The development of fault-tolerant quantum computers (FTQCs) is receiving increasing attention within the quantum computing community. Like conventional digital computers, FTQCs, which utilize error correction and millions of physical qubits, have the potential to address some of humanity’s grand challenges. However, accurate estimates of the tangible scale of future FTQCs, based on transparent assumptions, are uncommon. How many physical qubits are necessary to solve a practical problem intractable for classical hardware? What costs arise from distributing quantum computation across multiple machines? This paper presents an architectural model of a potential FTQC based on superconducting qubits, divided into discrete modules and interconnected via coherent links. We employ a resource-estimation framework and software tool to assess the physical resources required to execute specific quantum algorithms compiled into their graph-state form and arranged onto a modular superconducting hardware architecture. Our tool can predict the size, power consumption, and execution time of these algorithms based on explicit assumptions about the physical layout, thermal load, and modular connectivity of the system. We assess the resources needed for quantum computation examples that serve as building blocks of proposed applications, quantifying the architectural bottlenecks and trade-offs that remain to be addressed to deliver utility.

Motivated by recent proposals for quantum proof of work protocols, we investigate approaches for simulating linear optical interferometers using digital quantum circuits. We focus on a second quantization approach, where the quantum computer's registers represent optical modes. We can then use standard quantum optical techniques to decompose the unitary matrix describing an interferometer into an array of 2×2 unitaries, which are subsequently synthesized into quantum circuits and stitched together to complete the circuit. For an m-mode interferometer with n identical photons, this method requires approximately O(mlog(n)) qubits and a circuit depth of O(mn^{4}log_{2}(n)polylog(n^{4}/ε)). We present a software package aquinas (a quantum interferometer assembler) that uses this approach to generate such quantum circuits. For reference, an arbitrary five-mode interferometer with two identical photons is compiled to a ten-qubit quantum circuit with a depth of 1972.

Unlike other quantum hardware, photonic quantum architectures can produce millions of qubits from a single device. However, controlling photonic qubits remains challenging, even at small scales, due to their weak interactions, making non-deterministic gates in linear optics unavoidable. Nevertheless, a single photon can readily spread over multiple modes and create entanglement within the multiple modes deterministically. Rudolph's concept of third quantization leverages this feature by evolving multiple single-photons into multiple modes, distributing them uniformly and randomly to different parties, and creating multipartite entanglement without interactions between photons or non-deterministic gates. This method requires only classical communication and deterministic entanglement within multi-mode single-photon states and enables universal quantum computing. The multipartite entanglement generated within the third quantization framework is nearly deterministic, where ``deterministic'' is achieved in the asymptotic limit of a large system size. In this work, we propose a near-term experiment using antimony donor in a silicon chip to realize third quantization. Utilizing the eight energy levels of antimony, one can generate two eight-mode single-photon states independently and distribute them to parties. This enables a random multipartite Bell-state experiment, achieving a Bell state with an upper-bound efficiency of 87.5% among 56 random pairs without non-deterministic entangling gates. This approach opens alternative pathways for silicon-based photonic quantum computing.

Practical quantum computers will require resource-efficient error-correcting codes. The rotated surface code uses approximately half the number of qubits as the unrotated surface code to create a logical qubit with the same error-correcting distance. However, instead of distance, a more useful qubit-saving metric would be based on logical error rates. In this work we find the well-below-threshold scaling of logical to physical error rates under circuit-level noise for both codes at high odd and even distances and then compare the number of qubits used by each code to achieve equal logical error rates. We perform Monte Carlo sampling of memory experiment circuits with all valid CNOT orders using the stabilizer simulator Stim and the uncorrelated minimum-weight perfect matching decoder PyMatching 2. We find that the rotated code uses about 74% the number of qubits used by the unrotated code to achieve a logical error rate of p_{L}=10^{−12} at the operational physical error rate of p=10^{−3}. The ratio remains ≈75% for p values within a factor of two of p=10^{−3} for all useful p_{L}. Our work finds the low-p_{L} scaling of the surface code and clarifies the qubit savings provided by the rotated surface code, providing numerical justification for its use in future implementations of the surface code.

