P5: Towards Software for Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing
Members: Prof. Dr. Jens Eisert (FU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Markus Müller (RWTH Aachen, FZ Juelich), Prof. Dr. Robert Wille (TUM), Laura Herzog (TUM), Joris Kattemölle (RWTH Aachen, FZ Juelich), Eric Kühnke (FU Berlin), Tom Peham (TUM), Erik Weilandt (TUM)
Building and operating large-scale quantum computers that are capable of running quantum applications that outperform classical supercomputers, or yield practical value, will require fault-tolerant quantum error correction. Since quantum systems are prone to decoherence, active detection and correction of errors during storage and processing of quantum information is essential to guarantee reliable computational output of quantum algorithms. Importantly, this requires on the one hand quantum error correcting codes that enable sufficiently powerful (universal) error-corrected quantum gate operation. On the other hand, implementation of these operations requires efficient quantum circuits which obey fault-tolerant design principles to prevent the uncontrollable proliferation of errors, and efficient fast decoders to classically process error syndrome information. However, most current state-of-the-art quantum circuit compilation and synthesis methods do not take error-correction and fault-tolerance into account at all – giving rise to a fatal gap between required and existing software for the operation of scalable error-corrected quantum computers. As a result, the construction of fault-tolerant quantum circuits is often performed manually (a tedious task which eventually is not scalable) and frequently ignores specific capabilities and constraints of actual physical quantum hardware. In this project, we aim to take first steps towards closing this severe gap by focusing on several concrete problems in the vast field of fault-tolerant circuit compilation. We accept that this challenge can only be reasonably tackled by bringing expertise from quantum information theory, physics, and software design together. We will develop methods that combine novel theoretical techniques, considerations from physical hardware constraints, as well as automated tools for fault-tolerant compilation. By this, we aim to lay the foundation for an envisioned comprehensive, automated circuit compilation framework for scalable fault-tolerant quantum computation.
Publications
Fast native three-qubit gates and fault-tolerant quantum error correction with trapped Rydberg ions
K. Bolsmann, T. L. M. Guedes, W. Li, J. W. P. Wilkinson, I. Lesanovsky, and M. Müller
2026, Quantum Sci. Technol., vol. 11, no. 3, p. 035021, DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/ae6fe4.
Dynamical codes for hardware with noisy readouts
P.-J. H. S. Derks, A. Townsend-Teague, J. Eisert, M. S. Kesselring, O. Higgott, and B. J. Brown
2026, Quantum, vol. 10, p. 2176, DOI: 10.22331/q-2026-07-29-2176.
Standardizing Access to Heterogeneous Quantum Backends: A Case Study on Cloud Service Integration with QDMI
P. Hopf, S. Stern, R. Wille, and L. Burgholzer
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2603.05138.
Complementary 3D color codes for transversal quantum logic
F. Butt, L. Colmenarez, E. Weilandt, T. Peham, R. Wille, and M. Müller
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2607.05107.
Optimal stellar rank approximation of squeezed cat states with photon catalysis
J. K. Nauth, N. Walk, A. M. Datta, K. Busch, J. Eisert, O. Benson, and R. A. Kögler
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2607.02427.
Experimental measurement and a physical interpretation of quantum shadow enumerators
D. Miller, K. Levi, L. Postler, A. Steiner, L. Bittel, G. A. L. White, Y. Tang, E. J. Kuehnke, A. A. Mele, S. Khatri, L. Leone, J. Carrasco, C. D. Marciniak, I. Pogorelov, M. Guevara-Bertsch, R. Freund, R. Blatt, P. Schindler, T. Monz, M. Ringbauer, and J. Eisert
2026, Phys. Rev. Research, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 023318, DOI: 10.1103/8h3b-brg1.
No Universal Purification in Quantum Mechanics
Z. Liu, Z. Du, J. Eisert, Z. Cai, and Z.-W. Liu
2026, arXiv: arXiv:2509.21111. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2509.21111.
Lattice surgery for near-term experimental logical qubit entanglement creation in planar architectures
L. Bödeker, Á. Márton, L. Colmenarez, I. Besedin, A. Wallraff, and M. Müller
2026, arXiv: arXiv:2606.15190. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2606.15190.
