Noise-model definitions 0.1

Status: complete working draft for prototyping and collaborator review. Version 1 is reserved for the first reviewed public release.

This document defines the human meaning of schemas/noise_model/0.1.schema.json. A noise-model record is a compact, citable registry entry. It deliberately does not attempt to encode a complete mathematical or executable noise specification in database fields.

Scope of the entry

short_description identifies the noise construction and states the scientific scope intended by this registry entry. The exact realised probabilities used for an experiment do not live here. They remain frozen in each referenced circuit and detector-error-model files.

Two records which share a familiar family name are not interchangeable merely because their names look similar. Results identify a circuit revision, and the circuit identifies this exact noise-model entry.

Primary specification

paper_url is the primary paper or permanent specification from which a reader can recover the intended construction. It is part of the scientific provenance of the entry, not a promise that the site has independently reproduced the paper. Additional classified links may point to source, documentation, or files.

Randomisation of priors

randomises_priors = true means that applying the construction includes a random choice which can change the exact numerical probabilities or weights presented to the decoder between otherwise comparable circuit instances. false means that randomisation of exact priors is not part of the construction as registered.

This field describes the noise construction. A circuit does not copy it. The actual priors for a particular circuit revision are the ones frozen in that circuit and its detector error model.

Credits and replacement

Credits are ordered and non-empty. Each credit is either a display-name string or a registered account. Equal display-name strings on separate records do not assert a shared person identity. The uploader is recorded separately.

Changing the scientific meaning of the description or randomises_priors creates a new entry. The new entry may identify the old one through supersedes_noise_model_id; supersession does not delete or rewrite the old entry.

Governance

community means a contributed entry, official means an admin-curated entry, and deprecated means it should not be selected for new circuits. Promotion to official is a governance action, not a change to the noise model and not a scientific endorsement of results using it.

The lifecycle state, submitter, IDs, slugs, timestamps, and curation status are identity, infrastructure, or governance fields. They do not define the noise construction. There is deliberately no license field in this contract.