Significant work has been done to develop quantum satellites, which generate entangled pairs in space and distribute them to ground stations separated some distance away. The reverse “uplink” case, where pairs are generated on the ground and swapped on the satellite using an optical Bell measurement, has not been seriously considered due to a prevailing assumption that it is practically infeasible. In this paper, we illustrate the feasibility of performing Discrete Variable photonic Bell measurements in space by conducting a detailed numerical analysis to estimate the channel efficiency and attainable pair fidelity for various satellite-station configurations. Our model accounts for a wide range of physical effects such as atmospheric effects, stray photons, and mode mismatch. Our findings show promise toward the feasibility of photonic Bell measurements in space, which motivates future research toward large-scale satellite-based uplink entanglement distribution.

The algorithm-specific graph and circuit etching are two strategies for compiling a graph state to implement quantum computation. Benchmark testing exposed limitations to the proto-compiler, Jabalizer giving rise to Etch (https://github.com/QSI-BAQS/Etch), an open-source, circuit-etching tool for transpiling a quantum circuit to a graph state. The viability of circuit etching is evaluated, both as a resource allocation strategy for distilling magic states and as an alternative to the algorithm-specific graph strategy as realised in Jabalizer. Experiments using Etch to transpile IQP circuits to an equivalent graph state resulted in higher ratios of Pauli qubits to non-Pauli qubit than required for efficient magic state distillation. Future research directions for the algorithm-specific graph and circuit-etching strategies are proposed.

Utility-scale quantum programs contain operations on the order of >10^15 which must be prepared and piped from a classical co-processor to the control unit of the quantum device. The latency of this process significantly increases with the size of the program: existing high-level classical representations of quantum programs are typically memory intensive and do not naïvely efficiently scale to the degree required to execute utility-scale programs in real-time. To combat this limitation, we propose the utilization of high-level quantum circuit caches and compressors. The first save on the time associated with repetitive tasks and sub-circuits, and the latter are useful for representing the programs/circuits in memory-efficient formats. We present numerical evidence that caches and compressors can offer five orders of magnitude lower latencies during the automatic transpilation of extremely large quantum circuits.

Type-II fusion is a probabilistic entangling measurement that is essential to measurement-based linear optical quantum computing and can be used for quantum teleportation more broadly. However, it remains under-explored for high-dimensional qudits. Our main result gives a Type-II fusion protocol with proven success probability approximately 2/d^2 for qudits of arbitrary dimension d. This generalizes a previous method which only applied to even-dimensional qudits. We believe this protocol to be the most efficient known protocol for Type-II fusion, with the d=5 case beating the previous record by a factor of approximately 723. We discuss the construction of the required (d-2)-qudit ancillary state using a silicon spin qudit ancilla coupled to a microwave cavity through time-bin multiplexing. We then introduce a general framework of extra-dimensional corrections, a natural technique in linear optics that can be used to non-deterministically correct non-maximally-entangled projections into Bell measurements. We use this method to analyze and improve several different circuits for high-dimensional Type-II fusion and compare their benefits and drawbacks.

We present estimates for the number of ions needed to implement fault-tolerant lattice surgery between spatially separated trapped-ion surface codes. Additionally, we determine attainable lattice surgery rates given a number of dedicated “communication ions” per logical qubit. Because our analysis depends heavily on the rate that syndrome extraction cycles take place, we survey the state-of the art and propose three possible cycle times between 10 and 1000µs that we could reasonably see realized provided certain technological milestones are met. Consequently, our numerical results indicate that hundreds of resource ions will be needed for lattice surgery in the slowest case, while close to a hundred thousand will be needed in the fastest case. The main factor contributing to these prohibitive estimates is the limited rate that ions can be coupled across traps. Our results indicate an urgent need for optical coupling to improve by one or more orders of magnitude for trapped-ion quantum computers to scale.

Quantum entanglement is a vital phenomenon required for realizing secure quantum networks, so much that distributed entanglement can be reimagined as a commodity which can be traded to enable and maintain these networks. We explore the idea of commercializing entanglement-based cryptography and future applications where advanced quantum memory systems support less advanced users. We design a sneakernet-based quantum communication network with a central party connecting the users through delayed choice quantum entanglement swapping, using quantum low-density-parity-check (qLDPC) encoded qubits on neutral atoms. Our analysis compares this approach with traditional surface codes, demonstrating that qLDPC codes offer superior scaling in terms of resource efficiency and logical qubit count. We show that with near-term attainable patch sizes, one can attain medium- to high-fidelity correlations, motivating further research towards the long-term realization of large-scale commercial quantum networks.

