We present several results on quantum codes over general alphabets (that is, in which the fundamental units may have more than 2 states). In particular, we consider codes derived from finite symplectic geometry assumed to have additional global symmetries. From this standpoint, the analogues of Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes and of GF(4)-linear codes turn out to be special cases of the same construction. This allows us to construct families of quantum codes from certain codes over number fields; in particular, we get analogues of quadratic residue codes, including a single-error correcting code encoding one letter in five, for any alphabet size. We also consider the problem of fault-tolerant computation through such codes, generalizing ideas of Gottesman.
We define and show how to construct nonbinary quantum stabilizer codes. Our approach is based on nonbinary error bases. It generalizes the relationship between selforthogonal codes over $GF_{4}$ and binary quantum codes to one between selforthogonal codes over $GF_{q^2}$ and $q$-ary quantum codes for any prime power $q$.
The codeword stabilized (CWS) quantum codes formalism presents a unifying approach to both additive and nonadditive quantum error-correcting codes (arXiv:0708.1021 [quant-ph]), but only for binary states. Here we generalize the CWS framework to the nonbinary case (of both prime and nonprime dimension) and map the search for nonbinary quantum codes to a corresponding search problem for classical nonbinary codes with specific error patterns. We show that while the additivity properties of nonbinary CWS codes are similar to the binary case, the structural properties of the nonbinary codes differ …
We construct nonbinary quantum codes from classical generalized Reed-Muller codes and derive the conditions under which these quantum codes can be punctured. We provide a partial answer to a question raised by Grassl, Beth and Roetteler on the existence of q-ary quantum MDS codes of length n with q\le n\le q^2-1.
In this paper, based on the nonbinary graph state, we present a systematic way of constructing good non-binary quantum codes, both additive and nonadditive, for systems with integer dimensions. With the help of computer search, which results in many interesting codes including some nonadditive codes meeting the Singleton bounds, we are able to construct explicitly four families of optimal codes, namely, $[[6,2,3]]_p$, $[[7,3,3]]_p$, $[[8,2,4]]_p$ and $[[8,4,3]]_p$ for any odd dimension $p$ and a family of nonadditive code $((5,p,3))_p$ for arbitrary $p>3$. In the case of composite numbers as d…
Hybrid codes simultaneously encode both quantum and classical information, allowing for the transmission of both across a quantum channel. We construct a family of nonbinary error-detecting hybrid stabilizer codes that can detect one error while also encoding a single classical bit over the residue class rings $\mathbb{Z}_{q}$ inspired by constructions of nonbinary non-additive codes.
We present a decoder for nonbinary CWS quantum codes using the structure of union codes. The decoder runs in two steps: first we use a union of stabilizer codes to detect a sequence of errors, and second we build a new code, called union code, that allows to correct the errors.
Four quantum code constructions generating several new families of good nonbinary quantum nonprimitive non-narrow-sense Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes are presented in this paper. The first two ones are based on Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) construction derived from two nonprimitive BCH codes, not necessarily self-orthogonal. The third one is based on nonbinary Steane's enlargement of CSS codes applied to suitable sub-families of nonprimitive non-narrow-sense BCH codes. The fourth construction is derived from suitable sub-families of Hermitian self-orthogonal nonprimitive non-narrow-se…
One formidable difficulty in quantum communication and computation is to protect information-carrying quantum states against undesired interactions with the environment. In past years, many good quantum error-correcting codes had been derived as binary stabilizer codes. Fault-tolerant quantum computation prompted the study of nonbinary quantum codes, but the theory of such codes is not as advanced as that of binary quantum codes. This paper describes the basic theory of stabilizer codes over finite fields. The relation between stabilizer codes and general quantum codes is clarified by introduc…
We introduce the concept of generalized concatenated quantum codes. This generalized concatenation method provides a systematical way for constructing good quantum codes, both stabilizer codes and nonadditive codes. Using this method, we construct families of new single-error-correcting nonadditive quantum codes, in both binary and nonbinary cases, which not only outperform any stabilizer codes for finite block length, but also asymptotically achieve the quantum Hamming bound for large block length.
