{
  "abstract": "As quantum hardware enters the fault-tolerant regime, algorithms are beginning to be executed on encoded qubits, yet scalable certification of how well they run remains an open problem. Here we introduce magic-free certification, a certification protocol for universal fault-tolerant circuits that consumes no magic, the resource that generally places them beyond efficient classical simulation and is by far the most expensive element of a fault-tolerant computation. The protocol is code- and decoder-agnostic, runs interleaved with the target circuit on the same device, and has a sample complexity that grows linearly with the number of logical qubits and non-Clifford gates while remaining decoupled from the logical error rate itself. Given a predefined error tolerance $p_L^*$, the protocol determines at a chosen confidence level whether the device executes the target circuit at a logical error rate below $p_L^*$. The method relies on trap circuits, copies of the target with every magic state replaced by a stabilizer state, whose outcomes are deterministic and which, being indistinguishable from the target to stochastic Pauli noise, fail at the same rate. We illustrate the protocol in Steane-code simulations of a magic state injection gadget and a quantum Fourier transform.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.16401",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Gebrat Porta-San Miguel"
    },
    {
      "name": "Shahram Panahiyan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Dieter Jaksch"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fhnq2d7vd3p4f.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.16401",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "fhnq2d7vd3p4f",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16401",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "quant-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1702|Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221815587",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.16401",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-12",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fhnq2d7vd3p4f.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:29:06Z",
      "native_id": "2610.16401",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16401"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:quant-ph",
      "subfield": "quantum"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Magic-Free Certification of Logical Error Rates in Universal Fault-Tolerant Circuits",
  "title_text": "Magic-Free Certification of Logical Error Rates in Universal Fault-Tolerant Circuits",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:29:06Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fhnq2d7vd3p4f",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}