Optimizing Fault-tolerant Cat State Preparation
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.03343 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 6 Jan 2026] Title:Optimizing Fault-tolerant Cat State Preparation Authors:Tom Peham, Erik Weilandt, Robert Wille View a PDF of the paper titled Optimizing Fault-tolerant Cat State Preparation, by Tom Peham and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Cat states are an important resource for fault-tolerant quantum computing, where they serve as building blocks for a variety of fault-tolerant primitives. Consequently, the ability to prepare high-quality cat states at large fault distances is essential. While optimizations for low fault distances or small numbers of qubits exist, higher fault distances can be achieved via generalized constructions with potentially suboptimal circuit sizes. In this work, we propose a cat state preparation scheme based on preparing two cat states with low-depth circuits, followed by a transversal CNOT and measurement of one of the states. This scheme prepares $w$-qubit cat states fault-tolerantly up to fault distances of $9$ using $\lceil\log_2 w\rceil+1$ depth and at most $3w-2$ CNOTs and $2w$ qubits. We discuss that the combinatorially challenging aspect of this construction is the precise wiring of the transversal CNOT and propose three methods for finding these: two based on Satisfiability Modulo Theory solving and one heuristic search based on a local repair strategy. Numerical evaluations show that our circuits achieve a high fault-distance while requiring fewer resources as generalized constructions. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Emerging Technologies (cs.ET) Cite as: arXiv:2601.03343 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.03343v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.03343 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Tom Peham [view email] [v1] Tue, 6 Jan 2026 19:00:01 UTC (1,211 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Optimizing Fault-tolerant Cat State Preparation, by Tom Peham and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 Change to browse by: cs cs.ET 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?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) 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?)