A quantum stabilizer code over GF$(q)$ corresponds to a classical additive code over GF$(q^2)$ that is self-orthogonal with respect to a symplectic inner product. We study the decoding of quantum low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over binary finite fields GF$(q=2^l)$ by the sum-product algorithm, also known as belief propagation (BP). Conventionally, a message in a nonbinary BP for quantum codes over GF$(2^l)$ represents a probability vector over GF$(2^{2l})$, inducing high decoding complexity. In this paper, we explore the property of the symplectic inner product and show that scalar mess…
We propose a systematic scheme for the construction of graphs associated with binary stabilizer codes. The scheme is characterized by three main steps: first, the stabilizer code is realized as a codeword-stabilized (CWS) quantum code; second, the canonical form of the CWS code is uncovered; third, the input vertices are attached to the graphs. To check the effectiveness of the scheme, we discuss several graphical constructions of various useful stabilizer codes characterized by single and multi-qubit encoding operators. In particular, the error-correcting capabilities of such quantum codes ar…
In this note, we present a construction of new nonbinary quantum codes with good parameters. These codes are obtained by applying the Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) construction. In order to do this, we show the existence of (classical) cyclic codes whose defining set consists of only one cyclotomic coset containing at least two consecutive integers.
Proving the quantum Hamming bound for degenerate nonbinary stabilizer codes has been an open problem for a decade. In this note, I prove this bound for double error-correcting degenerate stabilizer codes. Also, I compute the maximum length of single and double error-correcting MDS stabilizer codes over finite fields.
The importance of quantum error correction in paving the way to build a practical quantum computer is no longer in doubt. This dissertation makes a threefold contribution to the mathematical theory of quantum error-correcting codes. Firstly, it extends the framework of an important class of quantum codes -- nonbinary stabilizer codes. It clarifies the connections of stabilizer codes to classical codes over quadratic extension fields, provides many new constructions of quantum codes, and develops further the theory of optimal quantum codes and punctured quantum codes. Secondly, it contributes t…
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.
Codeword stabilized quantum codes provide a unified approach to constructing quantum error-correcting codes, including both additive and non-additive quantum codes. Standard codeword stabilized quantum codes encode quantum information into subspaces. The more general notion of encoding quantum information into a subsystem is known as an operator (or subsystem) quantum error correcting code. Most operator codes studied to date are based in the usual stabilizer formalism. We introduce operator quantum codes based on the codeword stabilized quantum code framework. Based on the necessary and suffi…
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 …
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…
A famous open problem in the theory of quantum error-correcting codes is whether or not the parameters of an impure quantum code can violate the quantum Hamming bound for pure quantum codes. We partially solve this problem. We demonstrate that there exists a threshold such that an arbitrary quantum code must obey the quantum Hamming bound whenever . We list some values of for small d and binary quantum codes.
We provide a construction for quantum codes (hermitian-self-orthogonal codes over GF(4)) starting from cyclic codes over GF(4^m). We also provide examples of these codes some of which meet the known bounds for quantum codes.
Entangled qubit can increase the capacity of quantum error correcting codes based on stabilizer codes. In addition, by using entanglement quantum stabilizer codes can be construct from classical linear codes that do not satisfy the dual-containing constraint. We show that it is possible to construct both additive and non-additive quantum codes using the codeword stabilized quantum code framework. Nonadditive codes may offer improved performance over the more common sta- bilizer codes. Like other entanglement-assisted codes, the encoding procedure acts only the qubits on Alice's side, and only …
We show that quantum Reed-Solomon codes constructed from classical Reed-Solomon codes can approach the capacity on the quantum erasure channel of $d$-level systems for large dimension $d$. We study the performance of one-way quantum repeaters with these codes and obtain a significant improvement in key generation rate compared to previously investigated encoding schemes with quantum parity codes and quantum polynomial codes. We also compare the three generation of quantum repeaters using quantum Reed-Solomon codes and identify parameter regimes where each generation performs the best.
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.
