theoretical predictions across a wide range of noise conditions. Thus, our framework provides a scalable and hardware-efficient strategy for the current hardware.
Creating scalable, reliable, and well-motivated benchmarks for quantum computers is challenging: straightforward approaches to benchmarking suffer from exponential scaling, are insensitive to important errors, or use poorly-motivated performance metrics. Furthermore, curated benchmarking suites cannot include every interesting quantum circuit or algorithm, which necessitates a tool that enables the easy creation of new benchmarks. In this work, we introduce a software tool for creating scalable and reliable benchmarks that measure a well-motivated performance metric (process fidelity) from user-chosen quantum circuits and algorithms. Our software, called scarab, enables the creation of efficient and robust benchmarks even from circuits containing thousands or millions of qubits, by employing efficient fidelity estimation techniques, including mirror circuit fidelity estimation and subcircuit volumetric benchmarking. scarab provides a simple interface that enables the creation of reliable benchmarks by users who are not experts in the theory of quantum computer benchmarking or noise. We demonstrate the flexibility and power of scarab by using it to turn existing inefficient benchmarks into efficient benchmarks, to create benchmarks that interrogate hardware and algorithmic trade-offs in Hamiltonian simulation, to quantify the in-situ efficacy of approximate circuit compilation, and to create benchmarks that use subcircuits to measure progress towards executing a circuit of interest.
Quantum computers in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era face significant challenges due to inherent noise and limited qubit coherence. Accurate fidelity evaluation of quantum states necessitates multiple repeated measurements to obtain statistical results. But determining the optimal number of measurements remains an open problem due to the dynamic, device-dependent nature of quantum noise. Existing methods either assume prior knowledge of the noise model or inherently employ a fixed measurement strategy, which limits their applicability in practical deployment scenarios. This paper presents AutoFid, an adaptive and noise-aware fidelity measurement framework that automatically determines the number of required tests based on circuit structure and hardware feedback. AutoFid models quantum circuits as Directed Acyclic Graphs and estimates structural complexity via random walks, enabling estimation of measurement effort. It further incorporates transpilation-aware features such as gate fidelity, depth inflation, and crosstalk to refine iteration budgets. During runtime, AutoFid dynamically samples fidelity results and employs an early stopping strategy based on confidence intervals to reduce redundant measurements while preserving accuracy guarantees. We evaluate AutoFid on 18 quantum benchmarks executed on real IBMQ hardware platforms. Experimental results show that AutoFid reduces measurement costs by more than 50% compared to both fixed-shot and learning-based baselines, while consistently maintaining fidelity bias below 0.01. Additional analysis using classical software testing metrics and ablation studies demonstrate its effectiveness, robustness, and adaptability across a wide range of quantum workloads.