University of Sydney Physicist Develops Error-Correcting Code for Quantum Computers

(SciTechDaily) Dr. Benjamin Brown from the School of Physics at the University of Physics has developed a type of error-correcting code for quantum computers that will free up more hardware to do useful calculations. It also provides an approach that will allow companies like Google and IBM to design better quantum microchips.
He did this by applying already known code that operates in three-dimensions to a two-dimensional framework.
“The trick is to use time as the third dimension. I’m using two physical dimensions and adding in time as the third dimension,” Dr. Brown said. “This opens up possibilities we didn’t have before.”
Reducing errors in quantum computing is one of the biggest challenges facing scientists before they can build machines large enough to solve useful problems. “Because quantum information is so fragile, it produces a lot of errors,” said Dr. Brown, a research fellow at the University of Sydney Nano Institute.
“My approach to suppressing errors is to use a code that operates across the surface of the architecture in two dimensions. The effect of this is to free up a lot of the hardware from error correction and allow it to get on with the useful stuff,” Dr. Brown said.
Dr. Naomi Nickerson is Director of Quantum Architecture at PsiQuantum in Palo Alto, California, and unconnected to the research. She said: “This result establishes a new option for performing fault-tolerant gates, which has the potential to greatly reduce overhead and bring practical quantum computing closer.”