In this work, we study the Codeword Stabilized Quantum Codes (CWS codes) a generalization of the stabilizers quantum codes using a new approach, the algebraic structure of modules, a generalization of linear spaces. We show then a new result that relates CWS codes with stabilizer codes generalizing results in the literature.
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 theory of quantum error correction was established more than a decade ago as the primary tool for fighting decoherence in quantum information processing. Although great progress has already been made in this field, limited methods are available in constructing new quantum error correction codes from old codes. Here we exhibit a simple and general method to construct new quantum error correction codes by nesting certain quantum codes together. The problem of finding long quantum error correction codes is reduced to that of searching several short length quantum codes with certain properties…
Controlling operational errors and decoherence is one of the major challenges facing the field of quantum computation and other attempts to create specified many-particle entangled states. The field of quantum error correction has developed to meet this challenge. A group-theoretical structure and associated subclass of quantum codes, the stabilizer codes, has proved particularly fruitful in producing codes and in understanding the structure of both specific codes and classes of codes. I will give an overview of the field of quantum error correction and the formalism of stabilizer codes. In th…
A five-qubit codeword stabilized quantum code is implemented in a seven-qubit system using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Our experiment implements a good nonadditive quantum code which encodes a larger Hilbert space than any stabilizer code with the same length and capable of correcting the same kind of errors. The experimentally measured quantum coherence is shown to be robust against artificially introduced errors, benchmarking the success in implementing the quantum error correction code. Given the typical decoherence time of the system, our experiment illustrates the ability of coheren…
After a brief introduction to both quantum computation and quantum error correction, we show how to construct quantum error-correcting codes based on classical BCH codes. With these codes, decoding can exploit additional information about the position of errors. This error model - the quantum erasure channel - is discussed. Finally, parameters of quantum BCH codes are provided.
Quantum error correction is an indispensable ingredient for scalable quantum computing. In this Perspective we discuss a particular class of quantum codes called low-density parity-check (LDPC) quantum codes. The codes we discuss are alternatives to the surface code, which is the currently leading candidate to implement quantum fault-tolerance. We introduce the zoo of LDPC quantum codes and discuss their potential for making quantum computers robust against noise. In particular, we explain recent advances in the theory of LDPC quantum codes related to certain product constructions and discuss …
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…
Quantum convolutional code was introduced recently as an alternative way to protect vital quantum information. To complete the analysis of quantum convolutional code, I report a way to decode certain quantum convolutional codes based on the classical Viterbi decoding algorithm. This decoding algorithm is optimal for a memoryless channel. I also report three simple criteria to test if decoding errors in a quantum convolutional code will terminate after a finite number of decoding steps whenever the Hilbert space dimension of each quantum register is a prime power. Finally, I show that certain q…
Using the notion of generalized weight we improve estimates on the parameters of quantum codes obtained by Steane's construction from binary codes. This yields several new families of quantum codes.
We show that within any quantum stabilizer code there lurks a classical binary linear code with similar error-correcting capabilities, thereby demonstrating new connections between quantum codes and classical codes. Using this result -- which applies to degenerate as well as nondegenerate codes -- previously established necessary conditions for classical linear codes can be easily translated into necessary conditions for quantum stabilizer codes. Examples of specific consequences are: for a quantum channel subject to a delta-fraction of errors, the best asymptotic capacity attainable by any st…
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…
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.
This is a semi-popular overview of quantum entanglement as an important physical resource in the field of data security and quantum computing. After a brief outline of entanglement's key role in philosophical debates about the meaning of quantum mechanics I describe its current impact on both cryptography and cryptanalysis. The paper is based on the lecture given at the conference "Geometric Issues in the Foundations of Science" (Oxford, June 1996) in honor of Roger Penrose.
We introduce quantum pin codes: a class of quantum CSS codes. Quantum pin codes are a generalization of quantum color codes and Reed-Muller codes and share a lot of their structure and properties. Pin codes have gauge operators, an unfolding procedure and their stabilizers form so-called $\ell$-orthogonal spaces meaning that the joint overlap between any $\ell$ stabilizer elements is always even. This last feature makes them interesting for devising magic-state distillation protocols, for instance by using puncturing techniques. We study examples of these codes and their properties.
