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3D color code[1]

Description

Color code defined on a four-valent, four-colorable 3-colex in a 3-manifold. In the original colex realization, qubits sit on vertices, \(X\)-type stabilizers are attached to 3-cells, and \(Z\)-type stabilizers are attached to faces [1].

For a closed 3-manifold, the code encodes \(k=3h_1\) logical qubits, where \(h_1\) is the first Betti number [1]. Logical operators can be represented by colored strings and colored membranes. Excitations consist of point-like color charges at cell defects and loop-like color fluxes at face defects; winding a \(p\)-charge around a \(pq\)-flux produces a \(-1\) phase [1].

There are 101 different types of boundaries for any uniform tiling [2]; this was shown for the great rhombated cubic honeycomb (a.k.a. cantitruncated cubic honeycomb) uniform tiling, but is valid for general uniform tilings.

Protection

On a closed 3-manifold with first Betti number \(h_1\), the 3D color code encodes \(k=3h_1\) logical qubits [1].

Transversal Gates

Transversal action of \(T\) gates on color codes on general 3-manifolds realizes a \(CCZ\) gate on three logical qubits and is related to a topological invariant that is called the triple intersection number; this gate is related to the fact that this code admits a cup product structure [3].Transversal \(S\) gate on color codes on general 3-manifolds corresponds to a higher-form symmetry [3].Universal transversal gates can be achieved using lattice surgery or code deformation [4,5].Families of 3D color codes on quasi-hyperbolic, fibre-bundle, and Torelli mapping-torus 3-manifolds support collective logical \(CCZ\) gates via transversal \(T\) and individually addressable, parallelizable logical \(CZ\) gates via transversal \(S\) on codimension-1 submanifolds. Their rate-distance scalings are \(O(1/\log n)\) with \(d=O(\log n)\), \(O(1/\log^2 n)\) with \(d=\Omega(\log^2 n)\), and \(O(1)\) with distance scaling unknown, respectively [3].

Gates

Magic-state distillation protocols [6].Non-clifford gates can be implemented via code switching [6].

Decoding

Decoder that maps 3D color code to three copies of the 3D surface code [7].

Cousins

  • 3D surface code— On closed 3-manifolds, the 3D color code is equivalent to multiple decoupled copies of the 3D surface code via a local constant-depth Clifford circuit [810]. This process can be viewed as an ungauging [1120] of certain symmetries. This mapping can also be done via code concatenation [21]. In contrast to the 3D surface/toric code, the original colex Hamiltonian can be viewed as both a string-net condensate and a membrane-net condensate [1].
  • Concatenated qubit code— On closed 3-manifolds, the 3D color code is equivalent to multiple decoupled copies of the 3D surface code via a local constant-depth Clifford circuit [810]. This process can be viewed as an ungauging [1120] of certain symmetries. This mapping can also be done via code concatenation [21].
  • XS stabilizer code— The 3D color code on a particular lattice admits XS stabilizers; see talk by M. Kesselring at the 2020 FTQC conference.
  • Symmetry-protected topological (SPT) code— Transversal action of \(T\) gates on color codes on general 3-manifolds realizes a \(CCZ\) gate on three logical qubits and is related to a topological invariant that is called the triple intersection number [3]. Transversal \(S\) gate on color codes on general 3-manifolds corresponds to a higher-form symmetry [3].
  • 3D DA color code— At certain measurement rounds, the 3D DA color code realizes the instantaneous stabilizer group (ISG) of the 3D color code [22; Sec. VI.A].
  • Brickwork \(XS\) stabilizer code— The brickwork \(XS\) stabilizer code can be obtained from a 3D color code [23].
  • Haah cubic code (CC)— The 3D color and cubic code families both include 3D codes that do not admit string-like operators.
  • 2D color code— Gauge fixing can be used to code switch between 2D and 3D color codes, thereby yielding fault-tolerant computation with constant time overhead using only local quantum operations [24]. There is a fault-tolerant measurement-free scheme for code switching between 2D and 3D color codes [25].
  • 3D subsystem color code— On a fixed 3D lattice, the 3D subsystem color code is gauge-related to the 3D color code; switching between the \((1,1)\) and \((1,2)\) members yields transversal \(CNOT\), \(H\), and \(R_3\) gates [26].

