Optimizing quantum error correction through error attribution

Logical error rate is a standard benchmark for quantum error correction, providing an aggregate measure of the overall effect of physical noise. In actual QEC architectures, errors at different circuit locations can have markedly different effects on logical failure even when their probabilities are equal. Here we introduce an error attribution scheme to quantitatively characterize the influence of individual circuit components on the logical error rate and use this refined information to guide targeted intervention and design for improved QEC performance. Our attribution estimator computes all component sensitivities jointly from the same Monte Carlo samples used to estimate the logical error rate. The resulting sensitivity maps identify hotspots where targeted noise reduction can most effectively improve logical performance. We test the scheme in circuit simulations of rotated surface code memories and high-rate lifted product codes: halving the noise strength on about 5\%-7\% of physical components selected by sensitivity reduces logical error rates by approximately 15\%-25\%, roughly twice the mean reduction from the same intervention on an equal number of randomly selected components. By connecting performance benchmarking to targeted optimization, our scheme provides a practical strategy for improving quantum error correction with limited resources.

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Authors

Yuguo Shao; Zi-Wen Liu

Published

Oct 2, 2026

Paper type

preprint

Source

Arxiv