Quantum Codes from Toric Surfaces

A theory for constructing quantum error correcting codes from Toric surfaces by the Calderbank-Shor-Steane method is presented. In particular we study the method on toric Hirzebruch surfaces. The results are obtained by constructing a dualizing differential form for the toric surface and by using the cohomology and the intersection theory of toric varieties. In earlier work the author developed methods to construct linear error correcting codes from toric varieties and derive the code parameters using the cohomology and the intersection theory on toric varieties. This method is generalized in section to construct linear codes suitable for constructing quantum codes by the Calderbank-Shor-Steane method. Essential for the theory is the existence and the application of a dualizing differential form on the toric surface. A.R. Calderbank, P.W. Shor and A.M. Steane produced stabilizer codes from linear codes containing their dual codes. These two constructions are merged to obtain results for toric surfaces. Similar merging has been done for algebraic curves with different methods by A. Ashikhmin, S. Litsyn and M.A. Tsfasman.Comment: IEEE copyrigh

Homological Error Correction: Classical and Quantum Codes

We prove several theorems characterizing the existence of homological error correction codes both classically and quantumly. Not every classical code is homological, but we find a family of classical homological codes saturating the Hamming bound. In the quantum case, we show that for non-orientable surfaces it is impossible to construct homological codes based on qudits of dimension $D>2$, while for orientable surfaces with boundaries it is possible to construct them for arbitrary dimension $D$. We give a method to obtain planar homological codes based on the construction of quantum codes on compact surfaces without boundaries. We show how the original Shor's 9-qubit code can be visualized as a homological quantum code. We study the problem of constructing quantum codes with optimal encoding rate. In the particular case of toric codes we construct an optimal family and give an explicit proof of its optimality. For homological quantum codes on surfaces of arbitrary genus we also construct a family of codes asymptotically attaining the maximum possible encoding rate. We provide the tools of homology group theory for graphs embedded on surfaces in a self-contained manner.Comment: Revtex4 fil

Algebraic Quantum Error-Correction Codes

Based on the group structure of a unitary Lie algebra, a scheme is provided to systematically and exhaustively generate quantum error correction codes, including the additive and nonadditive codes. The syndromes in the process of error-correction distinguished by different orthogonal vector subspaces, the coset subspaces. Moreover, the generated codes can be classified into four types with respect to the spinors in the unitary Lie algebra and a chosen initial quantum state

Non-binary Unitary Error Bases and Quantum Codes

Error operator bases for systems of any dimension are defined and natural generalizations of the bit/sign flip error basis for qubits are given. These bases allow generalizing the construction of quantum codes based on eigenspaces of Abelian groups. As a consequence, quantum codes can be constructed from linear codes over \ints_n for any $n$. The generalization of the punctured code construction leads to many codes which permit transversal (i.e. fault tolerant) implementations of certain operations compatible with the error basis.Comment: 10 pages, preliminary repor