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Robust solutions to hard problems

Nature volume 391, pages 631–632 (1998)Cite this article

Twenty-first century computers could achieve astonishing speed by exploiting the principles of quantum mechanics. New techniques of quantum error correction will be essential to prevent those machines from crashing.

According to the classical theory of computation, it is possible for a computing system to be fault tolerant — it can be designed so that it is sure to get the right answer even though its components occasionally fail. Now Emanuel Knill, Raymond Laflamme and Wojciech Zurek of Los Alamos National Laboratory have reported a similar result for quantum computers1. They show that a properly designed quantum computer can achieve arbitrarily high reliability, provided that its components operate within a specified tolerance. Along with other recent developments in quantum error correction, this work has bolstered the hope that large-scale quantum computers will someday be realized.

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Figure 1: A simple quantum error correcting code.

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  1. John Preskill is in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    John Preskill

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  1. John Preskill
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Preskill, J. Robust solutions to hard problems. Nature 391, 631–632 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35484

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