Storing quantum information in a quantum error correction code can protect it from errors, but the ability to transform the stored quantum information in a fault tolerant way is equally important. Logical Pauli group operators can be implemented on Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes, a commonly-studied category of codes, by applying a series of physical Pauli X and Z gates. Logical operators of this form are fault-tolerant because each qubit is acted upon by at most one gate, limiting the spread of errors, and are referred to as transversal logical operators. Identifying transversal logical operators outside the Pauli group is less well understood. Pauli operators are the first level of the Clifford hierarchy which is deeply connected to fault-tolerance and universality. In this work, we study transversal logical operators composed of single- and multi-qubit diagonal Clifford hierarchy gates. We demonstrate algorithms for identifying all transversal diagonal logical operators on a CSS code that are more general or have lower computational complexity than previous methods. We also show a method for constructing CSS codes that have a desired diagonal logical Clifford hierarchy operator implemented using single qubit phase gates. Our methods rely on representing operators composed of diagonal Clifford hierarchy gates as diagonal XP operators and this technique may have broader applications.
Storing quantum information in a quantum error correction code can protect it from errors, but the ability to transform the stored quantum information in a fault tolerant way is equally important. Logical Pauli group operators can be implemented on Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes, a commonly-studied category of codes, by applying a series of physical Pauli X and Z gates. Logical operators of this form are fault-tolerant because each qubit is acted upon by at most one gate, limiting the spread of errors, and are referred to as transversal logical operators. Identifying transversal logical operators outside the Pauli group is less well understood. Pauli operators are the first level of the Clifford hierarchy which is deeply connected to fault-tolerance and universality. In this work, we study transversal logical operators composed of single- and multi-qubit diagonal Clifford hierarchy gates. We demonstrate algorithms for identifying all transversal diagonal logical operators on a CSS code that are more general or have lower computational complexity than previous methods. We also show a method for constructing CSS codes that have a desired diagonal logical Clifford hierarchy operator implemented using single qubit phase gates. Our methods rely on representing operators composed of diagonal Clifford hierarchy gates as diagonal XP operators and this technique may have broader applications.
Abstract Storing quantum information in a quantum error correction code can protect it from errors, but the ability to transform the stored quantum information in a fault tolerant way is equally important. Logical Pauli group operators can be implemented on Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes, a commonly-studied category of codes, by applying a series of physical Pauli X and Z gates. Logical operators of this form are fault-tolerant because each qubit is acted upon by at most one gate, limiting the spread of errors, and are referred to as transversal logical operators. Identifying transversal logical operators outside the Pauli group is less well understood. Pauli operators are the first level of the Clifford hierarchy which is deeply connected to fault-tolerance and universality. In this work, we study transversal logical operators composed of single- and multi-qubit diagonal Clifford hierarchy gates. We demonstrate algorithms for identifying all transversal diagonal logical operators on a CSS code that are more general or have lower computational complexity than previous methods. We also show a method for constructing CSS codes that have a desired diagonal logical Clifford hierarchy operator implemented using single qubit phase gates. Our methods rely on representing operators composed of diagonal Clifford hierarchy gates as diagonal XP operators and this technique may have broader applications.
Finding efficient schemes for non-Clifford logic or magic state preparation is one of the central challenges on the way to fault-tolerant quantum computation. Many of the proposed schemes rely on diagonal non-Clifford logical gates acting on CSS codes in space or decorating CSS-type syndrome-extraction circuits in spacetime. Here we propose and implement efficient algorithms to find all (spacetime) logical gates of a given CSS code (circuit) composed from a prescribed set of ansatz gates. Depending on the choice of ansatz gates, this means finding transversal gates, more general locality-preserving logical circuits, folding gates, or similar. While we focus on qubit diagonal gates in the Clifford hierarchy, we also discuss the generalization to arbitrary diagonal non-hierarchy gates, certain non-diagonal gates, as well as prime and composite-dimensional qudits. Our method works by rephrasing code-space preserving gates as the kernel of the ``pullback'' of the X check matrix onto phase functions, which maps between finite abelian 2-groups. We implement a fast ``filtration'' method to find this kernel. The runtime for finding fault-tolerant logical gates in a qLDPC code with O(n) qubits or a circuit with O(n) gates in a naive dense implementation is O(n3), with potential for improvement making use of sparsity.
