Lattice surgery
In quantum computing, lattice surgery[1] is a method for executing logical gates between two error-corrected qubits. Lattice surgery introduces the concepts of "merging" and "splitting" logical qubits. Managed properly, these operations can execute a logical CNOT gate between two logical qubits. Originally defined for surface code quantum error correction, the technique was later extended to other codes such as quantum low density parity check (QLDPC) codes[2].
Current approaches to fault-tolerant quantum computing rely on surface codes which encode a single logical qubit in many physical qubits.[3] However, every surface code is only designed to encode a single qubit.[4] In order to actually do computation, these individual qubits must be able to talk to one another, and that is the purpose of lattice surgery.
The successful demonstration of lattice surgery is seen by many to be a necessary step to achieving large-scale quantum computers.
Background
[edit]Quantum error correction
[edit]The dominant method for quantum error correction are topological codes such as color codes and surface codes. These codes use many physical qubits to implement a single logical qubit. Such arrays of physical qubits are the lattices of lattice surgery. However, such codes only encode a single qubit.
Demonstrations
[edit]Lattice surgery has been experimentally demonstrated in trapped ions,[5] superconducting qubits,[6] and neutral atoms.[7]
References
[edit]- ↑ Horsman, Dominic; Fowler, Austin G; Devitt, Simon; Van Meter, Rodney (2012-12-01). "Surface code quantum computing by lattice surgery". New Journal of Physics. 14 (12) 123011. arXiv:1111.4022. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/12/123011. ISSN 1367-2630.
- ↑ Breuckmann, Nikolas P; Vuillot, Christophe; Campbell, Earl; Krishna, Anirudh; Terhal, Barbara M (2017-08-02). "Hyperbolic and semi-hyperbolic surface codes for quantum storage". Quantum Science and Technology. 2: 035007. arXiv:1703.00590. doi:10.1088/2058-9565/aa7d3b. ISSN 2058-9565.
- ↑ Kottmann, Korbinian (2025-12-17). "Introducing lattice surgery". PennyLane Demos.
- ↑ Chatterjee, Avimita; Das, Subrata; Ghosh, Swaroop (2024-04-19). "Lattice Surgery for Dummies". arXiv.org. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
- ↑ Erhard, Alexander; Poulsen Nautrup, Hendrik; Meth, Michael; Postler, Lukas; Stricker, Roman; Stadler, Martin; Negnevitsky, Vlad; Ringbauer, Martin; Schindler, Philipp; Briegel, Hans J.; Blatt, Rainer; Friis, Nicolai; Monz, Thomas (January 2021). "Entangling logical qubits with lattice surgery". Nature. 589 (7841): 220–224. arXiv:2006.03071. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-03079-6. ISSN 1476-4687.
- ↑ Besedin, Ilya; Kerschbaum, Michael; Knoll, Jonathan; Hesner, Ian; Bödeker, Lukas; Colmenarez, Luis; Hofele, Luca; Lacroix, Nathan; Hellings, Christoph; Swiadek, François; Flasby, Alexander; Bahrami Panah, Mohsen; Colao Zanuz, Dante; Müller, Markus; Wallraff, Andreas (February 2026). "Lattice surgery realized on two distance-three repetition codes with superconducting qubits". Nature Physics. 22 (2): 189–194. doi:10.1038/s41567-025-03090-6. ISSN 1745-2481. PMC 12904781.
- ↑ Bluvstein, Dolev; Geim, Alexandra A.; Li, Sophie H.; Evered, Simon J.; Bonilla Ataides, J. Pablo; Baranes, Gefen; Gu, Andi; Manovitz, Tom; Xu, Muqing; Kalinowski, Marcin; Majidy, Shayan; Kokail, Christian; Maskara, Nishad; Trapp, Elias C.; Stewart, Luke M. (January 2026). "A fault-tolerant neutral-atom architecture for universal quantum computation". Nature. 649 (8095): 39–46. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09848-5. ISSN 1476-4687.