We present analytic estimates of the performances of various approximate
quantum error correction schemes for the generalized amplitude damping (GAD)
qubit channel. Specifically, we consider both stabilizer and nonadditive
quantum codes. The performance of such error-correcting schemes is quantified
by means of the entanglement fidelity as a function of the damping probability
and the non-zero environmental temperature. The recovery scheme employed
throughout our work applies, in principle, to arbitrary quantum codes and is
the analogue of the perfect Knill-Laflamme recovery scheme adapted to the
approximate quantum error correction framework for the GAD error model. We also
analytically recover and/or clarify some previously known numerical results in
the limiting case of vanishing temperature of the environment, the well-known
traditional amplitude damping channel. In addition, our study suggests that
degenerate stabilizer codes and self-complementary nonadditive codes are
especially suitable for the error correction of the GAD noise model. Finally,
comparing the properly normalized entanglement fidelities of the best
performant stabilizer and nonadditive codes characterized by the same length,
we show that nonadditive codes outperform stabilizer codes not only in terms of
encoded dimension but also in terms of entanglement fidelity.Comment: 44 pages, 8 figures, improved v
