Universal quantum computation in the surface code using non-Abelian islands

Abstract

The surface code is currently the primary proposed method for performing quantum error correction. However, despite its many advantages, it has no native method to fault-tolerantly apply non-Clifford gates. Additional techniques are therefore required to achieve universal quantum computation. Here we propose a hybrid scheme which uses small islands of a qudit variant of the surface code to enhance the computational power of the standard surface code. This allows the non-trivial action of the non-Abelian anyons in the former to process information stored in the latter. Specifically, we show that a non-stabilizer state can be prepared, which allows universality to be achieved.