Improving performance of an analog electronic device using quantum error correction

The use of analog classical systems for computation is generally thought to be a difficult proposition due to the susceptibility of these devices to noise and the lack of a clear framework for achieving fault-tolerance. We present experimental results for the application of quantum error correction (QEC) techniques to a prototype analog computational device called a quantum emulation device. It is shown that for the gates tested (transversal Z, X and SH) there is a marked improvement in the performance characteristics of the gate operations following error correction using the 5-Qubit Perfect code. In the case of the Z gate, the median fidelity improved from 0.995 to 0.999 98, a reduction in the gate error by over two orders of magnitude. Other transverse gates similarly show strong improvements. (paper)