Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / iii / Paper 51 / 4 / c

Number the three data qubits from top to bottom. It suffices initially to follow a pure input $|\psi ⟩=a|0⟩+b|1⟩$; linearity will extend the result to every density operator. The first two controlled-NOT gates create $a|000⟩+b|111⟩$. The first layer of Hadamard gates then encodes this asthe three-qubit phase-flip repetition code. Let $e_i$ indicate whether a Pauli Z gate occurred on data qubit $i$ during storage. The next layer of Hadamard gates uses $HZH=X$ and givesThe two initially zero syndrome quantum ancillas receive the adjacent parities. In the diagram's top-to-bottom order, their error syndrome isBoth terms of the logical superposition have these same parities, so the syndrome is independent of $a,b$. Measuring it reveals no logical-state information.

At the marked position of $R$ in the printed circuit, there has already been another layer of Hadamard gates on the data. There is also a layer immediately after $R$. Thus a desired correction $X_i$ in the parity-extraction frame must be implemented as $R=Z_i$ at the actual recovery location, since $H^{\otimes 3}{Z}_i{H}^{\otimes 3}=X_i$. Choose the recovery according toThe two patterns on each row share a syndrome because complementing all three bits does not change either parity. For a weight-zero or one error, the recovery removes the entire error in the parity-extraction frame. The remaining state is $a|000⟩+b|111⟩$, and the two final controlled-NOT gates give $|\psi ⟩|00⟩$.

For a weight-two or three error, minimum-weight recovery instead leaves all three bits flipped, giving $a|111⟩+b|000⟩$. The final controlled-NOT gates send this to $(a|1⟩+b|0⟩)|00⟩=X|\psi ⟩|00⟩$. Consequently, for every input density operator,The logical failure is a Pauli X gate after decoding, even though the stored physical errors were Pauli Z gates: $Z_1{Z}_2{Z}_3$ exchanges the two encoded codewords. This is the logical failure of the three-qubit phase-flip repetition code.