Bhattacharyya parameter of monomials codes for the Binary Erasure Channel: from pointwise to average reliability

Monomial codes were recently equipped with partial order relations, fact that allowed researchers to discover structural properties and efficient algorithm for constructing polar codes. Here, we refine the existing order relations in the particular case of Binary Erasure Channel. The new order relation takes us closer to the ultimate order relation induced by the pointwise evaluation of the Bhattacharyya parameter of the synthetic channels. The best we can hope for is still a partial order relation. To overcome this issue we appeal to related technique from network theory. Reliability network theory was recently used in the context of polar coding and more generally in connection with decreasing monomial codes. In this article, we investigate how the concept of average reliability is applied for polar codes designed for the binary erasure channel. Instead of minimizing the error probability of the synthetic channels, for a particular value of the erasure parameter p, our codes minimize the average error probability of the synthetic channels. By means of basic network theory results we determine a closed formula for the average reliability of a particular synthetic channel, that recently gain the attention of researchers.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. Submitted for possible publicatio

Weight Distribution of Classical Codes Influences Robust Quantum Metrology

Quantum metrology (QM) is expected to be a prominent use-case of quantum technologies. However, noise easily degrades these quantum probe states, and negates the quantum advantage they would have offered in a noiseless setting. Although quantum error correction (QEC) can help tackle noise, fault-tolerant methods are too resource intensive for near-term use. Hence, a strategy for (near-term) robust QM that is easily adaptable to future QEC-based QM is desirable. Here, we propose such an architecture by studying the performance of quantum probe states that are constructed from $[n,k,d]$ binary block codes of minimum distance $d \geq t+1$. Such states can be interpreted as a logical state of a CSS code whose logical $X$ group is defined by the aforesaid binary code. When a constant, $t$, number of qubits of the quantum probe state are erased, using the quantum Fisher information (QFI) we show that the resultant noisy probe can give an estimate of the magnetic field with a precision that scales inversely with the variances of the weight distributions of the corresponding $2^t$ shortened codes. If $C$ is any code concatenated with inner repetition codes of length linear in $n$, a quantum advantage in QM is possible. Hence, given any CSS code of constant length, concatenation with repetition codes of length linear in $n$ is asymptotically optimal for QM with a constant number of erasure errors. We also explicitly construct an observable that when measured on such noisy code-inspired probe states, yields a precision on the magnetic field strength that also exhibits a quantum advantage in the limit of vanishing magnetic field strength. We emphasize that, despite the use of coding-theoretic methods, our results do not involve syndrome measurements or error correction. We complement our results with examples of probe states constructed from Reed-Muller codes.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure

A New Family of Fault Tolerant Quantum Reed-Muller Codes

Fault tolerant quantum computation is a critical step in the development of practical quantum computers. Unfortunately, not every quantum error correcting code can be used for fault tolerant computation. Rengaswamy et. al. define CSS-T codes, which are CSS codes that admit the transversal application of the T gate, which is a key step in achieving fault tolerant computation. They then present a family of quantum Reed-Muller fault tolerant codes. Their family of codes admits a transversal T gate, but the asymptotic rate of the family is zero. We build on their work by reframing their CSS-T conditions using the concept of self-orthogonality. Using this framework, we define an alternative family of quantum Reed-Muller fault tolerant codes. Like the quantum Reed-Muller family found by Rengaswamy et. al., our family admits a transversal T gate, but also has a nonvanishing asymptotic rate. We prove three key results in our search for a Reed-Muller CSS-T family with a nonvanishing rate. First, we show an equivalence between a code containing a self-dual subcode and the dual of that code being self-orthogonal. This allows us to more easily determine if a pair of codes define a CSS-T code. Next, we show that if C1 and C2 are both Reed-Muller codes that form a CSS-T code, C1 must be self-orthogonal. This limits the rate of any family that is constructed solely from Reed-Muller codes. Lastly, we define a family of CSS-T codes by choosing C1 = RM(r, 2r + 1) and C2 = RM(0, 2r + 1) for some nonnegative integer r. We show that this family has an asymptotic rate of 1/2, and show that it is the only possible CSS-T family constructed only from Reed-Muller codes where C1 is self dual

Describing quantum metrology with erasure errors using weight distributions of classical codes

Quantum sensors are expected to be a prominent use-case of quantum technologies, but in practice, noise easily degrades their performance. Quantum sensors can for instance be afflicted with erasure errors. Here, we consider using quantum probe states with a structure that corresponds to classical $[n,k,d]$ binary block codes of minimum distance $d \geq t+1$. We obtain bounds on the ultimate precision that these probe states can give for estimating the unknown magnitude of a classical field after at most $t$ qubits of the quantum probe state are erased. We show that the quantum Fisher information is proportional to the variances of the weight distributions of the corresponding $2^t$ shortened codes. If the shortened codes of a fixed code with $d \geq t+1$ have a non-trivial weight distribution, then the probe states obtained by concatenating this code with repetition codes of increasing length enable asymptotically optimal field-sensing that passively tolerates up to $t$ erasure errors