Error Mitigation From a Single Unmodified Error-Corrected Circuit
Abstract
Recent work has shown that syndrome information obtained during error-corrected quantum computation can be utilized for logical error mitigation (LEM), yielding exponential reductions in runtime overhead compared to "external'' LEM methods, which do not make use of syndrome data. However, these syndrome-aware LEM methods (SALEM) generally require adaptive circuit operations based on real-time processing of syndromes. Here, we introduce syndrome-based offline logical error mitigation (SOLEM), a framework that utilizes syndrome data entirely in post-processing, without any modification to the given error-corrected circuit. In this sense, SOLEM is "built into'' error-corrected circuits, and is in fact simpler to implement than external LEM protocols. The basic idea of SOLEM is to use naturally occurring syndrome-conditioned logical error channels in place of deliberate circuit modifications. We develop unbiased and heuristic estimators within this framework, including offline logical versions of probabilistic error cancellation (PEC) and zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE), as well as a global-regression estimator. SOLEM's fully offline nature leads to three significant advantages. First, SOLEM can post-process syndromes with a more powerful decoder than the one used in real time. Second, multiple estimators can be constructed from the same measured data and optimized using empirical statistical errors and related performance metrics. Third, logical error characterization is needed only in post-processing, allowing characterization data to be collected during circuit execution and reducing sensitivity to hardware drift. Remarkably, SOLEM estimators can achieve these advantages while attaining a runtime overhead which is exponentially lower than that of external LEM and is comparable to that of corresponding SALEM estimators.
Related
- Encrypted cloning of qubits is able to serve as a quantum primitive, already on non-error-corrected quantum hardware
- Fault-tolerant execution of error-corrected quantum algorithms
- Quantum error mitigation simulates general non-Hermitian dynamics
- Quantum Error-Corrected Memories Keep Proper Time
- Error-corrected function estimation advantage in multiparameter Hamiltonians
BibTeX
@misc{shutman2026error,
title = {{Error Mitigation From a Single Unmodified Error-Corrected Circuit}},
author = {Maor Shutman and Dorit Aharonov and Itai Arad and Yosi Atia and Eyal Bairey and Zvika Brakerski and Barak A. Katzir and Netanel H. Lindner and Omri Golan and Ilya Gurwich},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.06792},
eprint = {2610.06792},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06792},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Error Mitigation From a Single Unmodified Error-Corrected Circuit
AU - Maor Shutman
AU - Dorit Aharonov
AU - Itai Arad
AU - Yosi Atia
AU - Eyal Bairey
AU - Zvika Brakerski
AU - Barak A. Katzir
AU - Netanel H. Lindner
AU - Omri Golan
AU - Ilya Gurwich
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.06792
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06792
AB - Recent work has shown that syndrome information obtained during error-corrected quantum computation can be utilized for logical error mitigation (LEM), yielding exponential reductions in runtime overhead compared to "external'' LEM methods, which do not make use of syndrome data. However, these syndrome-aware LEM methods (SALEM) generally require adaptive circuit operations based on real-time processing of syndromes. Here, we introduce syndrome-based offline logical error mitigation (SOLEM), a framework that utilizes syndrome data entirely in post-processing, without any modification to the given error-corrected circuit. In this sense, SOLEM is "built into'' error-corrected circuits, and is in fact simpler to implement than external LEM protocols. The basic idea of SOLEM is to use naturally occurring syndrome-conditioned logical error channels in place of deliberate circuit modifications. We develop unbiased and heuristic estimators within this framework, including offline logical versions of probabilistic error cancellation (PEC) and zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE), as well as a global-regression estimator. SOLEM's fully offline nature leads to three significant advantages. First, SOLEM can post-process syndromes with a more powerful decoder than the one used in real time. Second, multiple estimators can be constructed from the same measured data and optimized using empirical statistical errors and related performance metrics. Third, logical error characterization is needed only in post-processing, allowing characterization data to be collected during circuit execution and reducing sensitivity to hardware drift. Remarkably, SOLEM estimators can achieve these advantages while attaining a runtime overhead which is exponentially lower than that of external LEM and is comparable to that of corresponding SALEM estimators.
ER -