Optimizing fault-tolerant cat state preparation
T. Peham, E. Weilandt, and R. Wille
2026, Phys. Rev. A, vol. 113, no. 6, p. 062426, DOI: 10.1103/13v7-n843.
Multiqubit Rydberg Gates for Quantum Error Correction
D. F. Locher, J. Old, K. Brechtelsbauer, J. Holschbach, H. P. Büchler, S. Weber, and M. Müller
2026, PRX Quantum, vol. 7, no. 2, p. 020354, DOI: 10.1103/j8fm-24cf.
Toolchain for shuttling trapped-ion qubits in segmented traps
A. Conta, S. Bogino, F. Köhncke, F. Schmidt-Kaler, and U. G. Poschinger
2026, AVS Quantum Science, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 023801, DOI: 10.1116/5.0323942.
Synthesis and Optimization of Encoding Circuits for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation
T. Peham, M. Steinberg, R. Wille, and S. Heußen
2026, arXiv: arXiv:2605.15266. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2605.15266.
Noise-induced shallow circuits and the absence of barren plateaus
A. A. Mele, A. Angrisani, S. Ghosh, S. Khatri, J. Eisert, D. Stilck França, and Y. Quek
2026, Nat. Phys., vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 751–756, DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03245-z.
Alternating ZX Circuit Extraction for Hardware-Adaptive Compilation
L. Schmid, K. Staudacher, and R. Wille
2026, in 2026 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference (DATE), Verona, Italy: IEEE, pp. 1–7. DOI: 10.23919/DATE69613.2026.11539068.
High-performance cellular automaton decoders for quantum repetition and toric code
D. Winter, T. L. M. Guedes, and M. Müller
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2604.21866.
Synthesis of Fault-tolerant State Preparation Circuits using Steane-type Error Detection
E. Weilandt, T. Peham, and R. Wille
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2601.13313.
Below-threshold error reduction in single photons through photon distillation
F. H. B. Somhorst, J. Saied, N. Kannan, B. Kassenberg, J. Marshall, M. de Goede, H. J. Snijders, P. Stremoukhov, A. Lukianenko, P. Venderbosch, T. B. Demille, A. Roos, N. Walk, J. Eisert, E. G. Rieffel, D. H. Smith, and J. J. Renema
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2601.05947.
Computational regimes in matrix-product-state-based quantum trajectory simulations
A. Sander, S. Cichy, M. Eigel, J. Eisert, M. Fröhlich, T. Peham, and R. Wille
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2606.13779.
The unbearable hardness of deciding about magic
L. Leone, J. Eisert, and S. F. E. Oliviero
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2602.22330.
Nearest-neighbour gates are all you need: High-rate quantum low-density parity-check codes on a planar grid
B. Gu, T. Noszko, V. Steffan, J. N. Eberhardt, J. Roffe, J. Eisert, and S. Koutsioumpas
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2606.19482.
QGPU: Parallel logic in quantum LDPC codes
B. Gu, A. Z. Liu, A. O. Quintavalle, Q. Xu, J. Eisert, and J. Roffe
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2603.05398.
High-threshold decoding of non-Pauli codes for 2D universality
J. C. M. de la Fuente, N. Feldman, J. Eisert, and A. Bauer
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2604.02033.
Unitary fault-tolerant encoding of Pauli states in surface codes
L. Colmenarez, R. Zen, J. Olle, F. Marquardt, and M. Müller
2026, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2601.05113.
Design Automation Tools and Software for Quantum Computing: Inside the Munich Quantum Toolkit
L. Burgholzer and R. Wille
2026. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-06770-8.
Designing fault-tolerant circuits using detector error models
P.-J. H. S. Derks, A. Townsend-Teague, A. G. Burchards, and J. Eisert
2025, Quantum, vol. 9, p. 1905, DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-11-06-1905.
Localized statistics decoding for quantum low-density parity-check codes
T. Hillmann, L. Berent, A. O. Quintavalle, J. Eisert, R. Wille, and J. Roffe
2025, Nat Commun, vol. 16, no. 1, p. 8214, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63214-7.
