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arXiv:1202.0052

3D local qupit quantum code without string logical operator

Isaac H. Kim

Published Jan 1, 2011• 19 citations
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Abstract

Recently Haah introduced a new quantum error correcting code embedded on a cubic lattice. One of the defining properties of this code is the absence of string logical operator. We present new codes with similar properties by relaxing the condition on the local particle dimension. The resulting code is well-defined when the local Hilbert space dimension is prime. These codes can be divided into two different classes: the local stabilizer generators are either symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the inversion operation. These is a nontrivial correspondence between these two classes. For any symmetric code without string logical operator, there exists a complementary antisymmetric code with the same property and vice versa. We derive a sufficient condition for the absence of string logical operator in terms of the algebraic constraints on the defining parameters of the code. Minimal number of local particle dimension which satisfies the condition is 5. These codes have logarithmic energy barrier for any logical error.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1202.0052

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Recently Haah introduced a new quantum error correcting code embedded on a cubic lattice. One of the defining properties of this code is the absence of string logical operator. We present new codes with similar properties by relaxing the condition on the local particle dimension. The resulting code is well-defined when the local Hilbert space dimension is prime. These codes can be divided into two different classes: the local stabilizer generators are either symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the inversion operation. These is a nontrivial correspondence between these two classes. For any symmetric code without string logical operator, there exists a complementary antisymmetric code with the same property and vice versa. We derive a sufficient condition for the absence of string logical operator in terms of the algebraic constraints on the defining parameters of the code. Minimal number of local particle dimension which satisfies the condition is 5. These codes have logarithmic energy barrier for any logical error.
Quantum error-correcting codes (QECs) are essential components of quantum computation and have deep connections to quantum phases of matter. A key obstruction to passive self-correcting QECs is the presence of string logical operators, which can generate logical errors through constant-energy-barrier processes. Haah's Codes (fracton codes) showed that three-dimensional stabilizer codes can forbid such string logical operators, but their translation-invariant structure supports self-similar fractal logical operators with a logarithmic energy barrier. We introduce the qutrit random cubic codes, a family of local qutrit Calderbank-Shor-Steane stabilizer Hamiltonians with similar cube-check structure as Haah's Code 1 but built from spatially varying stabilizers. We prove that these models retain the no-string property and numerically observe that they have properties distinct from translation-invariant fracton codes: the smallest ground-state degeneracy exponent is k=2k=2k=2 for odd LLL and k=4k=4k=4 for even LLL; noncontractible plane-logical operators span the entire logical space; and charge-push diagnostics show that the self-similar fractal operators are absent. These results demonstrate that constrained randomness can fundamentally change the nature of stabilizer codes and improve their self-correction properties. They further point to broader families of quantum error-correcting codes and quantum phases beyond canonical topological and fracton orders.
We suggest concrete models for self-correcting quantum memory by reporting examples of local stabilizer codes in 3D that have no string logical operators. Previously known local stabilizer codes in 3D all have stringlike logical operators, which make the codes non-self-correcting. We introduce a notion of ``logical string segments'' to avoid difficulties in defining one-dimensional objects in discrete lattices. We prove that every stringlike logical operator of our code can be deformed to a disjoint union of short segments, each of which is in the stabilizer group. The code has surfacelike logical operators whose partial implementation has unsatisfied stabilizers along its boundary.
We suggest concrete models for self-correcting quantum memory by reporting examples of local stabilizer codes in 3D that have no string operators. Previously known local stabilizer codes in 3D all have string-like operators, which make the codes non-self-correcting. We introduce a notion of logical string segments to avoid difficulties in defining one dimensional objects in discrete lattices. We prove that every string-like operator of our code can be deformed to a disjoint union of short segments, and each segment is in the stabilizer group. The code has surface-like operators whose partial implementation has unsatisfied stabilizers along its boundary.
We study the structure of logical operators in local DDD-dimensional quantum codes, considering both subsystem codes with geometrically local gauge generators and codes defined by geometrically local commuting projectors. We show that if the code distance is ddd, then any logical operator can be supported on a set of specified geometry containing $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{d}$ qubits, where $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{d}{d}^{1/(D\ensuremath{-}1)}=O(n)$ and nnn is the code length. Our results place limitations on partially self-correcting quantum memories, in which at least some logical operators are protected by energy barriers that grow with system size. We also show that for any two-dimensional local commuting projector code there is a nontrivial logical ``string'' operator supported on a narrow strip, where the operator is only slightly entangling across any cut through the strip.
We study properties of stabilizer codes that permit a local description on a regular D -dimensional lattice. Specifically, we assume that the stabilizer group of a code (the gauge group for subsystem codes) can be generated by local Pauli operators such that the support of any generator is bounded by a hypercube of size O (1). Our first result concerns the optimal scaling of the distance d with the linear size of the lattice L . We prove an upper bound d = O ( L D -1 ) which is tight for D =1, 2. This bound applies to both subspace and subsystem stabilizer codes. Secondly, we analyze the suitability of stabilizer codes for building a self-correcting quantum memory. Any stabilizer code with geometrically local generators can be naturally transformed to a local Hamiltonian penalizing states that violate the stabilizer condition. A degenerate ground state of this Hamiltonian corresponds to the logical subspace of the code. We prove that for D =1, 2, different logical states can be mapped into each other by a sequence of single-qubit Pauli errors such that the energy of all intermediate states is upper bounded by a constant independent of the lattice size L . The same result holds if there are unused logical qubits that are treated as 'gauge qubits'. It demonstrates that a self-correcting quantum memory cannot be built using stabilizer codes in dimensions D =1, 2. This result is in sharp contrast with the existence of a classical self-correcting memory in the form of a two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnet. Our results leave open the possibility for a self-correcting quantum memory based on 2D subsystem codes or on 3D subspace or subsystem codes.
Haah's 3D cubic code was introduced as a candidate for a self-correcting quantum memory in three dimensions, using the absence of string logical operators to obstruct thermal errors. It has been a long-standing open question whether it is a self-correcting quantum memory. Even though the memory time was explored numerically, no analytical upper bound was known. Here, we settle this question rigorously and show that the cubic code thermalizes rapidly at every positive temperature. Our proof relies on the framework of [Commun. Math. Phys. 407, 195 (2026)] to turn a decay-of-correlations condition into a modified logarithmic Sobolev inequality for the Davies generator. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analytic proof of rapid mixing for all positive temperatures for any fracton code.