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2021 QIP: Constructing quantum codes from any classical code and their embedding in ground space of local Hamiltonians  (25min)

Authors: Ramis Movassagh, Yingkai Ouyang

We introduce a framework for constructing a quantum error correcting code from any classical error correcting code. This includes CSS codes and goes beyond the stabilizer formalism to allow quantum codes to be constructed from classical codes that are not necessarily linear or self-orthogonal.  We give an algorithm that explicitly constructs quantum codes with linear distance and constant rate from classical codes with a linear distance and rate. As illustrations for small size codes, we obtain Steane's 7-qubit code uniquely from Hamming's [7,4,3] code, and obtain other error detecting quantum codes from other explicit classical codes of length 4 and 6. Motivated by quantum LDPC codes and the use of physics to protect quantum information, we introduce a new 2-local frustration free quantum spin chain Hamiltonian whose ground space we analytically characterize completely. By mapping classical codewords to basis states of the ground space, we utilize our framework to demonstrate that the ground space contains explicit quantum codes with linear distance. This side-steps the Bravyi-Terhal no-go theorem because our work allows for more general quantum codes beyond the stabilizer and/or linear codes. We hesitate to  call this an example of subspace quantum LDPC code with linear distance.

2020 AQIS: Avoiding coherent errors with rotated concatenated stabilizer codes  (15min)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.00538

Authors: Yingkai Ouyang


Coherent errors, which arise from collective couplings, are a dominant form of noise in many realistic quantum systems, and are more damaging than oft considered stochastic errors. Here, we propose integrating stabilizer codes with coherent-error-avoiding codes by code concatenation. Namely, by concatenating an [[n,k,d]] stabilizer outer code with dual-rail inner codes, we obtain a [[2n,k,d]] non-stabilizer constant-excitation code immune from coherent phase errors and also equivalent to a Pauli-rotated stabilizer code. When the stabilizer outer code is fault-tolerant, the constant-excitation code has a positive fault-tolerant threshold against stochastic errors. Setting the outer code as a four-qubit amplitude damping code yields an eight-qubit constant-excitation code that corrects a single amplitude damping error, and we analyze this code's potential as a quantum memory. We numerically demonstrate that fault-tolerant quantum error correction overheads can be significantly reduced the noise is dominated by coherent phase errors with some stochastic errors.

2020 AQIS: Constructing quantum codes from any classical code and their embedding in ground space of local Hamiltonians  (15min)

Authors: Ramis Movassagh, Yingkai Ouyang

We introduce a framework for constructing a quantum error correcting code from any classical error correcting code. This includes CSS codes and goes beyond the stabilizer formalism to allow quantum codes to be constructed from classical codes that are not necessarily linear or self-orthogonal.  We give an algorithm that explicitly constructs quantum codes with linear distance and constant rate from classical codes with a linear distance and rate. As illustrations for small size codes, we obtain Steane's 7-qubit code uniquely from Hamming's [7,4,3] code, and obtain other error detecting quantum codes from other explicit classical codes of length 4 and 6. Motivated by quantum LDPC codes and the use of physics to protect quantum information, we introduce a new 2-local frustration free quantum spin chain Hamiltonian whose ground space we analytically characterize completely. By mapping classical codewords to basis states of the ground space, we utilize our framework to demonstrate that the ground space contains explicit quantum codes with linear distance. This side-steps the Bravyi-Terhal no-go theorem because our work allows for more general quantum codes beyond the stabilizer and/or linear codes. We hesitate to  call this an example of subspace quantum LDPC code with linear distance.

2020 AQIS: Trade-offs on number and phase shift resilience in bosonic quantum codes  (15min)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.12576

Authors: Yingkai Ouyang, Earl Campbell

Minimizing the number of particles used by a quantum code is helpful, because every particle incurs a cost. One quantum error correction solution is to encode quantum information into one or more bosonic modes. We revisit rotation-invariant bosonic codes, which are supported on Fock states that are gapped by an integer g apart, and the gap g imparts number shift resilience to these codes. Intuitively, since phase operators and number shift operators do not commute, one expects a trade-off between resilience to number-shift and rotation errors. Here, we obtain results pertaining to the non-existence of approximate quantum error correcting g-gapped single-mode bosonic codes with respect to Gaussian dephasing errors. We show that by using arbitrarily many modes, g-gapped multi-mode codes can yield good approximate quantum error correction codes for any finite magnitude of Gaussian dephasing errors.

2020 AQIS: Weight Distribution of Classical Codes Influences Robust Quantum Metrology  (15min)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.02859