Automated Synthesis of Fault-Tolerant State Preparation Circuits for Quantum Error-Correction Codes
T. Peham, L. Schmid, L. Berent, M. Müller, and R. Wille
2025, PRX Quantum, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 020330, DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.6.020330.
Deterministic Fault-Tolerant State Preparation for Near-Term Quantum Error Correction: Automatic Synthesis Using Boolean Satisfiability
L. Schmid, T. Peham, L. Berent, M. Müller, and R. Wille
2025, in 2025 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference (DATE), Lyon, France: IEEE, pp. 1–7. DOI: 10.23919/DATE64628.2025.10992896.
XYZ Ruby Code: Making a Case for a Three-Colored Graphical Calculus for Quantum Error Correction in Spacetime
J. C. Magdalena De La Fuente, J. Old, A. Townsend-Teague, M. Rispler, J. Eisert, and M. Müller
2025, PRX Quantum, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 010360, DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.6.010360.
Minimizing the Number of Code Switching Operations in Fault-Tolerant Quantum Circuits
E. Weilandt, T. Peham, and R. Wille
2025, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2512.04170.
Addressable fault-tolerant universal quantum gate operations for high-rate lift-connected surface codes
J. Old, J. Bechar, M. Müller, and S. Heußen
2025, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2511.10191.
Exploiting Movable Logical Qubits for Lattice Surgery Compilation
L. S. Herzog, L. Berent, A. Kubica, and R. Wille
2025, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2512.04169.
Mind the gaps: The fraught road to quantum advantage
J. Eisert and J. Preskill
2025, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2510.19928.
Decoding 3D color codes with boundaries
F. Butt, L. Esser, and M. Müller
2025, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2512.13436.
Scaling roadmap for modular trapped-ion QEC and lattice-surgery teleportation
C. Benito, A. R. Vasquez, J. Home, K. K. Mehta, T. Monz, M. Müller, and A. Bermudez
2025, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2512.20435.
Related Publications
Following is a list of papers that are related to P5. Some of the mentioned papers have been published in previous projects, but are highly related to P5.
Decoding quantum color codes with MaxSAT
L. Berent, L. Burgholzer, P.-J. H. S. Derks, J. Eisert, and R. Wille
2024, Quantum, vol. 8, p. 1506, DOI: 10.22331/q-2024-10-23-1506.
Domain Wall Color Code
K. Tiurev, A. Pesah, P.-J. H. S. Derks, J. Roffe, J. Eisert, M. S. Kesselring, and J.-M. Reiner
2024, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 133, no. 11, p. 110601, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.110601.
Analog Information Decoding of Bosonic Quantum Low-Density Parity-Check Codes
L. Berent, T. Hillmann, J. Eisert, R. Wille, and J. Roffe
2024, PRX Quantum, vol. 5, no. 2, p. 020349, DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.020349.
Fault-Tolerant Code-Switching Protocols for Near-Term Quantum Processors
F. Butt, S. Heußen, M. Rispler, and M. Müller
2024, PRX Quantum, vol. 5, no. 2, p. 020345, DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.020345.
Demonstration of fault-tolerant universal quantum gate operations
L. Postler, S. Heuβen, I. Pogorelov, M. Rispler, T. Feldker, M. Meth, C. D. Marciniak, R. Stricker, M. Ringbauer, R. Blatt, P. Schindler, M. Müller, and T. Monz
2022, Nature, vol. 605, no. 7911, pp. 675–680, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04721-1.
| Name | Title | Group | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eisert, Jens | Prof. Dr. | FU Berlin, Group Leader 'Quantum many-body theory, quantum information theory, and quantum optics', Helmholtz Center Berlin | jense ∂does-not-exist.zedat fu-berlin de |
| Müller, Markus | Prof. Dr. | FZ Juelich, Peter Grünberg Institut, Group Leader 'Theoretical Quantum Technology', RWTH Aachen, Group Leader 'Theoretical Quantum Technology' | markus mueller ∂does-not-exist.fz-juelich de |
| Wille, Robert | Prof. Dr. | TU Munich, School of Computation, Information and Technology, Group Leader 'Design Automation' | robert wille ∂does-not-exist.tum de |