References

[1]
H. Bombin and M. A. Martin-Delgado, “Exact topological quantum order inD=3and beyond: Branyons and brane-net condensates”, Physical Review B 75, (2007) arXiv:cond-mat/0607736 DOI
[2]
Z. Song and G. Zhu, “Magic Boundaries of 3D Color Codes”, Quantum 9, 1831 (2025) arXiv:2404.05033 DOI
[3]
G. Zhu, S. Sikander, E. Portnoy, A. W. Cross, and B. J. Brown, “Non-Clifford and Parallelizable Fault-Tolerant Logical Gates on Constant and Almost-Constant Rate Homological Quantum Low-Density Parity-Check Codes via Higher Symmetries”, PRX Quantum 6, (2025) arXiv:2310.16982 DOI
[4]
H. Bombin, “Clifford gates by code deformation”, New Journal of Physics 13, 043005 (2011) arXiv:1006.5260 DOI
[5]
A. G. Fowler, “Two-dimensional color-code quantum computation”, Physical Review A 83, (2011) arXiv:0806.4827 DOI
[6]
A. M. Kubica, The ABCs of the Color Code: A Study of Topological Quantum Codes as Toy Models for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation and Quantum Phases Of Matter, California Institute of Technology, 2018 DOI
[7]
A. B. Aloshious and P. K. Sarvepalli, “Projecting three-dimensional color codes onto three-dimensional toric codes”, Physical Review A 98, (2018) arXiv:1606.00960 DOI
[8]
B. Yoshida, “Classification of quantum phases and topology of logical operators in an exactly solved model of quantum codes”, Annals of Physics 326, 15 (2011) arXiv:1007.4601 DOI
[9]
A. Kubica, B. Yoshida, and F. Pastawski, “Unfolding the color code”, New Journal of Physics 17, 083026 (2015) arXiv:1503.02065 DOI
[10]
A. B. Aloshious, A. N. Bhagoji, and P. K. Sarvepalli, “On the Local Equivalence of 2D Color Codes and Surface Codes with Applications”, (2018) arXiv:1804.00866
[11]
M. Levin and Z.-C. Gu, “Braiding statistics approach to symmetry-protected topological phases”, Physical Review B 86, (2012) arXiv:1202.3120 DOI
[12]
J. Haegeman, K. Van Acoleyen, N. Schuch, J. I. Cirac, and F. Verstraete, “Gauging Quantum States: From Global to Local Symmetries in Many-Body Systems”, Physical Review X 5, (2015) arXiv:1407.1025 DOI
[13]
S. Vijay, J. Haah, and L. Fu, “Fracton topological order, generalized lattice gauge theory, and duality”, Physical Review B 94, (2016) arXiv:1603.04442 DOI
[14]
D. J. Williamson, “Fractal symmetries: Ungauging the cubic code”, Physical Review B 94, (2016) arXiv:1603.05182 DOI
[15]
L. Bhardwaj, D. Gaiotto, and A. Kapustin, “State sum constructions of spin-TFTs and string net constructions of fermionic phases of matter”, Journal of High Energy Physics 2017, (2017) arXiv:1605.01640 DOI
[16]
A. Kubica and B. Yoshida, “Ungauging quantum error-correcting codes”, (2018) arXiv:1805.01836
[17]
W. Shirley, K. Slagle, and X. Chen, “Foliated fracton order from gauging subsystem symmetries”, SciPost Physics 6, (2019) arXiv:1806.08679 DOI
[18]
K. Dolev, V. Calvera, S. S. Cree, and D. J. Williamson, “Gauging the bulk: generalized gauging maps and holographic codes”, Journal of High Energy Physics 2022, (2022) arXiv:2108.11402 DOI
[19]
T. Rakovszky and V. Khemani, “The Physics of (good) LDPC Codes I. Gauging and dualities”, (2023) arXiv:2310.16032
[20]
D. J. Williamson and T. J. Yoder, “Low-overhead fault-tolerant quantum computation by gauging logical operators”, (2024) arXiv:2410.02213
[21]
M. Vasmer and D. E. Browne, “Three-dimensional surface codes: Transversal gates and fault-tolerant architectures”, Physical Review A 100, (2019) arXiv:1801.04255 DOI
[22]
M. Davydova, N. Tantivasadakarn, S. Balasubramanian, and D. Aasen, “Quantum computation from dynamic automorphism codes”, Quantum 8, 1448 (2024) arXiv:2307.10353 DOI
[23]
M. Davydova, A. Bauer, J. C. M. de la Fuente, M. Webster, D. J. Williamson, and B. J. Brown, “Universal fault tolerant quantum computation in 2D without getting tied in knots”, (2025) arXiv:2503.15751
[24]
H. Bombin, “Dimensional Jump in Quantum Error Correction”, (2016) arXiv:1412.5079
[25]
F. Butt, D. F. Locher, K. Brechtelsbauer, H. P. Büchler, and M. Müller, “Measurement-free, scalable and fault-tolerant universal quantum computing”, (2024) arXiv:2410.13568
[26]
H. Bombin, “Gauge Color Codes: Optimal Transversal Gates and Gauge Fixing in Topological Stabilizer Codes”, (2015) arXiv:1311.0879
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Zoo Code ID: 3d_color

Cite as:
“3D color code”, The Error Correction Zoo (V. V. Albert & P. Faist, eds.), 2023. https://errorcorrectionzoo.org/c/3d_color
BibTeX:
@incollection{eczoo_3d_color, title={3D color code}, booktitle={The Error Correction Zoo}, year={2023}, editor={Albert, Victor V. and Faist, Philippe}, url={https://errorcorrectionzoo.org/c/3d_color} }
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“3D color code”, The Error Correction Zoo (V. V. Albert & P. Faist, eds.), 2023. https://errorcorrectionzoo.org/c/3d_color

Github: https://github.com/errorcorrectionzoo/eczoo_data/edit/main/codes/quantum/qubits/stabilizer/topological/color/3d_color/3d_color.yml.