Authors: Yingkai Ouyang, Narayanan Rengaswamy

Quantum metrology (QM) is expected to be a prominent use-case of quantum technologies. However, noise easily degrades these quantum probe states, and negates the quantum advantage they would have offered in a noiseless setting. Although quantum error correction (QEC) can help tackle noise, fault-tolerant methods are too resource intensive for near-term use. Hence, a strategy for (near-term) robust QM that is easily adaptable to future QEC-based QM is desirable. Here, we propose such an architecture by studying the performance of quantum probe states that are constructed from [n,k,d] binary block codes of minimum distance d ≥ t+1. Such states can be interpreted as a logical state of a CSS code whose logical X group is defined by the aforesaid binary code. When a constant, t, number of qubits of the quantum probe state are erased, using the quantum Fisher information (QFI) we show that the resultant noisy probe can give an estimate of the magnetic field with a precision that scales inversely with the variances of the weight distributions of the corresponding 2t shortened codes. If C is any code concatenated with inner repetition codes of length linear in n, a quantum advantage in QM is possible. Hence, given any CSS code of constant length, concatenation with repetition codes of length linear in n is asymptotically optimal for QM with a constant number of erasure errors. We also explicitly construct an observable that when measured on such noisy code-inspired probe states, yields a precision on the magnetic field strength that also exhibits a quantum advantage in the limit of vanishing magnetic field strength. We emphasize that, despite the use of coding-theoretic methods, our results do not involve syndrome measurements or error correction. We complement our results with examples of probe states constructed from Reed-Muller codes. 

2020 AQIS: Tight bounds on the simultaneous estimation of incompatible parameters (15min)

https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.09218

Authors: Jasminder S. Sidhu, Yingkai Ouyang, Earl T. Campbell, Pieter Kok

The estimation of multiple parameters in quantum metrology is important for a vast array of applications in quantum information processing. However, the unattainability of fundamental precision bounds for incompatible observables has greatly diminished the applicability of estimation theory in many practical implementations. The Holevo Cramer-Rao bound (HCRB) provides the most fundamental, simultaneously attainable bound for multi-parameter estimation problems. A general closed form for the HCRB is not known given that it requires a complex optimisation over multiple variables. In this work, we develop an analytic approach to solving the HCRB for two parameters. Our analysis reveals the role of the HCRB and its interplay with alternative bounds in estimation theory. For more parameters, we generate a lower bound to the HCRB. Our work greatly reduces the complexity of determining the HCRB to solving a set of linear equations that even numerically permits a quadratic speedup over previous state-of-the-art approaches. We apply our results to compare the performance of different probe states in magnetic field sensing, and characterise the performance of state tomography on the codespace of noisy bosonic error-correcting codes. The sensitivity of state tomography on noisy binomial codestates can be improved by tuning two coding parameters that relate to the number of correctable phase and amplitude damping errors. Our work provides fundamental insights and makes significant progress towards the estimation of multiple incompatible observables. 

2020 IEEE ISIT, 2020 AQIS: Linear programming bounds for quantum amplitude damping codes (15 min)

Authors: Yingkai Ouyang, Ching-Yi Lai 

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.03976 

Abstract: Given that approximate quantum error-correcting (AQEC) codes have a potentially better performance than perfect quantum error correction codes, it is pertinent to quantify their performance. While quantum weight enumerators establish some of the best upper bounds on the minimum distance of quantum error-correcting codes, these bounds do not directly apply to AQEC codes. Herein, we introduce quantum weight enumerators for amplitude damping (AD) errors and work within the framework of approximate quantum error correction. In particular, we introduce an auxiliary exact weight enumerator that is intrinsic to a code space and moreover, we establish a linear relationship between the quantum weight enumerators for AD errors and this auxiliary exact weight enumerator. This allows us to establish a linear program that is infeasible only when AQEC AD codes with corresponding parameters do not exist. To illustrate our linear program, we numerically rule out the existence of three-qubit AD codes that are capable of correcting an arbitrary AD error. 

Quantum simulation. Featured on Quantum Perspective

2020 QCTIP: Compilation by stochastic Hamiltonian sparsification (20 min)

Quantum  4, 235, 2020/2/17 

Authors: Yingkai Ouyang, David R White, Earl T Campbell

Simulation of quantum chemistry is expected to be a principal application of quantum computing. In quantum simulation, a complicated Hamiltonian describing the dynamics of a quantum system is decomposed into its constituent terms, where the effect of each term during time-evolution is individually computed. For many physical systems, the Hamiltonian has a large number of terms, constraining the scalability of established simulation methods. To address this limitation we introduce a new scheme that approximates the actual Hamiltonian with a sparser Hamiltonian containing fewer terms. By stochastically sparsifying weaker Hamiltonian terms, we benefit from a quadratic suppression of errors relative to deterministic approaches.  Tuning the sparsity of our approximate Hamiltonians allows our scheme to interpolate and outperform two recent random compilers. 

Robust quantum metrology with explicit symmetric states (3 min)

https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.02378

Abstract: Quantum metrology is a promising practical use case for quantum technologies, where physical quantities can be measured with unprecedented precision. In lieu of quantum error correction procedures, near term quantum devices are expected to be noisy, and we have to make do with noisy probe states. With carefully chosen symmetric probe states inspired by the quantum error correction capabilities of certain symmetric codes, we prove that quantum metrology can exhibit an advantage over classical metrology, even after the probe states are corrupted by a constant number of erasure and dephasing errors. These probe states prove useful for robust metrology not only in the NISQ regime, but also in the asymptotic setting where they achieve Heisenberg scaling. This brings us closer towards making robust quantum metrology a technological reality.

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How can we make bespoke quantum error correction codes on a quantum bus? 

The Hamiltonian of a quantum bus is simply a sum of independent bosonic oscillators. By designing constant-excitation bosonic quantum codes that can correct loss errors, we can have a robust quantum bus.  See my publication in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.