Glossary
Every technical term this platform uses, with what it means and — the part that is harder to find elsewhere — the mistake it prevents. On this subject the intuitive reading is often the wrong one, so each entry says what a reader would otherwise get wrong.
Error correction
- Noise model
The description of how a device is assumed to fail, used to simulate it.
Easy to get wrong: Two decoders compared under different noise models are not being compared. Depolarizing, readout and leakage noise stress a decoder in different ways.
Seen in use on /qec/lab
- Depolarizing noisealso depolarizing
The simplest useful noise model: with some probability, a random Pauli error replaces the intended state.
Easy to get wrong: It is the friendliest realistic model. A decoder that only works under depolarizing noise has not been shown to work.