The biggest obstacle to the successful implementation of useful quantum information and computation devices is noise. The quantum effects — quantum coherence, quantum correlations, etc. — that give quantum systems their edge over classical ones are highly fragile and require intricate care for their preservation. Noise-suppression techniques, including dynamical decoupling, error correction, and fault tolerance, have seen much progress over the years, with many creative ideas contributing to the overall theoretical confidence in our ability to tackle noise. Furthermore, recent experimental advancements are starting to demonstrate the possibility of implementing some of these strategies in real devices.

Our group studies the effects of noise and its mitigation and correction via quantum error correction and fault tolerance techniques. We seek a better understanding of the characteristics of noise relevant in quantum computational systems, and attempt to narrow the gap between theoretical proposals of noise reduction and practical implementations. This includes, among variations on the same theme, the study and development of quantum error correction and fault tolerance schemes, the characterization of noise parameters useful for noise-adapted treatments, development of experimentally feasible proposals for implementing error correction in real devices, etc. We are a theory group, but we work closely with many experimental collaborators to try to bring fault-tolerant quantum computing closer to reality.