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.
We show how good quantum error-correcting codes can be constructed using generalized concatenation. The inner codes are quantum codes, the outer codes can be linear or nonlinear classical codes. Many new good codes are found, including both stabilizer codes as well as so-called nonadditive codes.
Several upper bounds on the size of quantum codes are derived using the linear programming approach. These bounds are strengthened for the linear quantum codes.
A family of quantum codes of increasing block length with positive rate is asymptotically good if the ratio of its distance to its block length approaches a positive constant. The asymptotic quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound states that there exist $q$-ary quantum codes of sufficiently long block length $N$ having fixed rate $R$ with distance at least $N H^{-1}_{q^2}((1-R)/2)$, where $H_{q^2}$ is the $q^2$-ary entropy function. For $q < 7$, only random quantum codes are known to asymptotically attain the quantum GV bound. However, random codes have little structure. In this paper, we genera…
The parameters of a nondegenerate quantum code must obey the Hamming bound. An important open problem in quantum coding theory is whether or not the parameters of a degenerate quantum code can violate this bound for nondegenerate quantum codes. In this paper we show that Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes with alphabet $q\geq 5$ cannot beat the quantum Hamming bound. We prove a quantum version of the Griesmer bound for the CSS codes which allows us to strengthen the Rains' bound that an $[[n,k,d]]_2$ code cannot correct more than $\floor{(n+1)/6}$ errors to $\floor{(n-k+1)/6}$. Additionally, w…
Good quantum codes, such as quantum MDS codes, are typically nondegenerate, meaning that errors of small weight require active error-correction, which is--paradoxically--itself prone to errors. Decoherence free subspaces, on the other hand, do not require active error correction, but perform poorly in terms of minimum distance. In this paper, examples of degenerate quantum codes are constructed that have better minimum distance than decoherence free subspaces and allow some errors of small weight that do not require active error correction. In particular, two new families of [[n,1,>= sqrt(n)]]…
Graphs are closely related to quantum error-correcting codes: every stabilizer code is locally equivalent to a graph code, and every codeword stabilized code can be described by a graph and a classical code. For the construction of good quantum codes of relatively large block length, concatenated quantum codes and their generalizations play an important role. We develop a systematic method for constructing concatenated quantum codes based on "graph concatenation", where graphs representing the inner and outer codes are concatenated via a simple graph operation called "generalized local complem…
Quantum synchronizable codes are kinds of quantum error-correcting codes that can not only correct the effects of quantum noise on qubits but also the misalignment in block synchronization. In this paper, a new method for construct quantum synchronizable codes from negacyclic codes are proposed, where the length of these negacyclic codes are $p$ and $pq$. Through this method, the quantum synchronizable code possesses optimal or almost optimal error-correcting capability towards bits errors and phase errors, since the negacyclic codes we used are optimal or almost optimal. Moreover, this paper …
We construct a new family of quantum MDS codes from classical generalized Reed-Solomon codes and derive the necessary and sufficient condition under which these quantum codes exist. We also give code bounds and show how to construct them analytically. We find that existing quantum MDS codes can be unified under these codes in the sense that when a quantum MDS code exists, then a quantum code of this type with the same parameters also exists. Thus as far as is known at present, they are the most important family of quantum MDS codes.
We explicitly construct an infinite family of asymptotically good concatenated quantum stabilizer codes where the outer code uses CSS-type quantum Reed-Solomon code and the inner code uses a set of special quantum codes. In the field of quantum error-correcting codes, this is the first time that a family of asymptotically good quantum codes is derived from bad codes. Its occurrence supplies a gap in quantum coding theory.
We solve the problem of the classification of perfect quantum codes. We prove that the only nontrivial perfect quantum codes are those with the parameters . There exist no other nontrivial perfect quantum codes.
Asymmetric quantum error-correcting codes are quantum codes defined over biased quantum channels: qubit-flip and phase-shift errors may have equal or different probabilities. The code construction is the Calderbank-Shor-Steane construction based on two linear codes. We present families of toric surfaces, toric codes and associated asymmetric quantum error-correcting codes.
