Error correction on molecular platforms*

Molecular rotational state spaces, modeled by infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces of quantum rigid rotors, present new grounds for robust quantum information processing. They are, however, prone to noise induced by the environment that surrounds them. As a step towards making qubits realizable through these rotor-space configurations, we study the effects of noise that are likely to be relevant while working with molecules immersed in a physical environment. One such noise model is a generalization of the brownian center of mass motion for quantum rigid bodies in a thermal environment^[1]. This kind of noise is found to be local in the angular position and angular momentum phase space of the rotor and hence, can be tamed with already existing molecular codes^[2]. Another relevant noise model is blackbody radiation affecting the molecules^[3,4]. We highlight situations where this kind of noise can be highly non-local in the molecule’s phase space and characterize instances where conventional (i.e., exact) error-correction would fail. We comment on the different strategies that can circumvent this no-go result.

[1] Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 040401 (2018)

[2] Phys. Rev. X 10, 031050 (2020)

[3] Commun Phys 4, 22 (2021)

[4] arXiv:2207.05646v1(2022)