Müller, Markus and Gutierrez, Mauricio

Date:  Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Time: 13:00
Place: ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg, HIT J 43.1
Host:  Jonathan Home

Topological Quantum Computation:
From Concepts to Experiments

Markus Müller and Mauricio Gutierrez
Department of Physics, Swansea University, UK

Quantum computers hold the promise to allow one to solve problems that cannot be efficiently treated on classical computers. To date, the construction of a fault-tolerant quantum computer remains a fundamental scientific and technological challenge, due the influence of unavoidable noise which affects the fragile quantum states. In our talk, we will review basic concepts of quantum error correction based on topological quantum error-correcting codes, which allow one to protect quantum information during storage and processing. We then discuss progress on experimental quantum error correction, in particular the realisation of a minimal topological color code with trapped ions, which for the first time demonstrated basic quantum computations on an encoded qubit. We finally comment on ongoing theory work on fault-tolerant coupling and control of logical qubits of increasing size and robustness.