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arXiv:2507.21396 · PRX Quantum

Toward Self-Correcting Quantum Codes for Neutral Atom Arrays

Jinkang Guo, Yifan Hong, Adam M. Kaufman, Andrew Lucas

Published Nov 26, 2025• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Discovering low-overhead quantum error-correcting codes is of significant interest for fault-tolerant quantum computation. For hardware capable of long-range connectivity, the bivariate bicycle codes offer significant overhead reduction compared to surface codes with similar performance. In this work, we present “Z semidirect Z (ZSZ) codes,” a simple nonabelian generalization of the bivariate bicycle codes based on the group Z ℓ ⋊ Z m . We numerically demonstrate that certain instances of this code family achieve competitive performance with the bivariate bicycle codes under circuit-level depolarizing noise using a belief-propagation and ordered-statistics decoder, with an observed threshold around 0.5 % . We also benchmark the performance of this code family under local “self-correcting” decoders, where we observe significant improvements over the bivariate bicycle codes, including evidence of a sustainable threshold around 0.095 % , which is higher than the 0.06 % that we estimate for the four-dimensional toric code under the same noise model. These results suggest that ZSZ codes are promising candidates for scalable self-correcting quantum memories. Finally, we describe how ZSZ codes can be realized with neutral atoms trapped in movable tweezer arrays, where a complete round of syndrome extraction can be achieved using simple global motions of the atomic arrays.

DOI
10.1103/mfmt-fwkg

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Discovering low-overhead quantum error-correcting codes is of significant interest for fault-tolerant quantum computation. For hardware capable of long-range connectivity, the bivariate bicycle codes offer significant overhead reduction compared to surface codes with similar performance. In this work, we present “Z semidirect Z (ZSZ) codes,” a simple nonabelian generalization of the bivariate bicycle codes based on the group Z ℓ ⋊ Z m . We numerically demonstrate that certain instances of this code family achieve competitive performance with the bivariate bicycle codes under circuit-level depolarizing noise using a belief-propagation and ordered-statistics decoder, with an observed threshold around 0.5 % . We also benchmark the performance of this code family under local “self-correcting” decoders, where we observe significant improvements over the bivariate bicycle codes, including evidence of a sustainable threshold around 0.095 % , which is higher than the 0.06 % that we estimate for the four-dimensional toric code under the same noise model. These results suggest that ZSZ codes are promising candidates for scalable self-correcting quantum memories. Finally, we describe how ZSZ codes can be realized with neutral atoms trapped in movable tweezer arrays, where a complete round of syndrome extraction can be achieved using simple global motions of the atomic arrays.
Quantum low density parity check (qLDPC) codes, particularly bivariate bicycle (BB) codes, achieve competitive fault tolerance thresholds while offering substantially higher encoding rates than planar surface codes. However, their intrinsically long-range stabilizer structure makes them difficult to implement on monolithic devices with nearest neighbor connectivity and limited qubit capacity. In this work, we study the realization of a BB code in a modular multiprocessor architecture, where quantum processors are interconnected through shared Bell pairs. We consider processors with all to all internal connectivity, which is feasible on trapped ion and neutral atom platforms, enabling flexible local gate execution while inter-processor (nonlocal) gates are mediated by shared entanglement. We describe a star network architecture that can realize this distributed setting. We partition the qubits of the [[144,12,12]] BB code across 4, 6, and 12 quantum processors and analyze the resulting logical error rates and pseudo-threshold performance under circuit level noise by varying the number of processors and a scaling factor that captures the additional noise associated with nonlocal operations. We use Monte Carlo simulations with BP+OSD decoding and extend the previously known BB code ansatz to the distributed setting. Our results provide architectural insight and design considerations for distributed BB codes in modular quantum computing architectures.
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The discovery of new quantum error-correcting codes that encode several logical qubits into relatively few physical qubits motivates the development of efficient and accurate methods of decoding these systems. Here, we adopt the minimum-weight perfect matching algorithm, a subroutine invaluable to decoding topological codes, to decode bivariate bicycle codes. Using the equivalence of bivariate bicycle codes to copies of the toric code, we propose a method we call the `cylinder trick' to rapidly find a correction using matching on code symmetries. We benchmark our decoder on the gross code family, cyclic hypergraph-product codes, generalized toric codes, and recently proposed directional codes under code capacity and phenomenological noise models, demonstrating the general applicability of our protocol. For a subset of these codes, we find that our decoder can be significantly improved by augmenting matching with strategies including belief propagation and `over-matching', thus achieving performance competitive with state-of-the-art approaches.
In the quest for fault-tolerant quantum computation, the delicate nature of qubits demands the need for robust quantum error correction. Quantum error correcting codes, the quantum counterpart to classical error correcting codes in information theory, have been developed to address the unique challenges quantum bits face against the noise of their environment in storing information. These codes include but are not limited to the Kitaev surface code, toric code, rotated surface code, generalized bicycle code, and bivariate bicycle code. Fast and reliable decoders for these quantum error correcting codes are needed to correct errors and achieve fault tolerance on these qubits. The belief propagation algorithm, which is a efficient and reliable heuristic for decoding classical low-density parity check codes, has been generalized to different types of quantum error correction codes. Paired with the ordered statistics decoding algorithm as a post-processing step from the soft outputs of the belief propagation decoder, belief propagation and ordered statistics decoding has been one of the most promising avenues of efficient quantum error correction. This thesis combines the state-of-the-art belief propagation and ordered statistics decoding algorithms with the exploration of the neural belief propagation algorithm to leverage classical deep learning machines to learn message passing patterns in decoding the newest quantum codes, the rotated surface code and bivariate bicycle code. The neural network exploits the local lattice structure of these codes to adjust the trainable weights and biases to more learn message update patterns more efficiently than the vanilla belief propagation algorithm. In this thesis, we prove a new threshold for the physical error rate on the rotated surface code using a neural belief propagation algorithm and ordered statistics decoding that consistently outperforms the threshold established by the vanilla belief propagation algorithm with ordered statistics decoding. We additionally show the results for similar efforts on the bivariate bicycle codes, and discuss the difficulties in achieving a threshold using the current neural belief propagation algorithms.
Two-dimensional topological translationally-invariant (TTI) quantum codes, such as the toric code (TC) and bivariate bicycle (BB) codes, are promising candidates for fault-tolerant quantum computation. For such codes to be practically relevant, their decoders must successfully correct the most likely errors while remaining computationally efficient. For the TC, graph-matching decoders satisfy both requirements and, additionally, admit provable performance guarantees. Given the equivalence between TTI codes and (multiple copies of) the TC, one may then ask whether TTI codes also admit analogous graph-matching decoders. In this work, we develop a graph-matching approach to decoding general TTI codes. Intuitively, our approach coarse-grains the TTI code to obtain an effective description of the syndrome in terms of TC excitations, which can then be removed using graph-matching techniques. We prove that our decoders correct errors of weight up to a constant fraction of the code distance and achieve nonzero code-capacity and circuit-level thresholds in the specified noise models. We further numerically study a variant optimized for practically relevant BB codes and observe performance comparable to that of belief propagation with ordered statistics decoding (BP-OSD). We also study the code-capacity threshold for the hexagonal color code as a proof of concept. Our results indicate that graph-matching decoders are a viable approach to decoding BB codes and other TTI codes.