The goal of this paper is to review the theoretical basis for achieving a faithful quantum information transmission and processing in the presence of noise. Initially encoding and decoding, implementing gates and quantum error correction will be considered error free. Finally we will relax this non realistic assumption, introducing the quantum fault-tolerant concept. The existence of an error threshold permits to conclude that there is no physical law preventing a quantum computer from being built. An error model based on the depolarizing channel will be able to provide a simple estimation of the storage or memory computation error threshold: < 5.2 10-5. The encoding is made by means of the [[7,1,3]] Calderbank-Shor-Steane quantum code and the Shor's fault-tolerant method to measure the stabilizer's generators is used.
Is the notion of a quantum computer resilient to thermal noise unphysical? We address this question from a constructive perspective and show that local quantum Hamiltonian models provide self-correcting quantum computers. To this end, we first give a sufficient condition on the connect- edness of excitations for a stabilizer code model to be a self-correcting quantum memory. We then study the two main examples of topological stabilizer codes in arbitrary dimensions and establish their self-correcting capabilities. Also, we address the transversality properties of topological color codes, showi…
If entanglement is available, the error-correcting ability of quantum codes can be increased. We show how to optimize the minimum distance of an entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting (EAQEC) code, obtained by adding ebits to a standard quantum error-correcting code, over different encoding operators. By this encoding optimization procedure, we found several new EAQEC codes, including a family of [[n, 1, n; n-1]] EAQEC codes for n odd and code parameters [[7, 1, 5; 2]], [[7, 1, 5; 3]], [[9, 1, 7; 4]], [[9, 1, 7; 5]], which saturate the quantum singleton bound for EAQEC codes. A random …
A general theory of quantum error avoiding codes is established, and new light is shed on the relation between quantum error avoiding and correcting codes. Quantum error avoiding codes are found to be a special type of highly degenerate quantum error correcting codes. A combination of the ideas of correcting and avoiding quantum errors may yield better codes. We give a practical example.
The recently introduced detected-jump correcting quantum codes are capable of stabilizing qubit-systems against spontaneous decay processes arising from couplings to statistically independent reservoirs. These embedded quantum codes exploit classical information about which qubit has emitted spontaneously and correspond to an active error-correcting code embedded in a passive error-correcting code. The construction of a family of one detected jump-error correcting quantum codes is shown and the optimal redundancy, encoding and recovery as well as general properties of detected jump-error corre…
The essential insight of quantum error correction was that quantum information can be protected by suitably encoding this quantum information across multiple independently erred quantum systems. Recently it was realized that, since the most general method for encoding quantum information is to encode it into a subsystem, there exists a novel form of quantum error correction beyond the traditional quantum error correcting subspace codes. These new quantum error correcting subsystem codes differ from subspace codes in that their quantum correcting routines can be considerably simpler than relate…
We report the first nonadditive quantum error-correcting code, namely, a $((9,12,3))$ code which is a 12-dimensional subspace within a 9-qubit Hilbert space, that outperforms the optimal stabilizer code of the same length by encoding more levels while correcting arbitrary single-qubit errors.
This paper provides a new instance of quantum deletion error-correcting codes. This code can correct any single quantum deletion error, while our code is only of length 4. This paper also provides an example of an encoding quantum circuit and decoding quantum circuits. It is also proven that the length of any single deletion error-correcting codes is greater than or equal to 4. In other words, our code is optimal for the code length.
It is shown that the noise process in quantum computation can be described by spatially correlated decoherence and dissipation. We demonstrate that the conventional quantum error correcting codes correcting for single-qubit errors are applicable for reducing spatially correlated noise.
In this paper, we introduce a unified framework to construct entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes, including additive and nonadditive codes, based on the codeword stabilized framework on subsystems. The codeword stabilized (CWS) framework is a scheme to construct quantum error-correcting codes (QECCs) including both additive and nonadditive codes, and gives a method to construct a QECC from a classical error-correcting code in standard form. Entangled pairs of qubits (ebits) can be used to improve capacity of quantum error correction. In addition, it gives a method to overcome …
We generalize the construction of quantum error-correcting codes from GF(4)-linear codes by Calderbank et al. to p^m-state systems. Then we show how to determine the error from a syndrome. Finally we discuss a systematic construction of quantum codes with efficient decoding algorithms.