Realizing Logical Diagonal Gates via Transversal Physical Z-Rotations in CSS Codes
Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes, constructed from nested classical codes C2⊆C1, are typically optimized for good code parameters. However, practical quantum computing equally demands fault-tolerant logical gates. In this work, we characterize nested pairs (C1,C2) whose resulting CSS codes realize a target logical diagonal gate via transversal physical Z-rotations. In doing so, we recover a result of Camps-Moreno et al. that CSS codes can realize only logical single-qubit Z-rotations and multi-qubit controlled Z-rotations via transversal physical Z-rotations. Building on our characterization, we develop the ''appending construction'', that takes as input an [[n′,k′]] CSS code Q′ and a target logical Z-rotation (single-qubit or multi-controlled) UL, and extends Q′ by systematically appending n′′ physical qubits to obtain an [[n,k]] CSS code Q with n=n′+n′′ and k=k′. The target logical gate UL is realized in Q by applying a well-chosen physical transversal Z-rotation to the n′′ appended physical qubits. Moreover, any logical gate realized via transversal physical Z-rotations in the input code Q′ remains transversally realizable in the extended code Q. The CSS code Q may incur a loss in minimum distance, but the loss can be controlled through the parameter choices made in the construction. By repeatedly applying the appending construction, we can extend any CSS code Q′ to obtain a CSS code Q that supports fault-tolerant implementations of multiple desired logical Z-rotations. The cost to be paid for this is the increased physical qubit overhead as the number of target logical gates grows. To illustrate our methodology, we construct CSS code families that transversally realize addressable logical single-qubit and multi-controlled Z-rotations.
We characterize four groups of Clifford circuits for Calderbank--Shor--Steane (CSS) codes that are relevant to fault-tolerant logical operations. First, we show that every code-preserving Clifford circuit is a product of Z-diagonal circuits, composed of S and CZ gates, and their X-basis analogues. Second, we define the two-fold transversal group, generated by depth-one two-local code-preserving circuits, and show that each of its elements can be expressed as a product of layers consisting of either Z-diagonal, X-diagonal, or CNOT gates. As a corollary, every transversal gate is a product of three transversal diagonal circuits; for connected non-self-dual codes, two such circuits suffice.
We further show that every code-preserving automorphism circuit, consisting of single-qubit Clifford gates and permutations, has a normal form comprising a Hadamard layer, a permutation, and two diagonal circuits. We also define a two-fold automorphism group, in which a depth-one two-local circuit may be code-preserving up to a permutation, and show that its logical image can be larger than that of the two-fold transversal group.
For 231 CSS codes, we provide explicit generators and determine the logical image of the two-fold transversal group. We tabulate 173 codes whose full logical Clifford group is generated by two-fold-transversal circuits, including codes of distances 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 13, with respective best rates 2/5, 3/4, 34/77, 17/28, 14/25, 1/27, 3/56, and 1/33. We construct families of CSS codes from bipartite grids, cut-complements, and quadrics, and census the self-dual codes invariant under rank-3 permutation groups. Many of these codes realize the full logical Clifford group in this way.
Quantum computers are expected to have advantages over classical computers in solving a range of high impact problems, but they are highly susceptible to errors due to environmental noise. The Pauli Stabiliser formalism generalises classical error-correction methods and makes use of quantum error correction codes to protect quantum information. In this thesis, we introduce the XP stabiliser formalism, which is a generalisation of the Pauli stabiliser formalism with a number of useful applications. Quantum algorithms are typically written in terms of quantum circuits which involve a series of unitary gates followed by measurements which form the output of the computation. To implement quantum algorithms reliably, we need to perform unitary gates fault-tolerantly so that errors do not propagate in an uncontrolled way. Transversal logical operators are one way of applying unitary gates fault-tolerantly on Pauli stabiliser codes. Identifying transversal logical operators for a given Pauli stabiliser code is challenging, and existing methods have exponential complexity in one or more of the parameters of the code. Making use of the XP formalism, we present efficient algorithms which identify all transversal logical operators that are diagonal in the computational basis for any Pauli stabiliser code. We also show how to construct codes with a transversal implementation of any desired diagonal logical operator. The Pauli stabiliser formalism can also be used to efficiently represent certain quantum states, but many states of interest lie outside the formalism. In the XP formalism, a wider range of states can be represented than in the Pauli stabiliser formalism, including hypergraph states which have interesting non-local properties. The braiding of non-Abelian anyons is a proposed pathway to universal fault-tolerant quantum computation. Certain XP stabiliser codes are known to harbour non-Abelian anyons, and can be studied within the new formalism.
This paper introduces a framework for constructing Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes that support fault-tolerant logical transversal Z-rotations. Using this framework, we obtain asymptotically good CSS codes that fault-tolerantly realize the logical transversal Clifford group (i.e., transversal single-qubit Clifford gates are realized within a single code block, while transversal two-qubit Clifford gates are realized across two identical code blocks). Furthermore, investigating CSS-T codes, we: (a) demonstrate asymptotically good CSS-T codes wherein the transversal T realizes the logical transversal S†; (b) show that the condition C2∗C1⊆C1⊥ is necessary but not sufficient for CSS-T codes; and (c) revise the characterizations of CSS-T codes wherein the transversal T implements the logical identity and the logical transversal T, respectively.