Quantum error-correcting codes (QECC's) are needed to combat the inherent noise affecting quantum processes. Using ZX calculus, we represent QECC's in a form called a ZX diagram, consisting of a tensor network. In this paper, we present canonical forms for CSS codes and CSS states (which are CSS codes with 0 inputs), and we show the resulting canonical forms for the toric code and certain surface codes. Next, we introduce the notion of prime code diagrams, ZX diagrams of codes that have a single connected component with the property that no sequence of rewrite rules can split such a diagram into two connected components. We also show the Fundamental Theorem of Clifford Codes, proving the existence and uniqueness of the prime decomposition of Clifford codes. Next, we tabulate equivalence classes of ZX diagrams under a different definition of equivalence that allows output permutations and any local operations on the outputs. Possible representatives of these equivalence classes are analyzed. This work expands on previous works in exploring the canonical forms of QECC's in their ZX diagram representations.
Quantum error-correcting codes (QECC's) are needed to combat the inherent noise affecting quantum processes. Using ZX calculus, we represent QECC's in a form called a ZX diagram, consisting of a tensor network. In this paper, we present canonical forms for CSS codes and CSS states (which are CSS codes with 0 inputs), and we show the resulting canonical forms for the toric code and certain surface codes. Next, we introduce the notion of prime code diagrams, ZX diagrams of codes that have a single connected component with the property that no sequence of rewrite rules can split such a diagram into two connected components. We also show the Fundamental Theorem of Clifford Codes, proving the existence and uniqueness of the prime decomposition of Clifford codes. Next, we tabulate equivalence classes of ZX diagrams under a different definition of equivalence that allows output permutations and any local operations on the outputs. Possible representatives of these equivalence classes are analyzed. This work expands on previous works in exploring the canonical forms of QECC's in their ZX diagram representations.
In this paper, we demonstrate a direct correspondence between phase-free ZX diagrams, a graphical notation for representing and manipulating a certain class of linear maps on qubits, and Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes, a large family of quantum error correcting codes constructed from classical codes, including for example the Steane code, surface codes, and colour codes. The stabilisers of a CSS code have an especially nice structure arising from a pair of orthogonal F2-linear subspaces, or in the case of maximal CSS codes, a single subspace and its orthocomplement. On the other hand, phase-free ZX diagrams can always be efficiently reduced to a normal form given by the basis elements of an F2-linear subspace. Here, we will show that these two ways of describing a quantum state by an F2-linear subspace S are in fact the same. Namely, the maximal CSS code generated by S fixes the quantum state whose ZX normal form is also given by S. This insight gives us an immediate translation from stabilisers of a maximal CSS code into a ZX diagram describing its associated state. We show that we can extend this translation to stabilisers and logical operators of any (possibly non-maximal) CSS code by "bending wires". To demonstrate the utility of this translation, we give a simple picture of the surface code and a fully graphical derivation of the action of physical lattice surgery operations on the space of logical qubits, completing the ZX presentation of lattice surgery initiated by de Beudrap and Horsman.
We present a quantum compilation algorithm that maps Clifford encoders, encoding maps for stabilizer quantum codes, to a unique graphical representation in the ZX calculus. Specifically, we develop a canonical form in the ZX calculus and prove canonicity as well as efficient reducibility of any Clifford encoder into the canonical form. The diagrams produced by our compiler visualize information propagation and entanglement structure of the encoder, revealing properties that may be obscured in the circuit or stabilizer-tableau representation. Consequently, our canonical representation may be an informative technique for the design of new stabilizer quantum codes via graph theory analysis.
