How to counteract systematic errors in quantum state transfer

Abstract

In the absence of errors, the dynamics of a spin chain, with a suitably engineered local Hamiltonian, allow the perfect, coherent transfer of a quantum state over large distances. Here, we propose encoding and decoding procedures to recover perfectly from low rates of systematic errors. The encoding and decoding regions, located at opposite ends of the chain, are small compared to the length of the chain, growing linearly with the size of the error. We also describe how these errors can be identified, again by only acting on the encoding and decoding regions.