New circuits and an open source decoder for the color code

The color code is a leading competitor for use in the design of large scale fault tolerant quantum computers, because it shares many of the advantages of the surface code.

It has a simple planar connectivity, a lenient threshold, and also a few advantages the surface code lacks such as a transversal S gate.

Although the color code outperforms the surface code under simple noise models, it underperforms the surface code when subjected to more realistic circuit noise.

It's often hypothesized that this circuit noise disadvantage could be fixed by building better color code circuits and/or better color code decoders.

This talk will discuss some new color code circuits that bring the color code nearly on par with the surface code, and the open source tool we wrote so that anyone can decode them.