Combining Error Mitigation and Correction Techniques Paves the Way for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

Researchers at IBM are making progress towards fault-tolerant quantum computing by combining error mitigation and correction techniques.

The team has developed hybrid error-correcting methods that can improve reliability while reducing resources required for computations. These techniques have shown a 63x reduction in sampling overhead compared to error mitigation alone.

Another approach, conditional methods, enables partially fault-tolerant architectures to perform universal quantum computation while avoiding significant resource overheads.

Hierarchical codes provide a route to reduced error rates without increasing complexity in the chip. This allows for more flexible and scalable designs.