Characterization of how errors accumulate in quantum computers

Abstract

We study the achievements of quantum circuits comprised of several one- and two-qubit gates. Quantum process matrices are determined for the basic one- and two-qubit gate operations and concatenated to yield the process matrix of the combined quantum circuit. Examples are given of process matrices obtained by a Monte Carlo wave function analysis of Rydberg blockade gates in neutral atoms. Our analysis is ideally suited to compare different implementations of the same process. In particular, we show that the three-qubit Toffoli gate facilitated by the simultaneous interaction between all atoms may be accomplished with higher fidelity than a concatenation of one- and two-qubit gates.