Efficiently tracking errors and outcomes in universal quantum circuits
Abstract
We present a method for efficient simulation of error propagation and decoding in universal fault-tolerant quantum circuits under stochastic Pauli noise, requiring only that the circuit has a high fault distance and that all logical non-Clifford operations are implemented by physical T, CS and CCZ gates. This is achieved using modified Pauli frame-based error tracking in which the frame contains no logical information. Decoding success is identified by verifying that the Pauli frame is still logically trivial after decoding. Using the results of Ref. [1] and the observation that the distribution of non-logical measurement outcomes in the circuit is independent of the logical state, we show that we can accurately sample all detector outcomes. Our approach can also simulate circuits containing adaptive operations conditioned on logical measurements, provided these measurements have a known outcome distribution. This applies to the majority of adaptive operations such as state teleportation and preparation by measurement. Our method only detects decoding failures and so is consistent with complexity-theoretic expectations as it cannot be used to sample from the noiseless outcome distribution of the logical circuit.
Related
- Equivalence of maximal and generic reachability for non-universal Variational Quantum Circuits
- Predictive Structure Behind Rare Outcomes in Random Quantum Circuits
- Universal purification dynamics of monitored Clifford circuits
- Efficiently computable bounds on the energy-constrained quantum reading capacity
- Asymmetric quantum error correction efficiently tackles application-specific noise effects
BibTeX
@misc{scruby2026efficiently,
title = {{Efficiently tracking errors and outcomes in universal quantum circuits}},
author = {Thomas R. Scruby and Julio C. Magdalena de la Fuente},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.05867},
eprint = {2611.05867},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05867},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Efficiently tracking errors and outcomes in universal quantum circuits
AU - Thomas R. Scruby
AU - Julio C. Magdalena de la Fuente
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.05867
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05867
AB - We present a method for efficient simulation of error propagation and decoding in universal fault-tolerant quantum circuits under stochastic Pauli noise, requiring only that the circuit has a high fault distance and that all logical non-Clifford operations are implemented by physical T, CS and CCZ gates. This is achieved using modified Pauli frame-based error tracking in which the frame contains no logical information. Decoding success is identified by verifying that the Pauli frame is still logically trivial after decoding. Using the results of Ref. [1] and the observation that the distribution of non-logical measurement outcomes in the circuit is independent of the logical state, we show that we can accurately sample all detector outcomes. Our approach can also simulate circuits containing adaptive operations conditioned on logical measurements, provided these measurements have a known outcome distribution. This applies to the majority of adaptive operations such as state teleportation and preparation by measurement. Our method only detects decoding failures and so is consistent with complexity-theoretic expectations as it cannot be used to sample from the noiseless outcome distribution of the logical circuit.
ER -