A Correction Rule for Inductive Methods

I will discuss the problem of choosing the correct inductive\ud method from Carnap"s (1952) continuum. My proposal is to\ud use a correction rule to adjust the method according to\ud obtained evidence. I will discuss a minimum requirement\ud such a rule has to satisfy, especially from a consturctive\ud point of view. The question of refuting inductive scepticism\ud by means of a correction rule is assessed

Theory of Decoherence-Free Fault-Tolerant Universal Quantum Computation

Universal quantum computation on decoherence-free subspaces and subsystems (DFSs) is examined with particular emphasis on using only physically relevant interactions. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of decoherence-free (noiseless) subsystems in the Markovian regime is derived here for the first time. A stabilizer formalism for DFSs is then developed which allows for the explicit understanding of these in their dual role as quantum error correcting codes. Conditions for the existence of Hamiltonians whose induced evolution always preserves a DFS are derived within this stabilizer formalism. Two possible collective decoherence mechanisms arising from permutation symmetries of the system-bath coupling are examined within this framework. It is shown that in both cases universal quantum computation which always preserves the DFS (*natural fault-tolerant computation*) can be performed using only two-body interactions. This is in marked contrast to standard error correcting codes, where all known constructions using one or two-body interactions must leave the codespace during the on-time of the fault-tolerant gates. A further consequence of our universality construction is that a single exchange Hamiltonian can be used to perform universal quantum computation on an encoded space whose asymptotic coding efficiency is unity. The exchange Hamiltonian, which is naturally present in many quantum systems, is thus *asymptotically universal*.Comment: 40 pages (body: 30, appendices: 3, figures: 5, references: 2). Fixed problem with non-printing figures. New references added, minor typos correcte

Learning from Minimum Entropy Queries in a Large Committee Machine

In supervised learning, the redundancy contained in random examples can be avoided by learning from queries. Using statistical mechanics, we study learning from minimum entropy queries in a large tree-committee machine. The generalization error decreases exponentially with the number of training examples, providing a significant improvement over the algebraic decay for random examples. The connection between entropy and generalization error in multi-layer networks is discussed, and a computationally cheap algorithm for constructing queries is suggested and analysed.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, multicol, epsf, two postscript figures. To appear in Physical Review E (Rapid Communications

Codes and Protocols for Distilling TT, controlled-SS, and Toffoli Gates

We present several different codes and protocols to distill $T$, controlled-$S$, and Toffoli (or $CCZ$) gates. One construction is based on codes that generalize the triorthogonal codes, allowing any of these gates to be induced at the logical level by transversal $T$. We present a randomized construction of generalized triorthogonal codes obtaining an asymptotic distillation efficiency $\gamma\rightarrow 1$. We also present a Reed-Muller based construction of these codes which obtains a worse $\gamma$ but performs well at small sizes. Additionally, we present protocols based on checking the stabilizers of $CCZ$ magic states at the logical level by transversal gates applied to codes; these protocols generalize the protocols of 1703.07847. Several examples, including a Reed-Muller code for $T$-to-Toffoli distillation, punctured Reed-Muller codes for $T$-gate distillation, and some of the check based protocols, require a lower ratio of input gates to output gates than other known protocols at the given order of error correction for the given code size. In particular, we find a $512$ T-gate to $10$ Toffoli gate code with distance $8$ as well as triorthogonal codes with parameters $[[887,137,5]],[[912,112,6]],[[937,87,7]]$ with very low prefactors in front of the leading order error terms in those codes.Comment: 28 pages. (v2) fixed a part of the proof on random triorthogonal codes, added comments on Clifford circuits for Reed-Muller states (v3) minor chang

Systematic Error-Correcting Codes for Rank Modulation

The rank-modulation scheme has been recently proposed for efficiently storing data in nonvolatile memories. Error-correcting codes are essential for rank modulation, however, existing results have been limited. In this work we explore a new approach, \emph{systematic error-correcting codes for rank modulation}. Systematic codes have the benefits of enabling efficient information retrieval and potentially supporting more efficient encoding and decoding procedures. We study systematic codes for rank modulation under Kendall's $\tau$-metric as well as under the $\ell_\infty$-metric. In Kendall's $\tau$-metric we present $[k+2,k,3]$-systematic codes for correcting one error, which have optimal rates, unless systematic perfect codes exist. We also study the design of multi-error-correcting codes, and provide two explicit constructions, one resulting in $[n+1,k+1,2t+2]$ systematic codes with redundancy at most $2t+1$. We use non-constructive arguments to show the existence of $[n,k,n-k]$-systematic codes for general parameters. Furthermore, we prove that for rank modulation, systematic codes achieve the same capacity as general error-correcting codes. Finally, in the $\ell_\infty$-metric we construct two $[n,k,d]$ systematic multi-error-correcting codes, the first for the case of $d=O(1)$, and the second for $d=\Theta(n)$. In the latter case, the codes have the same asymptotic rate as the best codes currently known in this metric