Fault-tolerant, Universal Adiabatic Quantum Computation
Ari Mizel · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2014
Quantum computation has revolutionary potential for speeding computational tasks such as factoring and simulating quantum systems, but the task of constructing a quantum computer is daunting. Adiabatic quantum computation and other ``hands-off approaches relieve the need for rapid, precise pulsing to control the system, inspiring at least one high-profile effort to realize a hands-off quantum computing device. But is hands-off incompatible with fault-tolerant? Concerted effort and many innovative ideas have not resolved this question but have instead deepened it, linking it to fundamental problems in quantum complexity theory. Here we present a hands-off approach that is provably (a) capable of scalable universal quantum computation in a non-degenerate ground state and (b) fault-tolerant against an analogue of the usual local stochastic fault model. A satisfying physical and numerical argument indicates that (c) it is also fault-tolerant against thermal excitation below a threshold temperature independent of the computation size.