Abstract
Recently, it was realized that use of the properties of quantum mechanics might speed up certain computations dramatically. Interest has since been growing in the area of quantum computation. One of the main difficulties of quantum computation is that decoherence destroys the information in a superposition of states contained in a quantum computer, thus making long computations impossible. It is shown how to reduce the effects of decoherence for information stored in quantum memory, assuming that the decoherence process acts independently on each of the bits stored in memory. This involves the use of a quantum analog of errorcorrecting codes.
- Received 17 May 1995
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.52.R2493
©1995 American Physical Society
Collections
This article appears in the following collection:
Physical Review A 50th Anniversary Milestones
The collection contains papers that have made important contributions to atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum information by announcing significant discoveries or by initiating new areas of research.
Focus
Landmarks—Correcting Quantum Computer Errors
Published 10 June 2016
In the mid-1990s, researchers proposed methods to preserve the integrity of quantum bits—techniques that may become the key to practical quantum computing on a large scale.
See more in Physics