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arXiv:2009.01244 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Quantum stabilizer codes, lattices, and CFTs

Anatoly Y. Dymarsky, Alfred D. Shapere

Published Mar 1, 2021• 32 citations

Abstract

Abstract There is a rich connection between classical error-correcting codes, Euclidean lattices, and chiral conformal field theories. Here we show that quantum error-correcting codes, those of the stabilizer type, are related to Lorentzian lattices and non-chiral CFTs. More specifically, real self-dual stabilizer codes can be associated with even self-dual Lorentzian lattices, and thus define Narain CFTs. We dub the resulting theories code CFTs and study their properties. T-duality transformations of a code CFT, at the level of the underlying code, reduce to code equivalences. By means of such equivalences, any stabilizer code can be reduced to a graph code. We can therefore represent code CFTs by graphs. We study code CFTs with small central charge c = n ≤ 12, and find many interesting examples. Among them is a non-chiral E8 theory, which is based on the root lattice of E8 understood as an even self-dual Lorentzian lattice. By analyzing all graphs with n ≤ 8 nodes we find many pairs and triples of physically distinct isospectral theories. We also construct numerous modular invariant functions satisfying all the basic properties expected of the CFT partition function, yet which are not partition functions of any known CFTs. We consider the ensemble average over all code theories, calculate the corresponding partition function, and discuss its possible holographic interpretation. The paper is written in a self-contained manner, and includes an extensive pedagogical introduction and many explicit examples.

DOI: 10.1007/jhep03(2021)160

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A bstract We construct Narain conformal field theories (CFTs) from quantum subsystem codes, a more comprehensive class of quantum error-correcting codes than quantum stabilizer codes, for qudit systems of prime dimensions. The resulting code CFTs exhibit a global ℤ 2 symmetry, enabling us to perform the ℤ 2 -gauging to derive their orbifolded and fermionized theories when the symmetry is non-anomalous. We classify a subset of these subsystem code CFTs using weighted oriented graphs and enumerate those with small central charges. Consequently, we identify several bosonic code CFTs self-dual under the ℤ 2 -orbifold, new supersymmetric code CFTs, and a few fermionic code CFTs with spontaneously broken supersymmetry.

We study general maps from the space of rational conformal field theories (CFTs) with a fixed chiral algebra and associated Chern-Simons (CS) theories to the space of qudit stabilizer codes with a fixed generalized Pauli group. We consider certain natural constraints on such a map and show that the map can be described as a graph homomorphism from an orbifold graph, which captures the orbifold structure of CFTs, to a code graph, which captures the structure of self-dual stabilizer codes. By studying explicit examples, we show that this graph homomorphism cannot always be a graph embedding. However, we construct a physically motivated map from universal orbifold subgraphs of CFTs to operators in a generalized Pauli group. We show that this map results in a self-dual stabilizer code if and only if the surface operators in the bulk CS theories corresponding to the CFTs in question are self-dual. For CFTs admitting a stabilizer code description, we show that the full Abelianized generalized Pauli group can be obtained from twisted sectors of certain 0-form symmetries of the CFT. Finally, we connect our construction with SymTFTs, and we argue that many equivalences between codes that arise in our setup correspond to equivalence classes of bulk topological surfaces under fusion with invertible surfaces. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Abstract Code CFTs are 2d conformal field theories defined by error-correcting codes. Recently, Dymarsky and Shapere generalized the construction of code CFTs to include quantum error-correcting codes. In this paper, we explore this connection at higher genus. We prove that the higher-genus partition functions take the form of polynomials of higher-weight theta functions, and that the higher-genus modular group acts as simple linear transformations on these polynomials. We explain how to solve the modular constraints explicitly, which we do for genus 2. The result is that modular invariance at genus 1 and genus 2 is much more constraining than genus 1 alone. This allows us to drastically reduce the space of possible code CFTs. We also consider a number of examples of “isospectral theories” — CFTs with the same genus 1 partition function — and we find that they have different genus 2 partition functions. Finally, we make connection to some 2d CFTs known from the modular bootstrap. The n = 4 theory conjectured to have the largest possible gap in Virasoro characters, the SO(8) WZW model, is a code CFT, allowing us to give an expression for its genus 2 partition function. We also find some other known CFTs which are not code theories but whose partition functions satisfy the same simple polynomial ansatz as the code theories. This leads us to speculate about the usefulness of the code polynomial form beyond the study of code CFTs.

Quantum subsystem codes, CFTs and their

\mathbb{Z}_2

-gaugings

We construct Narain conformal field theories (CFTs) from quantum subsystem codes, a more comprehensive class of quantum error-correcting codes than quantum stabilizer codes, for qudit systems of prime dimensions. The resulting code CFTs exhibit a global

\mathbb{Z}_2

symmetry, enabling us to perform the

\mathbb{Z}_2

-gauging to derive their orbifolded and fermionized theories when the symmetry is non-anomalous. We classify a subset of these subsystem code CFTs using weighted oriented graphs and enumerate those with small central charges. Consequently, we identify several bosonic code CFTs self-dual under the

\mathbb{Z}_2

-orbifold, new supersymmetric code CFTs, and a few fermionic code CFTs with spontaneously broken supersymmetry.

Abstract We generalize the construction of Narain conformal field theories (CFTs) from qudit stabilizer codes to the construction from quantum stabilizer codes over the finite field of prime power order ( $$ {\mathbbm{F}}_{p^m} $$ F p m with p prime and m ≥ 1) or over the ring ℤk with k > 1. Our construction results in rational CFTs, which cover a larger set of points in the moduli space of Narain CFTs than the previous one. We also propose a correspondence between a quantum stabilizer code with non-zero logical qubits and a finite set of Narain CFTs. We illustrate the correspondence with well-known stabilizer codes.