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arXiv:2410.11252 · Experimental Mathematics

Khovanov Homology and Quantum Error-Correcting Codes

Rostislav Akhmechet, Milena Harned, Pranav Venkata Konda, Fugui Liu, Nikhil Mudumbi, Eric Yuang Shao, Zheheng Xiao

Published Apr 14, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Error-correcting codes for quantum computing are crucial to address the fundamental problem of communication in the presence of noise and imperfections. Audoux used Khovanov homology to define families of quantum error-correcting codes with desirable properties. We explore Khovanov homology and some of its many extensions, namely reduced, annular, and sl3 homology, to generate new families of quantum codes and to establish several properties about codes that arise in this way, such as behavior of distance under Reidemeister moves or connected sums.

DOI
10.1080/10586458.2026.2615947

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Error-correcting codes for quantum computing are crucial to address the fundamental problem of communication in the presence of noise and imperfections. Audoux used Khovanov homology to define families of quantum error-correcting codes with desirable properties. We explore Khovanov homology and some of its many extensions, namely reduced, annular, and sl3 homology, to generate new families of quantum codes and to establish several properties about codes that arise in this way, such as behavior of distance under Reidemeister moves or connected sums.
We prove several theorems characterizing the existence of homological error correction codes both classically and quantumly. Not every classical code is homological, but we find a family of classical homological codes saturating the Hamming bound. In the quantum case, we show that for nonorientable surfaces it is impossible to construct homological codes based on qudits of dimension D>2, while for orientable surfaces with boundaries it is possible to construct them for arbitrary dimension D. We give a method to obtain planar homological codes based on the construction of quantum codes on compact surfaces without boundaries. We show how the original Shor’s 9-qubit code can be visualized as a homological quantum code. We study the problem of constructing quantum codes with optimal encoding rate. In the particular case of toric codes we construct an optimal family and give an explicit proof of its optimality. For homological quantum codes on surfaces of arbitrary genus we also construct a family of codes asymptotically attaining the maximum possible encoding rate. We provide the tools of homology group theory for graphs embedded on surfaces in a self-contained manner.
Error correction is the set of techniques used in order to store, process and transmit information reliably in a noisy context. The classical theory of error correction is based on encoding classical information redundantly. A major endeavor of the theory is to find optimal trade-offs between redundancy, which we try to minimize, and noise tolerance, which we try to maximize. The quantum theory of error correction cannot directly imitate the redundant schemes of the classical theory because it has to cope with the no-cloning theorem: quantum information cannot be copied. Quantum error correction is nonetheless possible by spreading the information on more quantum memory elements than would be necessary. In quantum information theory, dilution of the information replaces redundancy since copying is forbidden by the laws of quantum mechanics. Besides this conceptual difference, quantum error correction inherits a lot from its classical counterpart. In this PhD thesis, we are concerned with a class of quantum error correcting codes whose classical counterpart was defined in 1961 by Gallager [Gal62]. At that time, quantum information was not even a research domain yet. This class is the family of low density parity check (LDPC) codes. Informally, a code is said to be LDPC if the constraints imposed to ensure redundancy in the classical setting or dilution in the quantum setting are local. More precisely, this PhD thesis focuses on a subset of the LDPC quantum error correcting codes: the homological quantum error correcting codes. These codes take their name from the mathematical field of homology, whose objects of study are sequences of linear maps such that the kernel of a map contains the image of its left neighbour. Originally introduced to study the topology of geometric shapes, homology theory now encompasses more algebraic branches as well, where the focus is more abstract and combinatorial. The same is true of homological codes: they were introduced in 1997 by Kitaev [Kit03] with a quantum code that has the shape of a torus. They now form a vast family of quantum LDPC codes, some more inspired from geometry than others. Homological quantum codes were designed from spherical, Euclidean and hyperbolic geometries, from 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional and 4- dimensional objects, from objects with increasing and unbounded dimension and from hypergraph or homological products. After introducing some general quantum information concepts in the first chapter of this manuscript, we focus in the two following ones on families of quantum codes based on 4-dimensional hyperbolic objects. We highlight the interplay between their geometric side, given by manifolds, and their combinatorial side, given by abstract polytopes. We use both sides to analyze the corresponding quantum codes. In the fourth and last chapter we analyze a family of quantum codes based on spherical objects of arbitrary dimension. To have more flexibility in the design of quantum codes, we use combinatorial objects that realize this spherical geometry: hypercube complexes. This setting allows us to introduce a new link between classical and quantum error correction where classical codes are used to introduce homology in hypercube complexes.
We prove several theorems characterizing the existence of homological error correction codes both classically and quantumly. Not every classical code is homological, but we find a family of classical homological codes saturating the Hamming bound. In the quantum case, we show that for non-orientable surfaces it is impossible to construct homological codes based on qudits of dimension D>2D>2D>2, while for orientable surfaces with boundaries it is possible to construct them for arbitrary dimension DDD. We give a method to obtain planar homological codes based on the construction of quantum codes on compact surfaces without boundaries. We show how the original Shor's 9-qubit code can be visualized as a homological quantum code. We study the problem of constructing quantum codes with optimal encoding rate. In the particular case of toric codes we construct an optimal family and give an explicit proof of its optimality. For homological quantum codes on surfaces of arbitrary genus we also construct a family of codes asymptotically attaining the maximum possible encoding rate. We provide the tools of homology group theory for graphs embedded on surfaces in a self-contained manner.
We introduce a new type of sparse CSS quantum error correcting code based on the homology of hypermaps. Sparse quantum error correcting codes are of interest in the building of quantum computers due to their ease of implementation and the possibility of developing fast decoders for them. Codes based on the homology of embeddings of graphs, such as Kitaev's toric code, have been discussed widely in the literature and our class of codes generalize these. We use embedded hypergraphs, which are a generalization of graphs that can have edges connected to more than two vertices. We develop theorems and examples of our hypermap-homology codes, especially in the case that we choose a special type of basis in our homology chain complex. In particular the most straightforward generalization of the m×mm \times mm×m toric code to hypermap-homology codes gives us a [(3/2)m2,2,m][(3/2)m^2,2,m][(3/2)m2,2,m] code as compared to the toric code which is a [2m2,2,m][2m^2,2,m][2m2,2,m] code. Thus we can protect the same amount of quantum information, with the same error-correcting capability, using less physical qubits.
We introduce a new type of sparse CSS quantum error correcting code based on the homology of hypermaps. Sparse quantum error correcting codes are of interest in the building of quantum computers due to their ease of implementation and the possibility of developing fast decoders for them. Codes based on the homology of embeddings of graphs, such as Kitaev's toric code, have been discussed widely in the literature and our class of codes generalize these. We use embedded hypergraphs, which are a generalization of graphs that can have edges connected to more than two vertices. We develop theorems and examples of our hypermap-homology codes, especially in the case that we choose a special type of basis in our homology chain complex. In particular the most straightforward generalization of the m × m toric code to hypermap-homology codes gives us a [(3/2)m2, 2, m] code as compared to the toric code which is a [2m2, 2, m] code. Thus we can protect the same amount of quantum information, with the same error-correcting capability, using less physical qubits.