Amazon Proposes Novel Approach to Quantum Computing Error Correction

(SiliconAngle) Researchers at the Amazon Web Services Inc.-led AWS Center for Quantum Computing have published what they say is their first architecture paper today, describing a theoretical blueprint for a fault-tolerant quantum computer.
The paper proposes an entirely new and apparently workable approach to the problem of “quantum error correction,” which is a key challenge that must be overcome in order to devise a working quantum computer that can live up to its full potential.
Amazon’s researchers have suggested a new approach to quantum error correction that, in a nutshell, works by redundantly encoding information into a protected qubit using many other physical qubits. The researchers say an error-corrected quantum computer will be able to execute quantum algorithms despite the “noisy hardware” that remains prone to errors.
Amazon’s researchers basically propose using an architecture that encodes information in “cat qubits,” wherein the qubits are kept in quantum superpositions of coherent states with opposite phases.
The hardware would require a system of acoustic resonators that are coupled with the superconducting circuits in a two-dimensional layout, the researchers said.
Amazon’s researchers have not built this system yet, but they said it has been successfully simulated on the AWS cloud. However, it remains a work in progress for now. “There are several interesting directions for future work to improve on our current proposal,” the researchers said.