Chinese scientists have made a significant breakthrough in quantum error correction (QEC) by extending the storage time of quantum information beyond the break-even point for the first time. They did so through the use of superconducting quantum circuits. The error rate of quantum operations is still higher than that of a classical computer; hence, QEC is vital in protecting logical qubits from noise. The research team developed a quantum system with high coherence performance and improved the QEC procedure to achieve positive QEC gain to reach the break-even point. The achievement demonstrates the team’s innovative approach to addressing the challenges of quantum error correction and contributes significantly to the development of quantum computing. The team was led by Yu Dapeng, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and included other scientists such as Sun Luyan and Zheng Shibiao.
Chinese scientists have made a significant breakthrough in the field of quantum error correction (QEC) through the use of superconducting quantum circuits. This achievement was led by Yu Dapeng, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his research team. Their findings were published in the Nature journal.
Despite recent progress in quantum information processing based on superconducting quantum circuit systems, the error rate of quantum operations is still higher than that of a classical computer. Therefore, QEC, which protects logical qubits from noise, is critical.
In conventional QEC schemes, multiple physical qubits are used to encode a logical qubit. This method requires a large number of hardware resources and results in an awkward situation of “more corrections, more errors,” as the number of error channels increases with the number of physical qubits.
The research team developed a quantum system with high coherence performance, implemented an error syndrome detection method with low error rates, and improved the QEC procedure. As a result, they realized QEC of a logical qubit encoded with discrete photon number states in a single bosonic mode.
For the first time, they extended the storage time of quantum information beyond the break-even point through repetitive real-time QEC operations. The break-even point is defined as the lifetime of the best available physical component in this system.
This achievement contributes significantly to the development of quantum computing and demonstrates the team’s innovative approach to addressing the challenges of quantum error correction. Other scientists involved in the study include Sun Luyan, an associate professor at Tsinghua University, and Zheng Shibiao, a professor at Fuzhou University.
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