Continuous Noise Model for Quantum Circuits
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2604.26008 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 28 Apr 2026] Title:Continuous Noise Model for Quantum Circuits Authors:Yunos El Kaderi, Andreas Honecker, Iryna Andriyanova View a PDF of the paper titled Continuous Noise Model for Quantum Circuits, by Yunos El Kaderi and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Quantum noise is a central challenge in quantum computing across many applications. Extensive work has examined how qubits couple to their environment, leading to decoherence and relaxation, which is irreversible. Current studies focus on coherent gate errors caused by control misalignment, which accumulate with circuit depth but can, in principle, be corrected. This work studies a continuous coherent noise model for quantum circuits and compares it with a discrete Pauli model. The focus is on small coherent gate errors that build up across circuit depth. These errors are modeled as random rotations on the Bloch sphere using a von Mises-Fisher distribution. In the small-angle limit, the model reduces to an isotropic Gaussian distribution. We test the model on quantum error-correction circuits based on the [[5,1,3]] and [[7,1,3]] codes. A variant of Grover's search circuit with different qubit counts is also examined. To enable fair comparison, we introduce a model-independent matching scheme. Pauli and continuous noise channels are aligned using the binary entropy at readout. This isolates the effect of noise structure at fixed uncertainty. An approximate analytical method for coherent error propagation is also developed. The method tracks error distributions through Clifford circuits without full Monte Carlo sampling. It reduces simulation cost while preserving accuracy for circuit-level error estimates. The approximation is validated against brute-force simulations, identifying its regime of validity with Clifford circuits and limits under error correction. Our results show that continuous coherent noise can degrade logical performance more strongly than Pauli noise. They also clarify when simplified propagation models succeed and when they break down. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2604.26008 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2604.26008v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.26008 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Yunos El Kaderi [view email] [v1] Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:00:03 UTC (294 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Continuous Noise Model for Quantum Circuits, by Yunos El Kaderi and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-04 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)