Hybrid quantum error correction in qubit architectures

Noise and errors are inevitable parts of any practical implementation of a quantum computer. As a result, large-scale quantum computation will require ways to detect and correct errors in quantum information. Here we present such a quantum error-correcting scheme for correcting the dominant phase and decay errors in superconducting qubit architectures using a hybrid approach combining autonomous correction based on engineered dissipation with traditional measurement-based quantum error correction. Using numerical simulations with realistic device parameters for superconducting circuits, we show that this scheme can achieve a five- to tenfold increase in storage time while using only six qubits for the encoding and two ancillary qubits for the operation of the autonomous correction, providing a potentially large reduction of qubit overhead compared to typical measurement-based error-correction schemes. Furthermore, the scheme relies on standard interactions and qubit driving available in most major quantum computing platforms, making it implementable in a wide range of architectures.