Stable quantum memories with limited measurement

TL;DR

This paper shows that a 1D stabilizer code can maintain quantum information at finite temperatures using limited syndrome measurements, with exponentially long lifetimes below a certain temperature threshold, and discusses generalizations to higher dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces a measurement-efficient error correction protocol for 1D stabilizer codes that achieves long quantum memory lifetimes at finite temperatures.

Findings

Existence of a finite temperature threshold for 1D stabilizer codes.

Encoded states have exponentially long lifetimes below the threshold.

Potential generalization to higher-dimensional codes like the toric code.

Abstract

We demonstrate the existence of a finite temperature threshold for a 1D stabilizer code under an error correcting protocol that requires only a fraction of the syndrome measurements. Below the threshold temperature, encoded states have exponentially long lifetimes, as demonstrated by numerical and analytical arguments. We sketch how this algorithm generalizes to higher dimensional stabilizer codes with string-like excitations, like the toric code.