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What is the surface code?
The surface code arranges qubits on a two-dimensional grid and uses only operations between neighbouring qubits; it is the most widely tested quantum error-correcting code today.
In the surface code, data qubits and measurement qubits are laid out like a chessboard. The measurement qubits repeatedly measure the parity of neighbouring data qubits, and a decoder infers from these measurements where errors occurred.
As the code distance (d) grows, the code can correct more errors but needs more qubits. Because it suits superconducting hardware well, it is at the centre of Google’s and IBM’s error-correction experiments.
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- Quantum error correction · Quantum error correction spreads one logical qubit over many physical qubits so that errors caused by noise can be found and fixed without measuring the qubits directly.
- Decoherence · Decoherence is a qubit gradually losing its superposition and entanglement, its quantum properties, through unwanted interaction with its environment.