Experimental magic state distillation for fault-tolerant quantum computing

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an experimental method using NMR quantum processors to improve the fidelity of magic states through distillation, advancing fault-tolerant quantum computing techniques.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental demonstration of magic state distillation in a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum processor.

Findings

Successfully distilled higher-fidelity magic states from imperfect ones

Achieved improved control over quantum states in NMR systems

Provides a practical step towards fault-tolerant quantum computing

Abstract

Any physical quantum device for quantum information processing is subject to errors in implementation. In order to be reliable and efficient, quantum computers will need error correcting or error avoiding methods. Fault-tolerance achieved through quantum error correction will be an integral part of quantum computers. Of the many methods that have been discovered to implement it, a highly successful approach has been to use transversal gates and specific initial states. A critical element for its implementation is the availability of high-fidelity initial states such as |0> and the Magic State. Here we report an experiment, performed in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum processor, showing sufficient quantum control to improve the fidelity of imperfect initial magic states by distilling five of them into one with higher fidelity.