Quantum error-correction code and circuit construction is an active field of research, motivating automated methods for identifying equivalent designs. We develop and evaluate automated strategies for deciding whether two descriptions of quantum error-correction codes are equivalent under specified transformations. We formalize permutation equivalence for stabilizer and CSS codes and local-Clifford equivalence for stabilizer codes within a unified framework that separates physical from representation freedom. We develop three decision strategies (group-action search, isomorphism-based methods, and constraint solving), together with invariants and signatures for preprocessing. The empirical evaluation shows that no paradigm dominates across equivalence notions, code families, and parameter ranges. We therefore combine their complementary strengths in input-dependent hybrid checkers following a staged Refute-Refine-Decide architecture. Mean hybrid runtimes remain below 10 s for most evaluated structured-code cases with n≤37; for inequivalent code instances with n=144, they are about 310 s for permutation and 16 s for local-Clifford equivalence.
Calderbank--Shor--Steane (CSS) codes support decoding and fault-tolerant logical operations through separate pure X and pure Z stabilizer checks. Generator choices and single-qubit Clifford transformations can obscure this structure. We give a deterministic polynomial-time algorithm that decides whether an arbitrary stabilizer code is locally Clifford-equivalent to a CSS code and constructs the required transformation and CSS checks whenever such a form exists. For m possibly redundant generator rows on n qubits, the algorithm uses O(mn2+n4) binary field operations. We reduce the problem to affine linear systems by characterizing local projectors that preserve the span of the binary stabilizer labels. The conversion preserves code parameters and check sparsity for quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes. We demonstrate CSS recovery and decoder reuse and resolve previously open LC-to-CSS classification questions for published code constructions. For graph states, LC-to-CSS equivalence corresponds to the existence of a bipartite graph in the local-complementation orbit. We derive a necessary-and-sufficient adjacency-matrix criterion for this property and construct such a graph whenever one exists. Our algorithm makes CSS decoding and fault-tolerant constructions accessible throughout the local Clifford equivalence classes of CSS codes.
This is a note from a series of lectures at Encuentro Colombiano de Computacion Cuantica, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, 2015. The purpose is to introduce additive quantum error correcting codes, with emphasis on the use of binary representation of Pauli matrices and modules over a translation group algebra. The topics include symplectic vector spaces, Clifford group, cleaning lemma, an error correcting criterion, entanglement spectrum, implications of the locality of stabilizer group generators, and the classification of translation-invariant one-dimensional additive codes and two-dimensional CSS codes with large code distances. In particular, we describe an algorithm to find a Clifford quantum circuit (CNOTs) to transform any two-dimensional translation-invariant CSS code on qudits of a prime dimension with code distance being the linear system size, into a tensor product of finitely many copies of the qudit toric code and a product state. Thus, the number of embedded toric codes is the complete invariant of these CSS codes under local Clifford circuits.
Two circuits are considered to be equivalent under noise if the effect of faults on one circuit is no worse than the effect of faults on the other circuit. We call this relationship fault equivalence. Fault equivalence offers a way to transform circuits while provably preserving their fault-tolerant properties, enabling a framework for fault-tolerant circuit synthesis and optimisation that is correct by construction. The ZX calculus offers a diagrammatic way to represent and reason about quantum circuits and is a useful tool for manipulating circuits while preserving fault equivalence. For this, the usual set of ZX rewrites has to be restricted to not only preserve the underlying linear map represented by the diagram, but also fault equivalence. In this work, we provide a set of ZX rewrites that are sound and complete for fault equivalence of Clifford ZX diagrams. This means that any equivalence that can be derived using the proposed rules is certain to be correct, and any correct equivalence can be derived using only these rules. For this, we utilise diagrammatic constructions called fault gadgets to reason about arbitrary, possibly correlated Pauli faults in ZX diagrams. Fault gadgets allow us to separate the diagram into a fault-free part, which captures the noise-free behaviour of a diagram, and a noisy part that enumerates the effects of all possible faults. Using this, we provide a unique normal form for ZX diagrams under noise and show that any diagram can be brought into this normal form using our proposed rule set. Leveraging the constructive nature of our proof of completeness, we implemented a software library to check whether two ZX diagrams with given noise models are fault-equivalent.