, we鈥檝e just delivered a crucial result in Quantum Error Correction (QEC), demonstrating key principles of scalable quantum computing developed by Drs Peter Shor, Dorit Aharonov, and Michael Ben-Or. we showed that by using 鈥渃oncatenated codes鈥 noise can be exponentially suppressed 鈥 proving that quantum computing will scale.
When noise is low enough, the results are transformative
Quantum computing is already producing results, but high-profile applications like Shor鈥檚 algorithm鈥攚hich can break RSA encryption鈥攔equire error rates about a billion times lower than what today鈥檚 machines can achieve.
Achieving such low error rates is a holy grail of quantum computing. Peter Shor was the first to hypothesize a way forward, in the form of quantum error correction. Building on his results, Dorit Aharanov and Michael Ben-Or proved that by concatenating quantum error correcting codes, a sufficiently high-quality quantum computer can suppress error rates arbitrarily at the cost of a very modest increase in the required number of qubits. 聽Without that insight, building a truly fault-tolerant quantum computer would be impossible.
Their results, now widely referred to as the 鈥渢hreshold theorem鈥, laid the foundation for realizing fault-tolerant quantum computing. At the time, many doubted that the error rates required for large-scale quantum algorithms could ever be achieved in practice. The threshold theorem made clear that large scale quantum computing is a realistic possibility, giving birth to the robust quantum industry that exists today.
Realizing a legendary vision
Until now, nobody has realized the original vision for the threshold theorem. Last year, in a different context (without concatenated codes). This year, we are proud to report the first experimental realization of that seminal work鈥攄emonstrating fault-tolerant quantum computing using concatenated codes, just as they envisioned.
The benefits of concatenation
The team demonstrated that their family of protocols achieves high error thresholds鈥攎aking them easier to implement鈥攚hile requiring minimal ancilla qubits, meaning lower overall qubit overhead. Remarkably, their protocols are so efficient that fault-tolerant preparation of basis states requires zero ancilla overhead, making the process maximally efficient.
This approach to error correction has the potential to significantly reduce qubit requirements across multiple areas, from state preparation to the broader QEC infrastructure. Additionally, concatenated codes offer greater design flexibility, which makes them especially attractive. Taken together, these advantages suggest that concatenation could provide a faster and more practical path to fault-tolerant quantum computing than popular approaches like the .
We鈥檙e always looking forward
From a broader perspective, this achievement highlights the power of collaboration between industry, academia, and national laboratories. 夜色直播鈥檚 commercial quantum systems are so stable and reliable that our partners were able to carry out this groundbreaking research remotely鈥攐ver the cloud鈥攚ithout needing detailed knowledge of the hardware. While we very much look forward to welcoming them to our labs before long, its notable that they never need to step inside to harness the full capabilities of our machines.
As we make quantum computing more accessible, the rate of innovation will only increase. The era of plug-and-play quantum computing has arrived. Are you ready?