The Rotation Gap Is Not An Error: Ternary Structure in IBM Quantum Hardware
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2604.11963 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 13 Apr 2026] Title:The Rotation Gap Is Not An Error: Ternary Structure in IBM Quantum Hardware Authors:Selina Stenberg View a PDF of the paper titled The Rotation Gap Is Not An Error: Ternary Structure in IBM Quantum Hardware, by Selina Stenberg View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Quantum error correction assumes that all syndrome activations represent errors requiring correction. We present evidence from 756 QEC runs across three IBM Eagle r3 processors that this assumption is wrong. The hardware exhibits sub-Poissonian syndrome statistics (Fano factor F = 0.856, t = -131 against Poisson, zero dependence on code distance), indicating that a fraction of syndrome events are not random noise but structured cooperative transitions. We introduce a regime classifier decoder that distinguishes binary errors (which should be corrected) from ternary transitions (which should not). On a mixed binary/ternary error model calibrated to IBM hardware statistics, the classifier reduces logical error rates by 7-19% at static detection depth (tau = 1) across all cell sizes, with statistical significance p 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?)