70,871 research outputs found
Tractable Simulation of Error Correction with Honest Approximations to Realistic Fault Models
In previous work, we proposed a method for leveraging efficient classical
simulation algorithms to aid in the analysis of large-scale fault tolerant
circuits implemented on hypothetical quantum information processors. Here, we
extend those results by numerically studying the efficacy of this proposal as a
tool for understanding the performance of an error-correction gadget
implemented with fault models derived from physical simulations. Our approach
is to approximate the arbitrary error maps that arise from realistic physical
models with errors that are amenable to a particular classical simulation
algorithm in an "honest" way; that is, such that we do not underestimate the
faults introduced by our physical models. In all cases, our approximations
provide an "honest representation" of the performance of the circuit composed
of the original errors. This numerical evidence supports the use of our method
as a way to understand the feasibility of an implementation of quantum
information processing given a characterization of the underlying physical
processes in experimentally accessible examples.Comment: 34 pages, 9 tables, 4 figure
"Going back to our roots": second generation biocomputing
Researchers in the field of biocomputing have, for many years, successfully
"harvested and exploited" the natural world for inspiration in developing
systems that are robust, adaptable and capable of generating novel and even
"creative" solutions to human-defined problems. However, in this position paper
we argue that the time has now come for a reassessment of how we exploit
biology to generate new computational systems. Previous solutions (the "first
generation" of biocomputing techniques), whilst reasonably effective, are crude
analogues of actual biological systems. We believe that a new, inherently
inter-disciplinary approach is needed for the development of the emerging
"second generation" of bio-inspired methods. This new modus operandi will
require much closer interaction between the engineering and life sciences
communities, as well as a bidirectional flow of concepts, applications and
expertise. We support our argument by examining, in this new light, three
existing areas of biocomputing (genetic programming, artificial immune systems
and evolvable hardware), as well as an emerging area (natural genetic
engineering) which may provide useful pointers as to the way forward.Comment: Submitted to the International Journal of Unconventional Computin
Local Fault-tolerant Quantum Computation
We analyze and study the effects of locality on the fault-tolerance threshold
for quantum computation. We analytically estimate how the threshold will depend
on a scale parameter r which estimates the scale-up in the size of the circuit
due to encoding. We carry out a detailed semi-numerical threshold analysis for
concatenated coding using the 7-qubit CSS code in the local and `nonlocal'
setting. First, we find that the threshold in the local model for the [[7,1,3]]
code has a 1/r dependence, which is in correspondence with our analytical
estimate. Second, the threshold, beyond the 1/r dependence, does not depend too
strongly on the noise levels for transporting qubits. Beyond these results, we
find that it is important to look at more than one level of concatenation in
order to estimate the threshold and that it may be beneficial in certain
places, like in the transportation of qubits, to do error correction only
infrequently.Comment: REVTeX, 44 pages, 19 figures, to appear in Physical Review
Is error detection helpful on IBM 5Q chips ?
This paper reports on experiments realized on several IBM 5Q chips which show
evidence for the advantage of using error detection and fault-tolerant design
of quantum circuits. We show an average improvement of the task of sampling
from states that can be fault-tolerantly prepared in the code, when
using a fault-tolerant technique well suited to the layout of the chip. By
showing that fault-tolerant quantum computation is already within our reach,
the author hopes to encourage this approach.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 6 table
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