Noise-Resilient Quantum Evolution in Open Systems through Error-Correcting Frameworks

Abstract: We analyze quantum state preservation in open quantum systems using quantum error-correcting (QEC) codes that are explicitly embedded into microscopic system-bath models. Instead of abstract quantum channels, we consider multi-qubit registers coupled to bosonic thermal environments, derive a second-order master equation for the reduced dynamics, and use it to benchmark the five-qubit, Steane, and toric codes under local and collective noise. We compute state fidelities for logical qubits as functions of coupling strength, bath temperature, and the number of correction cycles. In the low-temperature regime, we find that repeated error-correction with the five-qubit code strongly suppresses decoherence and relaxation, while in the high-temperature regime, thermal excitations dominate the dynamics and reduce the benefit of all codes, though the five-qubit code still outperforms the Steane and toric codes. For two-qubit Werner states, we identify a critical evolution time before which QEC does not improve fidelity, and this time increases as entanglement grows. After this critical time, QEC does improve fidelity. Comparative analysis further reveals that the five-qubit code (the smallest perfect code) offers consistently higher fidelities than topological and concatenated architectures in these open-system settings. These findings establish a quantitative framework for evaluating QEC under realistic noise environments and provide guidance for developing noise-resilient quantum architectures in near-term quantum technologies.