Extracting Quantum Dynamical Resources: Consumption of Non-Markovianity for Noise Reduction

Noise is possibly the most formidable challenge for quantum technologies. As such, a great deal of effort is dedicated to developing methods for noise reduction. One remarkable achievement in this direction is dynamical decoupling; it details a clear set of instructions for counteracting the effects of quantum noise. Yet, the domain of its applicability remains limited to devices where exercising fast control is possible. In practical terms, this is highly limiting and there is a growing need for better noise reduction tools. Here we take a significant step in this direction, by identifying the crucial ingredients required for noise suppression and the development of methods that far outperform traditional dynamical decoupling techniques. Using resource theoretic methods, we show that the key resource responsible for the efficacy of dynamical decoupling, and related protocols, is non-Markovianity (or temporal correlations). Using this insight, we then propose two methods to identify optimal pulse sequences for noise reduction. With an explicit example, we show that our methods enable a more optimal exploitation of temporal correlations, and extend the timescales at which noise suppression is viable by at least two orders of magnitude. Importantly, the corresponding tools are built on operational grounds and are easily implemented in the current generation of quantum devices.