AI summaryⓘ
The authors used a trapped-ion quantum computer to test nine different quantum error-correcting codes on the same device without changing the hardware. These codes included quantum low-density parity-check codes (qLDPC), topological codes, and concatenated codes, each having different needs for connecting qubits. They showed that one qLDPC code could encode 4 logical qubits into 18 physical qubits with much lower error rates than past experiments using other technologies. Their setup also allowed for stable qubit performance using a new method for measuring and resetting qubits mid-circuit without moving ions or using extra ions for cooling. This work demonstrates flexible and efficient ways to implement complex quantum codes on trapped-ion systems.
quantum error correctionqLDPC codestrapped-ion quantum computerlogical qubitsphysical qubitstopological codesconcatenated codesmid-circuit measuremention transportoptical-metastable-ground (OMG) architecture
Authors
Edwin Tham, Michael L. Goldman, Shantanu Debnath, Ashay N. Patel, Jyothi Saraladevi, Jason Nguyen, Erik Nielsen, Neal Pisenti, Kenneth Wright, John Gamble, Nicolas Delfosse
Abstract
High-rate quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes are a leading candidate for fault-tolerant quantum computing. They feature higher encoding rates than planar alternatives such as the surface code, but their implementation often entails significant hardware hurdles like the need for long-range couplers. We leverage the flexibility of a trapped-ion quantum computer to demonstrate nine quantum error-correcting codes with starkly different qubit connectivity requirements on a single device without any hardware reconfiguration. These experiments span three families of quantum error-correcting codes: qLDPC codes, topological codes, and concatenated codes. With a qLDPC code encoding 4 logical qubits into 18 physical qubits, we achieve a logical error rate up to $9\times$ better than a previous demonstration of a similar code on superconducting solid-state qubits. Moreover, our implementation exhibits breakeven performance, with some instances achieving qubit lifetimes comparable to or slightly exceeding that of our trapped-ion qubits. We use a novel implementation of the optical-metastable-ground (OMG) architecture for addressable mid-circuit measurement and reset, which enables us to perform these experiments without any ion transport or dedicated coolant ions, requirements that typically consume a large fraction of the runtime or ion count of trapped-ion quantum computers.