Parallel window decoding enables scalable fault tolerant quantum computation

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Skoric, Luka, Browne, Dan E., Barnes, Kenton M., Gillespie, Neil I., Campbell, Earl T.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2022
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author Skoric, Luka
Browne, Dan E.
Barnes, Kenton M.
Gillespie, Neil I.
Campbell, Earl T.
author_facet Skoric, Luka
Browne, Dan E.
Barnes, Kenton M.
Gillespie, Neil I.
Campbell, Earl T.
contents Large-scale quantum computers have the potential to hold computational capabilities beyond conventional computers for certain problems. However, the physical qubits within a quantum computer are prone to noise and decoherence, which must be corrected in order to perform reliable, fault-tolerant quantum computations. Quantum Error Correction (QEC) provides the path for realizing such computations. QEC continuously generates a continuous stream of data that decoders must process at the rate it is received, which can be as fast as 1 MHz in superconducting quantum computers. A little known fact of QEC is that if the decoder infrastructure cannot keep up, a data backlog problem is encountered and the quantum computer runs exponentially slower. Today's leading approaches to quantum error correction are not scalable as existing decoders typically run slower as the problem size is increased, inevitably hitting the backlog problem. That is: the current leading proposal for fault-tolerant quantum computation is not scalable. Here, we show how to parallelize decoding to achieve almost arbitrary speed, removing this roadblock to scalability. Our parallelization requires some classical feed forward decisions to be delayed, leading to a slow-down of the logical clock speed. However, the slow-down is now only polynomial in code size, averting the exponential slowdown. We numerically demonstrate our parallel decoder for the surface code, showing no noticeable reduction in logical fidelity compared to previous decoders and demonstrating the parallelization speedup.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2209_08552
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Parallel window decoding enables scalable fault tolerant quantum computation
Skoric, Luka
Browne, Dan E.
Barnes, Kenton M.
Gillespie, Neil I.
Campbell, Earl T.
Quantum Physics
Large-scale quantum computers have the potential to hold computational capabilities beyond conventional computers for certain problems. However, the physical qubits within a quantum computer are prone to noise and decoherence, which must be corrected in order to perform reliable, fault-tolerant quantum computations. Quantum Error Correction (QEC) provides the path for realizing such computations. QEC continuously generates a continuous stream of data that decoders must process at the rate it is received, which can be as fast as 1 MHz in superconducting quantum computers. A little known fact of QEC is that if the decoder infrastructure cannot keep up, a data backlog problem is encountered and the quantum computer runs exponentially slower. Today's leading approaches to quantum error correction are not scalable as existing decoders typically run slower as the problem size is increased, inevitably hitting the backlog problem. That is: the current leading proposal for fault-tolerant quantum computation is not scalable. Here, we show how to parallelize decoding to achieve almost arbitrary speed, removing this roadblock to scalability. Our parallelization requires some classical feed forward decisions to be delayed, leading to a slow-down of the logical clock speed. However, the slow-down is now only polynomial in code size, averting the exponential slowdown. We numerically demonstrate our parallel decoder for the surface code, showing no noticeable reduction in logical fidelity compared to previous decoders and demonstrating the parallelization speedup.
title Parallel window decoding enables scalable fault tolerant quantum computation
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.08552