We present a universal framework for quantum error-correcting codes, i.e., the one that applies for the most general quantum error-correcting codes. This framework is established on the group algebra, an algebraic notation for the nice error bases of quantum systems. The nicest thing about this framework is that we can characterize the properties of quantum codes by the properties of the group algebra. We show how it characterizes the properties of quantum codes as well as generates some new results about quantum codes.
Traditional quantum error-correcting codes are designed for the depolarizing channel modeled by generalized Pauli errors occurring with equal probability. Amplitude damping channels model, in general, the decay process of a multilevel atom or energy dissipation of a bosonic system at zero temperature. We discuss quantum error-correcting codes adapted to amplitude damping channels for higher dimensional systems (qudits). For multi-level atoms, we consider a natural kind of decay process, and for bosonic systems,we consider the qudit amplitude damping channel obtained by truncating the Fock basi…
We transfer the concept of linear feed-back shift registers to quantum circuits. It is shown how to use these quantum linear shift registers for encoding and decoding cyclic quantum error-correcting codes.
We address the timing problem in realizing correcting codes for quantum information processing. To deal with temporal uncertainties we employ a consistent quantum mechanical approach. The conditions for optimizing the effect of error correction in such a case are determined.
We discuss the so-called mean king's problem, a retrodiction problem among non-commutative observables, in the context of error detection. Describing the king's measurement effectively by a single error operation, we give a solution of the mean king's problem using quantum error-correcting codes. The existence of a quantum error-correcting code from a solution is also presented.
A family of high rate quantum error correcting codes adapted to the amplitude damping channel is presented. These codes are nonadditive and exploit self-complementarity structure to correct all first-order errors. Their rates can be higher than 1/2. The recovery operations of these codes can be generated by a simple algorithm and have a projection nature, which makes them potentially easy to implement.
In their comment, de Almedia and Palazzo \cite{comment} discovered an error in my earlier paper concerning the construction of quantum convolutional codes (quant-ph/9712029). This error can be repaired by modifying the method of code construction.
Foliated quantum codes are a resource for fault-tolerant measurement-based quantum error correction for quantum repeaters and for quantum computation. They represent a general approach to integrating a range of possible quantum error correcting codes into larger fault-tolerant networks. Here we present an efficient heuristic decoding scheme for foliated quantum codes, based on message passing between primal and dual code 'sheets'. We test this decoder on two different families of sparse quantum error correcting code: turbo codes and bicycle codes, and show reasonably high numerical performance…
This study considers implementations of error correction in a simulation language on a classical computer. Error correction will be necessarily in quantum computing and quantum information. We will give some examples of the implementations of some error correction codes. These implementations will be made in a more general quantum simulation language on a classical computer in the language Mathematica. The intention of this research is to develop a programming language that is able to make simulations of all quantum algorithms and error corrections in the same framework. The program code imple…
We construct explicitly two infinite families of genuine nonadditive 1-error correcting quantum codes and prove that their coding subspaces are 50% larger than those of the optimal stabilizer codes of the same parameters via the linear programming bound. All these nonadditive codes can be characterized by a stabilizer-like structure and thus their encoding circuits can be designed in a straightforward manner.
I report two general methods to construct quantum convolutional codes for $N$-state quantum systems. Using these general methods, I construct a quantum convolutional code of rate 1/4, which can correct one quantum error for every eight consecutive quantum registers.
Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) quantum error-correcting codes are based on pairs of classical codes which are mutually dual containing. Explicit constructions of such codes for large blocklengths and with good error correcting properties are not easy to find. In this paper we propose a construction of CSS codes which combines a classical code with a two-universal hash function. We show, using the results of Renner and Koenig, that the communication rates of such codes approach the hashing bound on tensor powers of Pauli channels in the limit of large block-length. While the bit-flip errors can b…
A universal set of quantum gates is constructed for the recently developed jump-error correcting quantum codes. These quantum codes are capable of correcting errors arising from the spontaneous decay of distinguishable qubits into statistically independent reservoirs. The proposed universal quantum gates are constructed with the help of Heisenberg- and Ising-type Hamiltonians acting on these physical qubits. This way it is guaranteed that the relevant error correcting code space is not left at any time even during the application of one of these quantum gates. The proposed entanglement gate is…
We present a general formalism for quantum error-correcting codes that encode both classical and quantum information (the EACQ formalism). This formalism unifies the entanglement-assisted formalism and classical error correction, and includes encoding, error correction, and decoding steps such that the encoded quantum and classical information can be correctly recovered by the receiver. We formally define this kind of quantum code using both stabilizer and symplectic language, and derive the appropriate error-correcting conditions. We give several examples to demonstrate the construction of su…
We provide a systematic way of constructing entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes via graph states in the scenario of preexisting perfectly protected qubits. It turns out that the preexisting entanglement can help beat the quantum Hamming bound and can enhance (not only behave as an assistance) the performance of the quantum error correction. Furthermore we generalize the error models to the case of not-so-perfectly-protected qubits and introduce the quantity infidelity as a figure of merit and show that our code outperforms also the ordinary quantum error-correcting codes.
We investigate the average bipartite entanglement, over all possible divisions of a multipartite system, as a useful measure of multipartite entanglement. We expose a connection between such measures and quantum-error-correcting codes by deriving a formula relating the weight distribution of the code to the average entanglement of encoded states. Multipartite entangling power of quantum evolutions is also investigated.
Methods of finding good quantum error correcting codes are discussed, and many example codes are presented. The recipe C_2^{\perp} \subseteq C_1, where C_1 and C_2 are classical codes, is used to obtain codes for up to 16 information qubits with correction of small numbers of errors. The results are tabulated. More efficient codes are obtained by allowing C_1 to have reduced distance, and introducing sign changes among the code words in a systematic manner. This systematic approach leads to single-error correcting codes for 3, 4 and 5 information qubits with block lengths of 8, 10 and 11 qubit…
I develop methods for analyzing quantum error-correcting codes, and use these methods to construct an infinite class of codes saturating the quantum Hamming bound. These codes encode $k=n-j-2$ qubits in $n=2^j$ qubits and correct $t=1$ error.
We introduce a convergent iterative algorithm for finding the optimal coding and decoding operations for an arbitrary noisy quantum channel. This algorithm does not require any error syndrome to be corrected completely, and hence also finds codes outside the usual Knill-Laflamme definition of error correcting codes. The iteration is shown to improve the figure of merit "channel fidelity" in every step.
We report new construction of nine-qubit error-correcting code, which introduces two new nine-qubit codes and one new three-qubit code. Because both the new two nine-qubit codes have the normal logical operators, as opposed to the nine-qubit Shor code, it results in different performance when the three codes are applied in concatenated quantum error-correction. On the other hand, one of the two nine-qubit codes has the same stabilizer generators as the nine-qubit Shor code, they are more suitable for the high-wight bit-flip noise, and the other code has the different stabilizer generators, whi…
We expand the class of holographic quantum error correcting codes by developing the notion of block perfect tensors, a wider class that includes previously defined perfect tensors. The relaxation of this constraint opens up a range of other holographic codes. We demonstrate this by introducing the self-dual CSS heptagon holographic code, based on the 7-qubit Steane code. Finally we show promising thresholds for the erasure channel by applying a straightforward, optimal erasure decoder to the heptagon code and benchmark it against existing holographic codes.
