Quantum Error Correction and Dynamical Decoupling: Better Together or Apart?
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.19042 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 22 Feb 2026] Title:Quantum Error Correction and Dynamical Decoupling: Better Together or Apart? Authors:Victor Kasatkin (1 and 2), Mario Morford-Oberst (1 and 2), Arian Vezvaee (1 and 2 and 3), Daniel A. Lidar (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5) ((1) Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at University of Southern California, (2) Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology at University of Southern California, (3) Quantum Elements Inc, (4) Department of Physics & Astronomy at University of Southern California, (5) Department of Chemistry University of Southern California) View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Error Correction and Dynamical Decoupling: Better Together or Apart?, by Victor Kasatkin (1 and 2) and 7 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Quantum error correction (QEC) and dynamical decoupling (DD) are tools for protecting quantum information. A natural goal is to combine them to outperform either approach alone. Such a benefit is not automatic: physical DD can conflict with an encoded subspace, and QEC performance is governed by the errors that survive decoding, not necessarily those DD suppresses. We analyze a hybrid memory cycle where DD is implemented logically (LDD) using normalizer elements of an $[[n,k,d]]$ stabilizer code, followed by a round of syndrome measurement and recovery (or, in the detection setting, postselection on a trivial syndrome). In an effective Pauli model with physical error probability $p$, LDD suppression factor $p_{DD}$, and recovery imperfection rate $p_{QEC}$ (or $p_{QED}$), we derive closed-form entanglement-fidelity expressions for QEC-only, LDD-only, physical DD, and the hybrid LDD+QEC protocol. The formulas are expressed via a small set of code-dependent weight enumerator polynomials, making the role of the decoder and the LDD group explicit. For ideal recovery LDD+QEC outperforms QEC-only iff the conditional fraction of uncorrectable Pauli errors is larger in the LDD-suppressed sector than in the unsuppressed sector. In the low-noise regime, a sufficient design rule guaranteeing hybrid advantage is that LDD suppresses at least one minimum-weight uncorrectable Pauli error for the chosen recovery map. We show how stabilizer-equivalent choices of LDD generators can be used to enforce this condition. We supplement our analysis with numerical results for the $[[7,1,3]]$ Steane code and a $[[13,1,3]]$ code, mapping regions of hybrid-protocol advantage in parameter space beyond the small-$p$ regime. Our work illustrates the need for co-design of the code, decoder, and logical decoupling group, and clarifies the conditions under which the hybrid LDD+QEC protocol is advantageous. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2602.19042 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.19042v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.19042 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Victor Kasatkin [view email] [v1] Sun, 22 Feb 2026 04:35:26 UTC (1,502 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Error Correction and Dynamical Decoupling: Better Together or Apart?, by Victor Kasatkin (1 and 2) and 7 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 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?) 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