Small deviations from these mathematical models (which happen in real labs) can further reduce quantum error correction’s effectiveness. Moreover, even forgetting those theoretical limits, quantum error correction is imperfect and relies on many assumptions about the properties of the errors it’s tasked with correcting. Quantum error correction only totally suppresses errors if we dedicate infinite resources to the process, an obviously untenable proposition. We may well unambiguously achieve this goal in 2021-but that’s the beginning of the journey, not the end.Ĭrossing the break-even point and achieving useful, functioning quantum error correction doesn’t mean we suddenly enter an era with no hardware errors-it just means we’ll have fewer. intelligence community has spent the last four years seeking to finally cross the break-even point in experimental hardware for just one logical qubit. This is why a major public-sector research program run by the U.S. Still, the most advanced experimental demonstrations show it’s at least 10 times better to do nothing than to apply quantum error correction in most cases. And the gains have been enormous, bringing the break-even point, where it’s actually better to perform quantum error correction than not, at least 1,000 times closer than original predictions. Quantum error correction research has made great strides from the earliest efforts in the late 1990s, introducing mathematical tricks that relax the associated overheads or enable computations on logical qubits to be conducted more easily, without interfering with the computations being performed. Returning to the promise of 1,000-qubit machines in the industry, so many resources might be required that those 1,000 qubits yield only, say, 5 useful logical qubits.Įven worse, the amount of extra work that must be done to apply quantum error correction currently introduces more error than correction. The algorithm by which quantum error correction is performed itself consumes resources-more qubits and many operations. The challenge comes when we look at the implementation of quantum error correction in practice. Surface code implementation and error detection quantum circuit Image by WHAT CHALLENGES ARE POSED BY QUANTUM ERROR CORRECTION? (Spoiler alert: this is the wrong way to interpret these numbers). On its face, that doesn’t seem far from the 1,000+ qubit machines promised by 2023. For instance, Shor’s algorithm could be deployed to render Bitcoin insecure with just a few thousand error-corrected logical qubits. The prospect that it can be realized underpins the entire field of quantum computer science: Replace all quantum computing hardware with “logical” qubits running quantum error correction, and even the most complex algorithms come into reach. This would be a stunningly powerful achievement. In combination with the theory of fault-tolerant quantum computing, Quantum error correction suggests that engineers can, in principle, build an arbitrarily large quantum computer that would be capable of arbitrarily long computations if operated correctly. Unfortunately, with corporate roadmaps and complex scientific literature highlighting an increasing number of relevant experiments, an emerging narrative is falsely painting quantum error correction as a future panacea for the life-threatening ills of quantum computing. 2021 may just be the year when it is convincingly demonstrated to give a net benefit in real quantum-computing hardware. Quantum error correction is real and has seen many partial demonstrations in laboratories around the world-initial steps that make it clear it’s a viable approach. It can draw from validated mathematical approaches used to engineer special “radiation-hardened” classical microprocessors deployed in space or other extreme environments where errors are much more likely to occur. Quantum error correction is an algorithm designed to identify and fix errors in quantum computers. Here we’ll help you understand what quantum error correction is and what’s required to bring it to reality. Very correct qubits: A superconducting circuit could lead to practical quantum computing by allowing for error-correction algorithms.
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