In this paper, we propose an environment-assisted error correction scheme to fully recover a multiple-qubit state subject to a phase damping noise. We establish the theoretical framework and the operational procedure to restore an unknown initial quantum state for an $N$-qubit model interacting with either individual baths or a common bath. We give an explicit construction of the random unitary (RU) Kraus decomposition for an $N$-qubit model interacting with a common bath. We also demonstrate how to use only one unitary reversal operation to restore an arbitrary state with phase damping noise. In principle, the initial state can always be recovered with a success probability of 1. Interestingly, we found that non-RU decomposition can also be used to restore some particular entangled states. This may open a new path to restore a quantum entangled state beyond the standard RU scheme.

• Received 18 May 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.88.022321