[LINK] Physics and obscure April Fool jokes

[Kim Holburn]

I think this sounds kosher and I can't imagine a paper this esoteric bothering to wrap a prank in it.  Most people just wouldn't know.  People in the quantum computing and communications fields are working on methods of error correction that work in quantum devices where single particles can easily lose information.

On 2011/Apr/04, at 1:32 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:

> I think this is an April Foolery. The only thing is, I don't have enough 
> quantum physics to be sure ...
> 
> http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.0255
> 
>> 
>>  Surface code quantum error correction incorporating accurate error
>>  propagation
>> 
>> Authors: Austin G. Fowler 
>> <http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Fowler_A/0/1/0/all/0/1>, David 
>> S. Wang <http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Wang_D/0/1/0/all/0/1>, 
>> Lloyd C. L. Hollenberg 
>> <http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Hollenberg_L/0/1/0/all/0/1>
>> (Submitted on 1 Apr 2010)
>> 
>>    Abstract: The surface code is a powerful quantum error correcting
>>    code that can be defined on a 2-D square lattice of qubits with
>>    only nearest neighbor interactions. Syndrome and data qubits form
>>    a checkerboard pattern. Information about errors is obtained by
>>    repeatedly measuring each syndrome qubit after appropriate
>>    interaction with its four nearest neighbor data qubits. Changes in
>>    the measurement value indicate the presence of chains of errors in
>>    space and time. The standard method of determining operations
>>    likely to return the code to its error-free state is to use the
>>    minimum weight matching algorithm to connect pairs of measurement
>>    changes with chains of corrections such that the minimum total
>>    number of corrections is used. Prior work has not taken into
>>    account the propagation of errors in space and time by the
>>    two-qubit interactions. We show that taking this into account
>>    leads to a quadratic improvement of the logical error rate. 
>> 
> 
> I think the hint is in the headline, "incorporating accurate error 
> propagation" ...
> 
> RC
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