Subsystem qubit stabilizer code[1]
Description
Also called a gauge stabilizer code. A stabilizer code with some of its logical qubits denoted as gauge qubits and not used for storage of logical information. Note that this doesnt lead to new codes but does lead to new error correction and fault tolerance procedures. Subsystem codes are denoted by \([[n,k,r,d]]\), similar to stabilizer codes, but with an extra parameter \(r\) denoting the number of gauge qubits.
To create these codes proceed as follows. Choose \(2n\) operators \(\{ \tilde{X}_j,\tilde{Z}_j\}_{j=1}^n\) from \(\mathsf{P}_n\), the Pauli group on \(n\) qubits, such that they obey the same commutation relations as the regular \(n\)-qubit Pauli generators \( \{X_j,Z_j\}_{j=1}^n \) (the subscript on these latter operators indicates the single qubit the Pauli matrix acts on). The tilde operators might act on more than one physical (or bare) qubit but they behave as if they acted only on a single qubit. WLOG we can choose a stabilizer group as \( \mathsf{S} = \langle Z_1,\dots,Z_s \rangle \). It follows that the normalizer of \(\mathsf{S} \) is \( N(\mathsf{S}) = \langle i, \tilde{Z}_1,\dots, \tilde{Z}_n, \tilde{X}_{s+1},\dots, \tilde{X}_n \rangle \). We now choose a gauge group as \( \mathsf{G} = \langle i, \tilde{Z}_1,\dots, \tilde{Z}_s, \tilde{X}_{s+1}, \tilde{Z}_{s+1}, \dots, \tilde{X}_{s+r}, \tilde{Z}_{s+r} \rangle \) with \( s + r \leq n \). The logical group is choosen as \( \mathsf{L} = N(\mathsf{S})/\mathsf{G} \simeq \langle \tilde{X}_{s+r+1},\tilde{Z}_{s+r+1}, \dots, \tilde{X}_n,\tilde{Z}_n \rangle \). Now the codespace \( C \) is as usual the \(+1\) eigenspace of the stabilizer \( \mathsf{S} \). But the gauge and logical groups have further decomposed this space into \( C = A \otimes B \simeq (\mathbb{C}^2)^{\otimes k} \otimes (\mathbb{C}^2)^{\otimes r} \). Thus the Hilbert space is partitioned into 3 sets; \(k\) logical qubits, \(r\) gauge qubits, and \(s\) stabilizer qubits, with \(s+r+k=n\).
Protection
Detects errors on \(d-1\) qubits, corrects errors on \(\left\lfloor (d-1)/2 \right\rfloor\) qubits. More generally, a set of errors \( \{ E_a \} \) is correctable iff \( E_aE_b \not\in N(\mathsf{S}) \setminus \mathsf{G} \) for all pairs \(a,b\). The distance of the code is the minimal weight of operators in \( N(\mathsf{S}) \setminus \mathsf{G}\).
There is an upper bound of \(d = O(L^{D-1})\) on the distance [2] of geometrically local subsystem stabilizer codes arranged in a \(D\)-dimensional lattice of length \(L\) with \(n=L^D\). More generally, there is a tradeoff theorem [3] stating that, for any logical operator, there is an equivalent logical operator with weight \(\tilde{d}\) such that \(\tilde{d}d^{1/(D-1)}=O(L^{D})\).
Gates
Decoding
Fault Tolerance
Code Capacity Threshold
Notes
Parent
Children
- Abelian topological code — All premodular abelian topological orders can be realized as modular-qudit subsystem stabilizer codes [6].
- Bravyi-Bacon-Shor (BBS) code
- Heavy-hexagon code
- Subsystem color code
- Subsystem rotated surface code
- Subsystem surface code
Cousins
- Qubit stabilizer code — Subsystem stabilizer codes reduce to stabilizer codes when there are no gauge qubits.
- Balanced product code — Distance balancing is used to form balanced-product subsystem codes [7].
- Distance-balanced code
- Floquet code — This code can be viewed as a subsystem stabilizer code, albeit one with less logical qubits.
- Subsystem modular-qudit stabilizer code — Subsystem modular-qudit stabilizer codes reduce to subsystem qubit stabilizer codes for qudit dimension \(q=2\).
References
- [1]
- D. Poulin, “Stabilizer Formalism for Operator Quantum Error Correction”, Physical Review Letters 95, (2005). DOI; quant-ph/0508131
- [2]
- S. Bravyi and B. Terhal, “A no-go theorem for a two-dimensional self-correcting quantum memory based on stabilizer codes”, New Journal of Physics 11, 043029 (2009). DOI; 0810.1983
- [3]
- J. Haah and J. Preskill, “Logical-operator tradeoff for local quantum codes”, Physical Review A 86, (2012). DOI; 1011.3529
- [4]
- Darren Banfield and Alastair Kay, “Implementing Logical Operators using Code Rewiring”. 2210.14074
- [5]
- C. T. Chubb and S. T. Flammia, “Statistical mechanical models for quantum codes with correlated noise”, Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré D 8, 269 (2021). DOI; 1809.10704
- [6]
- Tyler D. Ellison et al., “Pauli topological subsystem codes from Abelian anyon theories”. 2211.03798
- [7]
- N. P. Breuckmann and J. N. Eberhardt, “Balanced Product Quantum Codes”, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 67, 6653 (2021). DOI; 2012.09271
Page edit log
- Victor V. Albert (2022-03-17) — most recent
- Victor V. Albert (2021-12-16)
- Eric Kubischta (2021-12-14)
Zoo code information
Cite as:
“Subsystem qubit stabilizer code”, The Error Correction Zoo (V. V. Albert & P. Faist, eds.), 2023. https://errorcorrectionzoo.org/c/subsystem_stabilizer