dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaA flow-map model for analyzing pseudothresholds in fault-tolerant quantum computing
| Authors | K. M. Svore, A. W. Cross, I. L. Chuang, A. V. Aho |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0508176 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0508176 |
| Journal | Quant. Inf. Comp. Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 193-212 (2006) |
Abstract
An arbitrarily reliable quantum computer can be efficiently constructed from noisy components using a recursive simulation procedure, provided that those components fail with probability less than the fault-tolerance threshold. Recent estimates of the threshold are near some experimentally achieved gate fidelities. However, the landscape of threshold estimates includes pseudothresholds, threshold estimates based on a subset of components and a low level of recursion. In this paper, we observe that pseudothresholds are a generic phenomenon in fault-tolerant computation. We define pseudothresholds and present classical and quantum fault-tolerant circuits exhibiting pseudothresholds that differ by a factor of 4 from fault-tolerance thresholds for typical relationships between component failure rates. We develop tools for visualizing how reliability is influenced by recursive simulation in order to determine the asymptotic threshold. Finally, we conjecture that refinements of these methods may establish upper bounds on the fault-tolerance threshold for particular codes and noise models.
{
"annotation_id": "4eade894-d48e-494c-99e4-48a243410540",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:20.651000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:20.651000Z",
"file_hash": "f4b3e2f6abf99e240b6802f039637d13229d80d1b6762f55a9755a22a99f8f3c",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "An arbitrarily reliable quantum computer can be efficiently constructed from\nnoisy components using a recursive simulation procedure, provided that those\ncomponents fail with probability less than the fault-tolerance threshold.\nRecent estimates of the threshold are near some experimentally achieved gate\nfidelities. However, the landscape of threshold estimates includes\npseudothresholds, threshold estimates based on a subset of components and a low\nlevel of recursion. In this paper, we observe that pseudothresholds are a\ngeneric phenomenon in fault-tolerant computation. We define pseudothresholds\nand present classical and quantum fault-tolerant circuits exhibiting\npseudothresholds that differ by a factor of 4 from fault-tolerance thresholds\nfor typical relationships between component failure rates. We develop tools for\nvisualizing how reliability is influenced by recursive simulation in order to\ndetermine the asymptotic threshold. Finally, we conjecture that refinements of\nthese methods may establish upper bounds on the fault-tolerance threshold for\nparticular codes and noise models.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0508176",
"authors": [
"K. M. Svore",
"A. W. Cross",
"I. L. Chuang",
"A. V. Aho"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"journal_ref": "Quant. Inf. Comp. Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 193-212 (2006)",
"title": "A flow-map model for analyzing pseudothresholds in fault-tolerant quantum computing",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0508176"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "7ac62977-ed59-4d4f-8e31-47176bfeca51",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}