Thursday, August 14, 2025
Science
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag
No Result
View All Result
Home Science News Mathematics

New system boosts efficiency of quantum error correction

April 29, 2024
in Mathematics
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Graphic of quantum logic gate
65
SHARES
595
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

The fragile qubits that make up quantum computers offer a powerful computational tool, yet also present a conundrum: How can engineers create practical, workable quantum systems out of bits that are so easily disturbed — and wiped of data — by tiny changes in their environment? 

Graphic of quantum logic gate

Credit: Shutterstock

The fragile qubits that make up quantum computers offer a powerful computational tool, yet also present a conundrum: How can engineers create practical, workable quantum systems out of bits that are so easily disturbed — and wiped of data — by tiny changes in their environment? 

Engineers have long struggled with how to make quantum computers less error-prone, often by developing ways to detect and correct errors rather than prevent them in the first place. However, many such error-correction schemes involve duplicating information across hundreds or thousands of physical qubits at once, which quickly becomes hard to scale up in an efficient way. 

Now, a team of scientists led by researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have developed the blueprint for a quantum computer that can more efficiently correct errors. The system uses a new framework, based around quantum low-density party-check (qLDPC) codes — which can detect errors by looking at the relationship between bits — as well as a new hardware involving reconfigurable atom arrays, which allow qubits to communicate with more neighbors and therefore let the qLDPC data be encoded in fewer qubits. 

“With this proposed blueprint, we’ve reduced the overhead required for quantum error correction, which opens new avenues for scaling up quantum computers,” said Liang Jiang, professor of molecular engineering and senior author of the new work, published in Nature Physics. 

Intrinsic noise

While standard computers rely on digital bits — in an on or off position — to encode data, qubits can exist in states of superposition, giving them the ability to tackle new computational problems. However, qubits’ unique properties also make them incredibly sensitive to their environment; they change states based on the surrounding temperature and electromagnetism.  

“Quantum systems are intrinsically noisy. There’s really no way to build a quantum machine that won’t have error,” said Qian Xu, a PME graduate student who led the new work. “You need to have a way of doing active error correction if you want to scale up your quantum system and make it useful for practical tasks.”

For the last few decades, scientists have mostly turned to one type of error correction, called surface codes, for quantum systems. In these systems, you simultaneously encode the same logical information into many physical bits, arranged in a large two-dimensional grid. Errors can be deduced by comparing qubits to their direct neighbors. A mismatch suggests that one qubit has misfired. 

“The problem with this is that you need a huge resource overhead,” said Xu. “In some of these systems, you need one thousand physical qubits for every logical qubit, so in the long run we don’t think we can scale this up to very large computers.”

Lowering redundancy

In their new system, Jiang, Xu, and colleagues at Harvard University, Caltech, University of Arizona, and QuEra Computing aimed to instead use qLDPC codes to correct errors. This type of error-correction had long been considered, but not implemented into a realistic blueprint. 

With qLDPC codes, the data in qubits is not only compared to direct neighbors but also to more far-flung qubits. It allows a smaller grid of qubits to be used to achieve the same number of comparisons for error correction. However, this kind of long-distance communication between qubits had always been the sticking point in implementing qLDPC. 

The researchers came up with a solution in the form of new hardware: reconfigurable atoms that can be moved with lasers to allow qubits to talk to new partners.  

“With today’s reconfigurable atom array systems, we can control and manipulate more than a thousand physical qubits with high fidelity and connect qubits separated by a large distance,” said Harry Zhou of Harvard University and QuEra Computing. “By matching the structure of quantum codes and these hardware capabilities, we can implement these more advanced qLDPC codes with only a few control lines, putting the realization of them within reach with today’s experimental systems.”

When they combined qLDPC codes with reconfigurable neutral-atom arrays, the team was able to achieve a better error rate than using surface codes with only a few hundred physical qubits. When scaling up, quantum algorithms involving thousands of logical qubits could be accomplished with less than 100,000 physical qubits — far more efficient than the gold-standard surface codes.  

“There’s still redundancy in terms of encoding the data in multiple physical qubits, but the idea is that we’ve reduced that redundancy by a lot,” said Xu. 

The framework is still theoretical, although scientists are rapidly developing atom-array platforms that move toward the practical use of error-corrected quantum computation. The PME team is now working to further fine-tune their blueprint and ensure that the logical qubits relying on qLDPC codes and reconfigurable atom arrays can be used in computation. 

“We think in the long run this will allow us to build very large quantum computers with lower error rates,” said Xu. 
 



Journal

Nature Physics

DOI

10.1038/s41567-024-02479-z

Article Publication Date

29-Apr-2024

Share26Tweet16
Previous Post

Tibetan plateau had broader social dimensions than previously thought

Next Post

Electric vehicle drivers can estimate their personalized fuel savings with new Argonne tool

Related Posts

blank
Mathematics

Innovative Few-Shot Learning Model Boosts Accuracy in Crop Disease Detection

August 13, 2025
blank
Mathematics

Scientists Unveil Mathematical Model Explaining ‘Matrix Tides’ and Complex Wave Patterns in Qiantang River

August 12, 2025
blank
Mathematics

Enhancing Medical Imaging with Advanced Pixel-Particle Analogies

August 12, 2025
blank
Mathematics

Brain-Inspired Devices Become Reality Through Neuromorphic Technology and Machine Learning

August 12, 2025
blank
Mathematics

AI Revolutionizes Gene Editing Precision with CRISPR Technology

August 12, 2025
blank
Mathematics

Common Food Bacteria Pave the Way for Cheaper, Greener Vitamin Production

August 11, 2025
Next Post
Car Charging 1600x900

Electric vehicle drivers can estimate their personalized fuel savings with new Argonne tool

  • Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    27533 shares
    Share 11010 Tweet 6881
  • University of Seville Breaks 120-Year-Old Mystery, Revises a Key Einstein Concept

    947 shares
    Share 379 Tweet 237
  • Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance

    641 shares
    Share 256 Tweet 160
  • Researchers record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike

    507 shares
    Share 203 Tweet 127
  • Warm seawater speeding up melting of ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ scientists warn

    310 shares
    Share 124 Tweet 78
Science

Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with Scienmag.com—your ultimate source for cutting-edge breakthroughs. Immerse yourself in a world where curiosity knows no limits and tomorrow’s possibilities become today’s reality!

RECENT NEWS

  • Leading ALS Organizations Unveil ‘Champion Insights’ to Explore Elevated ALS Risk Among Athletes and Military Personnel
  • Seafloor Fiber Reveals Fjord Calving Dynamics
  • Heritable Factor Links BMI, Fat, Waist in Kids
  • Vector Field-Guided Toolpaths Revolutionize 3D Bioprinting

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Athmospheric
  • Biology
  • Bussines
  • Cancer
  • Chemistry
  • Climate
  • Earth Science
  • Marine
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Pediatry
  • Policy
  • Psychology & Psychiatry
  • Science Education
  • Social Science
  • Space
  • Technology and Engineering

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 4,859 other subscribers

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Discover more from Science

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading