Thermal lifetime of the centralized repetition code: From quantum annealing to social dynamics

Abstract

There is an extensive body of research probing the potential of adiabatic quantum computation and quantum annealing to solve hard computational problems. This research endeavor is complicated by noise afflicting hardware during the computational process. An error-correcting approach called quantum annealing correction (QAC) was suggested to mitigate this noise. The QAC approach employs a centralized version of the repetition code in which the qubits are configured in a star-graph pattern with one special qubit playing the role of the hub. In this paper, we explore the thermal physics of the centralized repetition code, using a Lindblad equation framework to analyze its lifetime when coupled to a thermal bath. We show that its centralized configuration leads to thermal stability, enabling the robust storage of a logical bit of information, despite the fact that there is only 1 ferromagnetic Ising interaction per qubit like a 1-dimensional Ising chain.