2025/10/09 by Yibin Guo, Yi Fan, Guo, Yibin +18
Computer Science · #Error detection and correction #False positive paradox #Fidelity #Initialization #Quantum #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum error correction #Qubit #Upper and lower bounds #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.08687
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)
openalex publication_date 2025/10/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Quantum readout error mitigation is essential for noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices to achieve reliable data. The conventional approaches, conflating initialization errors with measurement errors, not only suppress the influence of measurement errors, but also strengthen that of initialization errors, which is a systematic bias grows exponentially with the qubit number. Here, we have proved that this effect causes severe fidelity overestimation for all stabilizer states and might lead to false positives in large-scale entangled state characterization. Similarly, the results from algorithms like the variational quantum eigensolver and time evolution also deviate negatively, and cover up other errors in the quantum circuit. These findings highlight the critical need for rigorous benchmarking and careful management of initialization errors. Consequently, we establish an upper bound for the tolerable initialization error rate to ensure effective error mitigation at a given system scale.