This paper is a general introduction to the tūQ toolchain (https://github.com/QSI-BAQS/tuQ) and a discussion of its two main workflows, 'reduce and optimise' and 'draft and compile'. The tūQ toolchain was designed to advance research in cluster-state computing and the workflows are presented as suggestions for how a researcher might use the tool. The two modes of tūQ are Modeller and Simulator. Simulator mode has a tile-based syntax for drafting cluster-state algorithms. Modeller enables the user to reduce a lattice through preset measurement functions and optimise an algorithm by minimising the count of qubits or the count of controlled-Z ('CZ') interactions. In addition, tūQ makes it possible to compile an algorithm to OpenQASM 3.0.

In this article, we present a generic framework for the scheduling of qubits in measurement-based quantum computing and error-corrected circuits that are implemented through Clifford circuits. The framework is based on the commutation of Pauli operators through quantum circuits, which is called Pauli tracking. We complement the framework by providing an independent software library to perform the Pauli tracking, specifically in the context of measurement-based quantum computing. Tracking Pauli operators allows one to reduce the number of Pauli gates that must be executed on quantum hardware and to capture the constraints on the order of measurements. The scheduling problem is numerically investigated on small scale.

Following the emergence of quantum computing, the subsequent quantum revolution will be that of interconnecting individual quantum computers at global level. In the same way that classical computers only realised their full potential with the emergence of the internet, a fully realised quantum internet is the net stage of evolution for quantum computation. This work examines in detail how the quantum internet would evolve in practice, focusing not only on the technology itself but also on the implications it will have economically and politically. We present both original ideas, as well as an extensive review of relevant and related background material. This work begins with a description of classical networks before introducing the key concepts behind quantum networks, such as quantum internet protocols, quantum cryptography, and cloud quantum computing. The work is divided into technical sections (requiring only a basic knowledge of the notation of quantum mechanics), for those interested in mathematical details, as well as non-technical sections for those seeking a more general understanding. We target this work very broadly at quantum and classical computer scientists, classical computer systems, software and network engineers, physicists, economists, artists, musicians, and those just generally curious about the future of quantum technologies and what they might bring to humanity.

A key requirement for an effective Quantum Error Correction (QEC) scheme is that the physical qubits have error rates below a certain threshold. The value of this threshold depends on the details of the specific QEC scheme, and its hardware-level implementation. This is especially important with parity-check circuits, which are the fundamental building blocks of QEC codes. The standard way of constructing the parity check circuit is using a universal set of gates, namely sequential CNOT gates, single-qubit rotations and measurements. We exploit the insight that a QEC code does not require universal logic gates, but can be simplified to perform the sole task of error detection and correction. By building gates that are fundamental to QEC, we can boost the threshold and ease the experimental demands on the physical hardware. We present a rigorous formalism for constructing and verifying the error behavior of these gates, linking the physical measurement of a process matrix to the abstract error models commonly used in QEC analysis. This allows experimentalists to directly map the gates used in their systems to thresholds derived for a broad-class of QEC codes. We give an example of these new constructions using the model system of two nuclear spins, coupled to an electron spin, showing the potential benefits of redesigning fundamental gate sets using QEC primitives, rather than traditional gate sets reliant on simple single and two-qubit gates.

We present a quantum circuit compiler that prepares an algorithm-specific graph state from quantum circuits described in high level languages, such as Cirq and Q#. The computation can then be implemented using a series of non-Pauli measurements on this graph state. By compiling the graph state directly instead of starting with a standard lattice cluster state and preparing it over the course of the computation, we are able to better understand the resource costs involved and eliminate wasteful Pauli measurements on the actual quantum device. Access to this algorithm-specific graph state also allows for optimisation over locally equivalent graph states to implement the same quantum circuit. The compiler presented here finds ready application in measurement based quantum computing, NISQ devices and logical level compilation for fault tolerant implementations.

