1,771 research outputs found
Resilient Quantum Computation: Error Models and Thresholds
Recent research has demonstrated that quantum computers can solve certain
types of problems substantially faster than the known classical algorithms.
These problems include factoring integers and certain physics simulations.
Practical quantum computation requires overcoming the problems of environmental
noise and operational errors, problems which appear to be much more severe than
in classical computation due to the inherent fragility of quantum
superpositions involving many degrees of freedom. Here we show that arbitrarily
accurate quantum computations are possible provided that the error per
operation is below a threshold value. The result is obtained by combining
quantum error-correction, fault tolerant state recovery, fault tolerant
encoding of operations and concatenation. It holds under physically realistic
assumptions on the errors.Comment: 19 pages in RevTex, many figures, the paper is also avalaible at
http://qso.lanl.gov/qc
An Introduction to Quantum Error Correction and Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation
Quantum states are very delicate, so it is likely some sort of quantum error
correction will be necessary to build reliable quantum computers. The theory of
quantum error-correcting codes has some close ties to and some striking
differences from the theory of classical error-correcting codes. Many quantum
codes can be described in terms of the stabilizer of the codewords. The
stabilizer is a finite Abelian group, and allows a straightforward
characterization of the error-correcting properties of the code. The stabilizer
formalism for quantum codes also illustrates the relationships to classical
coding theory, particularly classical codes over GF(4), the finite field with
four elements. To build a quantum computer which behaves correctly in the
presence of errors, we also need a theory of fault-tolerant quantum
computation, instructing us how to perform quantum gates on qubits which are
encoded in a quantum error-correcting code. The threshold theorem states that
it is possible to create a quantum computer to perform an arbitrary quantum
computation provided the error rate per physical gate or time step is below
some constant threshold value.Comment: 46 pages, with large margins. Includes quant-ph/0004072 plus 30 pages
of new material, mostly on fault-toleranc
Resilience in Numerical Methods: A Position on Fault Models and Methodologies
Future extreme-scale computer systems may expose silent data corruption (SDC)
to applications, in order to save energy or increase performance. However,
resilience research struggles to come up with useful abstract programming
models for reasoning about SDC. Existing work randomly flips bits in running
applications, but this only shows average-case behavior for a low-level,
artificial hardware model. Algorithm developers need to understand worst-case
behavior with the higher-level data types they actually use, in order to make
their algorithms more resilient. Also, we know so little about how SDC may
manifest in future hardware, that it seems premature to draw conclusions about
the average case. We argue instead that numerical algorithms can benefit from a
numerical unreliability fault model, where faults manifest as unbounded
perturbations to floating-point data. Algorithms can use inexpensive "sanity"
checks that bound or exclude error in the results of computations. Given a
selective reliability programming model that requires reliability only when and
where needed, such checks can make algorithms reliable despite unbounded
faults. Sanity checks, and in general a healthy skepticism about the
correctness of subroutines, are wise even if hardware is perfectly reliable.Comment: Position Pape
How Quantum Computers Fail: Quantum Codes, Correlations in Physical Systems, and Noise Accumulation
The feasibility of computationally superior quantum computers is one of the
most exciting and clear-cut scientific questions of our time. The question
touches on fundamental issues regarding probability, physics, and
computability, as well as on exciting problems in experimental physics,
engineering, computer science, and mathematics. We propose three related
directions towards a negative answer. The first is a conjecture about physical
realizations of quantum codes, the second has to do with correlations in
stochastic physical systems, and the third proposes a model for quantum
evolutions when noise accumulates. The paper is dedicated to the memory of
Itamar Pitowsky.Comment: 16 page
- …