We prove a new version of the quantum threshold theorem that applies to concatenation of a quantum code that corrects only one error, and we use this theorem to derive a rigorous lower bound on the quantum accuracy threshold $\varepsilon_0$. Our proof also applies to concatenation of higher-distance codes, and to noise models that allow faults to be correlated in space and in time. The proof uses new criteria for assessing the accuracy of fault-tolerant circuits, which are particularly conducive to the inductive analysis of recursive simulations. Our lower bound on the threshold, $\varepsilon_0 \ge 2.73\times 10^{-5}$ for an adversarial independent stochastic noise model, is derived from a computer-assisted combinatorial analysis; it is the best lower bound that has been rigorously proven so far.
Optimal-depth sorting networks