Physical Society Colloquium

Protecting Quantum Information

Kenneth Brown

Chemistry and Biochemistry
Georgia Institute of Technology

The interaction of a quantum system with its environment leads to decoherence and is the most important challenge facing the construction of a quantum computer. In this talk, I will start by explaining the fundamentals of quantum error correction and the state-of-the-art in quantum error correcting codes. The bulk of the theoretical work in quantum error correction relies on abstract models of both the quantum computer and the noise. Our work has focused on how to optimize quantum error correcting codes for real physical systems. I will present our results on how realistic noise models can change the choice of code and the physical realization of a quantum error detection code with trapped ions.