Error rate reduction of single-qubit gates via noise-aware decomposition into native gates

TL;DR

This paper presents a noise-aware decomposition method for single-qubit gates that leverages initial state knowledge and decoherence parameters to reduce error rates in NISQ devices, demonstrated on IBM quantum processors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel protocol that uses noise and state information to optimize gate decomposition, reducing errors in quantum computations.

Findings

Achieved 38% error rate reduction on ibmq_rome

Protocol maintains or improves fidelity if noise parameters are stable

Reduces state preparation errors and enhances circuit fidelity

Abstract

In the current era of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) technology, the practical use of quantum computers remains inhibited by our inability to aptly decouple qubits from their environment to mitigate computational errors. In this work, we introduce an approach by which knowledge of a qubit's initial quantum state and the standard parameters describing its decoherence can be leveraged to mitigate the noise present during the execution of a single-qubit gate. We benchmark our protocol using cloud-based access to IBM quantum processors. On ibmq_rome, we demonstrate a reduction of the single-qubit error rate by $38\%$, from $1.6 \times 10 ^{-3}$ to $1.0 \times 10 ^{-3}$, provided the initial state of the input qubit is known. On ibmq_bogota, we prove that our protocol will never decrease gate fidelity, provided the system's $T_1$ and $T_2$ times have not drifted above $100$ times their assumed values. The protocol can be used to reduce quantum state preparation errors, as well as to improve the fidelity of quantum circuits for which some knowledge of the qubits' intermediate states can be inferred. This work presents a pathway to using information about noise levels and quantum state distributions to significantly reduce error rates associated with quantum gates via optimized decomposition into native gates.