Riverlane, a UK-based quantum company, and Rigetti Computing, a California-based quantum company have announced a partnership to tackle error correction on superconducting quantum computers through syndrome extraction. The challenge of quantum error correction must be solved to create practical quantum computers with higher data precision. Syndrome extraction is a step in that direction.
The development of practical quantum computers has the potential to open up previously unthinkable scientific possibilities and revolutionize several key sectors, including healthcare and security. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which accurately reflect the subatomic world’s real quantum mechanical complexity. Due to their extraordinary sensitivity to external disturbances and inherent instability, qubits are prone to data mistakes. To apply error correction techniques, scientists must measure quantum qubits and correct errors at high speed and volume. Measuring quantum qubits corrupts their quantum state and can introduce more errors in the system. It destroys the information stored in them.
To address this, auxiliary qubits entangled with the data qubits are added to the error correction scheme. Measurements of their status, called syndromes, can be decoded to infer the occurrence of errors and correct the computation. However, syndrome extraction is also done with quantum circuits, which might cause errors. Finding strategies to perform syndrome extraction in a fault-tolerant way and ensuring that potential errors do not destroy the result of the circuit is a complex challenge and a crucial building block toward error-corrected quantum computers. The project can solve this downside by developing new quantum algorithms and implementing them on a top-class superconducting quantum computer.