Error rates and resource overheads of encoded three-qubit gates (1707.00012v3)

Abstract: A non-Clifford gate is required for universal quantum computation, and, typically, this is the most error-prone and resource intensive logical operation on an error-correcting code. Small, single-qubit rotations are popular choices for this non-Clifford gate, but certain three-qubit gates, such as Toffoli or controlled-controlled-Z (CCZ), are equivalent options that are also more suited for implementing some quantum algorithms, for instance those with coherent classical subroutines. Here, we calculate error rates and resource overheads for implementing logical CCZ with pieceable fault-tolerance, a non-transversal method for implementing logical gates. We provide a comparison with a non-local magic-state scheme on a concatenated code and a local magic-state scheme on the surface code. We find the pieceable fault-tolerance scheme particularly advantaged over magic states on concatenated codes and in certain regimes over magic states on the surface code. Our results suggest that pieceable fault-tolerance is a promising candidate for fault-tolerance in a near-future quantum computer.