Logical Error Rates for the Surface Code Under a Mixed Coherent and Stochastic Circuit-Level Noise Model Inspired by Trapped Ions

TL;DR

This paper analyzes logical error rates of the surface code under a mixed coherent and stochastic noise model inspired by trapped-ion quantum computers, providing insights into realistic hardware error behavior and thresholds.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed noise model for the surface code on trapped-ion hardware and employs Monte Carlo techniques to estimate logical error rates under realistic conditions.

Findings

Error suppression up to code distance 11 at low dephasing rates.

Logical error rates match stochastic simulations in low dephasing regimes.

Evidence of increased coherent rotations and reduced thresholds at higher dephasing rates.

Abstract

With fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) on the horizon, it is critical to understand sources of logical error in plausible hardware implementations of quantum error-correcting codes (QECC). In this work, we consider logical error rates for the surface code implemented on a hypothetical grid-based trapped-ion quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) architecture. Specifically, we construct logical channels for the idling surface code and examine its diamond error under a mixed coherent and stochastic circuit-level noise model inspired by trapped ions. We include the coherent dephasing noise that is known to accumulate during physical qubit idling and transport in these systems, determining idling and transport durations using the time-resolved output of the trapped-ion surface code compiler (TISCC). To estimate expectation values of logical Pauli observables following hardware circuits containing non-Clifford sources of noise, we utilize a Monte Carlo technique to sample from an underlying quasi-probability distribution of Clifford circuits that we independently simulate in a phase-sensitive fashion. We verify error suppression up to code distance $d=11$ at coherent dephasing rates near and below those of current-generation trapped-ion quantum computers and find that logical error rates align with those of analogous fully stochastic simulations in this regime. Exploring higher dephasing rates at $d=3-5$, we find evidence for growing coherent rotations about all three logical Pauli axes, increased diagonal logical error process matrix elements relative to those of stochastic simulations, and a reduced dephasing rate threshold. Overall, our work paves a way toward realistic hardware emulation of small fault-tolerant quantum processes, e.g., members of a FTQC instruction set.