Concatenated coding provides a general strategy to achieve the desired level of noise protection in quantum information storage and transmission. We report the implementation of a concatenated quantum error-correcting code able to correct against phase errors with a strong correlated component. The experiment was performed using liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance techniques on a four spin subsystem of labeled crotonic acid. Our results show that concatenation between active and passive quantum error-correcting codes offers a practical tool to handle realistic noise contributed by both ind…
Entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes (EAQECCs) make use of pre-existing entanglement between the sender and receiver to boost the rate of transmission. It is possible to construct an EAQECC from any classical linear code, unlike standard QECCs which can only be constructed from dual-containing codes. Operator quantum error-correcting codes (OQECCs) allow certain errors to be corrected (or prevented) passively, reducing the complexity of the correction procedure. We combine these two extensions of standard quantum error correction into a unified entanglement-assisted quantum err…
We explore the design of quantum error-correcting codes for cases where the decoherence events of qubits are correlated. In particular, we consider the case where only spatially contiguous qubits decohere, which is analogous to the case of burst errors in classical coding theory. We present several different efficient schemes for constructing families of such codes. For example, one can find one-dimensional quantum codes of length n=13 and 15 that correct burst errors of width b < 4; as a comparison, a random-error correcting quantum code that corrects t=3 errors must have length n > 18. In ge…
We construct families of high performance quantum amplitude damping codes. All of our codes are nonadditive and most modestly outperform the best possible additive codes in terms of encoded dimension. One family is built from nonlinear error-correcting codes for classical asymmetric channels, with which we systematically construct quantum amplitude damping codes with parameters better than any prior construction known for any block length n > 7 except n=2^r-1. We generalize this construction to employ classical codes over GF(3) with which we numerically obtain better performing codes up to len…
We devise a scheme that protects quantum coherent states of light from probabilistic losses, thus achieving the first continuous-variable quantum erasure-correcting code. If the occurrence of erasures can be probed, then the decoder enables, in principle, a perfect recovery of the original light states. Otherwise, if supplemented with postselection based on homodyne detection, this code can be turned into an efficient erasure-filtration scheme. The experimental feasibility of the proposed protocol is carefully addressed.
For realizing a quantum memory we suggest to first encode quantum information via a quantum error correcting code and then concatenate combined decoding and re-encoding operations. This requires that the encoding and the decoding operation can be performed faster than the typical decoherence time of the underlying system. The computational model underlying the one-way quantum computer, which has been introduced by Hans Briegel and Robert Raussendorf, provides a suitable concept for a fast implementation of quantum error correcting codes. It is shown explicitly in this article is how encoding a…
Many quantum technologies are now reaching a high level of maturity and control, and it is likely that the first demonstrations of suppression of naturally occurring quantum noise using small topological error correcting codes will soon be possible. In doing this it will be necessary to define clear achievable metrics to measure and compare the performance of real codes. Here we consider the smallest examples of several families of topological codes: surface codes, color codes, and the gauge color code, and determine the minimum requirements to demonstrate error suppression. We use an exact de…
Mean king's problem is a kind of quantum state discrimination problems. In the problem, we try to discriminate eigenstates of noncommutative observables with the help of classical delayed information. The problem has been investigated from the viewpoint of error detection and correction. We construct higher-dimensional quantum error-correcting codes against error corresponding to the noncommutative observables. Any code state of the codes provides a way to discriminate the eigenstates correctly with the classical delayed information.
A new class of error-correcting quantum codes is introduced capable of stabilizing qubits against spontaneous decay arising from couplings to statistically independent reservoirs. These quantum codes are based on the idea of using an embedded quantum code and exploiting the classical information available about which qubit has been affected by the environment. They are immediately relevant for quantum computation and information processing using arrays of trapped ions or nuclear spins. Interesting relations between these quantum codes and basic notions of design theory are established.
Due to the fragility of quantum mechanical effects, real quantum computers are plagued by frequent noise effects that cause errors during computations. Quantum error-correcting codes address this problem by providing means to identify and correct corresponding errors. However, most of the research on quantum error correction is theoretical or has been evaluated for specific hardware models only. Moreover, the development of corresponding codes and the evaluation of whether they indeed solve the problem for a particular hardware model, still often rests on tedious trial-and-error thus far. In t…
We examine the transformation of noise under a quantum error correcting code (QECC) concatenated repeatedly with itself, by analyzing the effects of a quantum channel after each level of concatenation using recovery operators that are optimally adapted to use error syndrome information from the previous levels of the code. We use the Shannon entropy of these channels to estimate the thresholds of correctable noise for QECCs and find considerable improvements under this adaptive concatenation. Similar methods could be used to increase quantum fault tolerant thresholds.
Quantum error-correcting codes so far proposed have not worked in the presence of noise which introduces more than one bit of entropy per qubit sent through a quantum channel, nor can any code which identifies the complete error syndrome. We describe a code which does not find the complete error syndrome and can be used for reliable transmission of quantum information through channels which add more than one bit of entropy per transmitted bit. In the case of the depolarizing channel our code can be used in a channel of fidelity .8096. The best existing code worked only down to .8107.
