Thermodynamic limitations on fault-tolerant quantum computing
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| _version_ | 1866913631237570560 |
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| author | Bilokur, Mykhailo Gopalakrishnan, Sarang Majidy, Shayan |
| author_facet | Bilokur, Mykhailo Gopalakrishnan, Sarang Majidy, Shayan |
| contents | We investigate the thermodynamic limits on scaling fault-tolerant quantum computers due to heating from quantum error correction (QEC). Quantum computers require error correction, which accounts for 99.9% of the qubit demand and generates heat through information-erasing processes. This heating increases the error rate, necessitating more rounds of error correction. We introduce a dynamical model that characterizes heat generation and dissipation for arrays of qubits weakly coupled to a refrigerator and identify a dynamical phase transition between two operational regimes: a bounded-error phase, where temperature stabilizes and error rates remain below fault-tolerance thresholds, and an unbounded-error phase, where rising temperatures drive error rates beyond sustainable levels, making fault tolerance infeasible. Applying our model to a superconducting qubit system performing Shor's algorithm to factor 2048-bit RSA integers, we find that current experimental parameters place the system in the bounded-error phase. Our results indicate that, while inherent heating can become significant, this thermodynamic constraint should not limit scalable fault tolerance if current hardware capabilities are maintained as systems scale. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_12805 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Thermodynamic limitations on fault-tolerant quantum computing Bilokur, Mykhailo Gopalakrishnan, Sarang Majidy, Shayan Quantum Physics We investigate the thermodynamic limits on scaling fault-tolerant quantum computers due to heating from quantum error correction (QEC). Quantum computers require error correction, which accounts for 99.9% of the qubit demand and generates heat through information-erasing processes. This heating increases the error rate, necessitating more rounds of error correction. We introduce a dynamical model that characterizes heat generation and dissipation for arrays of qubits weakly coupled to a refrigerator and identify a dynamical phase transition between two operational regimes: a bounded-error phase, where temperature stabilizes and error rates remain below fault-tolerance thresholds, and an unbounded-error phase, where rising temperatures drive error rates beyond sustainable levels, making fault tolerance infeasible. Applying our model to a superconducting qubit system performing Shor's algorithm to factor 2048-bit RSA integers, we find that current experimental parameters place the system in the bounded-error phase. Our results indicate that, while inherent heating can become significant, this thermodynamic constraint should not limit scalable fault tolerance if current hardware capabilities are maintained as systems scale. |
| title | Thermodynamic limitations on fault-tolerant quantum computing |
| topic | Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12805 |