Multicore Quantum Computing

Any architecture for practical quantum computing must be scalable. An attractive approach is to create multiple cores, computing regions of fixed size that are well spaced but interlinked with communication channels. This exploded architecture can relax the demands associated with a single monolithic device: the complexity of control, cooling and power infrastructure, as well as the difficulties of crosstalk suppression and near-perfect component yield. Here we explore interlinked multicore architectures through analytic and numerical modeling. While elements of our analysis are relevant to diverse platforms, our focus is on semiconductor electron spin systems in which numerous cores may exist on a single chip within a single fridge. We model shuttling and microwave-based interlinks and estimate the achievable fidelities, finding values that are encouraging but markedly inferior to intracore operations. We therefore introduce optimized entanglement purification to enable high-fidelity communication, finding that 99.5% is a very realistic goal. We then assess the prospects for quantum advantage using such devices in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum era and beyond: we simulate recently proposed exponentially powerful error mitigation schemes in the multicore environment and conclude that these techniques impressively suppress imperfections in both the inter- and intracore operations.