Scalable quantum measurement error mitigation via conditional independence and transfer learning

Abstract: Mitigating measurement errors in quantum systems without relying on quantum error correction is of critical importance for the practical development of quantum technology. Deep learning-based quantum measurement error mitigation has exhibited advantages over the linear inversion method due to its capability to correct non-linear noise. However, scalability remains a challenge for both methods. In this study, we propose a scalable quantum measurement error mitigation method that leverages the conditional independence of distant qubits and incorporates transfer learning techniques. By leveraging the conditional independence assumption, we achieve an exponential reduction in the size of neural networks used for error mitigation. This enhancement also offers the benefit of reducing the number of training data needed for the machine learning model to successfully converge. Additionally, incorporating transfer learning provides a constant speedup. We validate the effectiveness of our approach through experiments conducted on IBM quantum devices with 7 and 13 qubits, demonstrating excellent error mitigation performance and highlighting the efficiency of our method.