Despite recent advances in quantum repeater networks, entanglement distribution on a continental scale remains prohibitively difficult and resource intensive. Using satellites to distribute maximally entangled photons (Bell pairs) between distant stations is an intriguing alternative. Quantum satellite networks are known to be viable for quantum key distribution, but the question of if such a network is feasible for fault tolerant distributed quantum computation (FTDQC) has so far been unaddressed. In this paper we determine a closed form expression for the rate at which logical Bell pairs can be produced between distant fault-tolerant qubits using a satellite network to supply imperfect physical Bell pairs. With generous parameter assumptions, our results show that FTDQC with satellite networks over statewide distances (500-999 km) is possible for a collective clock rate on the order of 1 MHz while continental (1000-4999 km) and transcontinental (5000+ km) distances run on the order of 10 kHz and 100 Hz respectively.

Fault-tolerant, error-corrected quantum computation is commonly acknowledged to be crucial to the realization of large-scale quantum algorithms that could lead to extremely impactful scientific or commercial results. Achieving a universal set of quantum gate operations in a fault-tolerant, error-corrected framework suffers from a conservation of unpleasantness. In general, no matter what error-correction technique is employed, there is always one element of a universal gate set that carries a significant resource overhead-either in physical qubits, computational time, or both. Specifically, this is due to the application of non-Clifford gates. A common method for realizing these gates for stabilizer codes such as the surface code is a combination of three protocols: state injection, distillation, and gate teleportation. These protocols contribute to the resource overhead compared with logical operations such as a CNOT gate and contribute to the qubit resources for any error-corrected quantum algorithm. In this paper, we introduce a very simple protocol to potentially reduce this overhead for non-Clifford gates: transversal injection. Transversal injection modifies the initial physical states of all data qubits in a stabilizer code before standard encoding and results in the direct preparation of a large class of single qubit states, including resource states for non-Clifford logic gates. Preliminary results hint at high-quality fidelities at larger distances and motivate further research on this technique.

The development of quantum computing systems for large scale algorithms requires targeted error rates unachievable through hardware advancements alone. Quantum Error Correction (QEC) allows us to use systems with a large number of physical qubits to form a fault tolerant system with a lower number of logical qubits and a favourable logical error rate. While some gates can be easily implemented in a QEC code transversally, there is no code that has a universal set of transversal gates. Transversal Injection is a new method of preparing logical non-Pauli eigenstates that can be used as resource states for quantum computation. State preparation can be done directly in the surface code and has the potential to prepare higher fidelity injected states. Compared to other techniques, transversal injection can reduce the resource burden for state distillation protocols. In this paper, the authors present the theory behind this new technique as well as an algorithm for calculating the resulting logical states prepared in the surface code.

Graph states are useful computational resources in quantum computing, particularly in measurement-based quantum computing models. However, compiling arbitrary graph states into executable form for fault-tolerant surface code execution and accurately estimating the compilation cost and the run-time resource cost remains an open problem. We introduce the Substrate Scheduler, a compiler module designed for fault-tolerant graph state compilation. The Substrate Scheduler aims to minimize the space-time volume cost of generating graph states. We show that Substrate Scheduler can efficiently compile graph states with thousands of vertices for "A Game of Surface Codes"-style patch-based surface code systems. Our results show that our module generates graph states with the lowest execution time complexity to date, achieving graph state generation time complexity that is at or below linear in the number of vertices and demonstrating specific types of graphs to have constant generation time complexity. Moreover, it provides a solid foundation for developing compilers that can handle a larger number of vertices, up to the millions or billions needed to accommodate a wide range of post-classical quantum computing applications.

The reliable, deterministic production of trustworthy high-quality single photons is a critical component of discrete variable, optical quantum technology. For single-photon based fully error-corrected quantum computing systems, it is estimated that photon sources will be required to produce a reliable stream of photons at rates exceeding 1 GHz [1]. Photon multiplexing, where low probability sources are combined with switching networks to route successful production events to an output, are a potential solution but requires extremely fast single photon switching with ultra-low loss rates. In this paper we examine the specific properties of the switching elements and present a new design that exploits the general one-way properties of common switching elements such as thermal pads. By introducing multiple switches to a basic, temporal multiplexing device, we are able to use slow switching elements in a multiplexed source being pumped at much faster rates. We model this design under multiple error channels and show that anticipated performance is now limited by the intrinsic loss rate of the optical waveguides within integrated photonic chipsets.