Single-Shot Fault-Tolerant Quantum Error Correction

Conventional quantum error correcting codes require multiple rounds of measurements to detect errors with enough confidence in fault-tolerant scenarios. Here, I show that for suitable topological codes, a single round of local measurements is enough. This feature is generic and is related to self-correction and confinement phenomena in the corresponding quantum Hamiltonian model. Three-dimensional gauge color codes exhibit this single-shot feature, which also applies to initialization and gauge fixing. Assuming the time for efficient classical computations to be negligible, this yields a topological fault-tolerant quantum computing scheme where all elementary logical operations can be performed in constant time.