The possibility of using the two-fold topological degeneracy of spin-1/2 chiral spin liquid states on the torus to construct quantum error correcting codes is investigated. It is shown that codes constructed using these states on finite periodic lattices do not meet the necessary and sufficient conditions for correcting even a single qubit error with perfect fidelity. However, for large enough lattice sizes these conditions are approximately satisfied, and the resulting codes may therefore be viewed as approximate quantum error correcting codes.
Recently, operator quantum error-correcting codes have been proposed to unify and generalize decoherence free subspaces, noiseless subsystems, and quantum error-correcting codes. This note introduces a natural construction of such codes in terms of Clifford codes, an elegant generalization of stabilizer codes due to Knill. Character-theoretic methods are used to derive a simple method to construct operator quantum error-correcting codes from any classical additive code over a finite field.
The noise in physical qubits is fundamentally asymmetric: in most devices, phase errors are much more probable than bit flips. We propose a quantum error correcting code which takes advantage of this asymmetry and shows good performance at a relatively small cost in redundancy, requiring less than a doubling of the number of physical qubits for error correction.
Series of maximum distance quantum error-correcting codes are developed and analysed. For a given rate and given error-correction capability, quantum error-correcting codes with these specifications are constructed. The codes are explicit with efficient decoding algorithms. For a given field maximum length quantum codes are constructed.
We construct new families of multi-error-correcting quantum codes for the amplitude damping channel. Our key observation is that, with proper encoding, two uses of the amplitude damping channel simulate a quantum erasure channel. This allows us to use concatenated codes with quantum erasure-correcting codes as outer codes for correcting multiple amplitude damping errors. Our new codes are degenerate stabilizer codes and have parameters which are better than the amplitude damping codes obtained by any previously known construction.
Simple rate-1/3 single-error-correcting unrestricted and CSS-type quantum convolutional codes are constructed from classical self-orthogonal $\F_4$-linear and $\F_2$-linear convolutional codes, respectively. These quantum convolutional codes have higher rate than comparable quantum block codes or previous quantum convolutional codes, and are simple to decode. A block single-error-correcting [9, 3, 3] tail-biting code is derived from the unrestricted convolutional code, and similarly a [15, 5, 3] CSS-type block code from the CSS-type convolutional code.
We propose two systematic constructions of deletion-correcting codes for protecting quantum information. The first one works with qudits of any dimension, but only one deletion is corrected and the constructed codes are asymptotically bad. The second one corrects multiple deletions and can construct asymptotically good codes. The second one also allows conversion of stabilizer-based quantum codes to deletion-correcting codes, and entanglement assistance.
Belief-propagation (BP) decoders play a vital role in modern coding theory, but they are not suitable to decode quantum error-correcting codes because of a unique quantum feature called error degeneracy. Inspired by an exact mapping between BP and deep neural networks, we train neural BP decoders for quantum low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with a loss function tailored to error degeneracy. Training substantially improves the performance of BP decoders for all families of codes we tested and may solve the degeneracy problem which plagues the decoding of quantum LDPC codes.
Entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes (EAQECCs) to desired rate, error-correcting capability and maximum shared entanglement are constructed. Thus for a required rate $R$, required error-correcting capability to correct $t$ errors, mds (maximum distance separable) EAQECCs of the form $[[n,r,d;c]]$ with $R=\frac{r}{n}, d\geq (2t+1), c = (n-r), d= (n-r+1)$ are constructed. Series of such codes may be constructed where the rate and the relative distance approach non-zero constants as $n$ approaches infinity. The codes may also be constructed over prime order fields in which modular…
Quantum error-correcting code for higher dimensional systems can, in general, be directly constructed from the codes for qubit systems. What remains unknown is whether there exist efficient code design techniques for higher dimensional systems. In this paper, we propose a 7-qutrit error-correcting code for the ternary quantum system and show that this design formulation has no equivalence in qubit systems. This code is optimum in the number of qutrits required to correct a single error while maintaining the CSS structure. This degenerate CSS code can (i) correct up to seven simultaneous phase …
