title: Topological protection and quantum noiseless subsystems.
abstract: Encoding and manipulation of quantum information by means of topological degrees of freedom provides a promising way to achieve natural fault tolerance that is built in at the physical level. We show that this topological approach to quantum information processing is a particular instance of the notion of computation in a noiseless quantum subsystem. The latter then provides the most general conceptual framework for stabilizing quantum information and for preserving quantum coherence in topological and geometric systems.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation and Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia, Viale Settimio Severo 65, I-10133 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zanardi
authors.forename: Seth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lloyd