Some of lattice-gauge-theory models, in particular gauge-Higgs model (GHM), can be regarded and work as a subsystem code. This work studies the effect of local-gauge-symmetric decoherence on the GHM from the perspective of the subsystem code. We clarify the global phase diagram of the subsystem code. In particular, the decoherence induces an unconventional critical mixed state, where the logical information is preserved but the rest of the system exhibits mixed state criticality. For a fixed point, the decohered subsystem code is understood by the ``gauging out" prescription. By mapping the GHM to the toric code subject to decoherence, we can understand the properties of the subsystem code. We further discuss and investigate the robustness of the logical space of the subsystem code. Although this kind of subsystem code can be produced by using any bulk mixed state in the GHM, its robustness is a subtle problem due to the mixed critical gauge qubits. We consider some specific unitary for examining the robustness of the stored quantum information. For dynamical unitary perturbations described by interactions between the logical qubit and gauge qubits, the deformation of the subsystem code drastically depends on the initial mixed state of the gauge qubits.
Some of lattice-gauge-theory models, in particular gauge-Higgs model (GHM), can be regarded and work as a subsystem code. This work studies the effect of local-gauge-symmetric decoherence on the GHM from the perspective of the subsystem code. We clarify the global phase diagram of the subsystem code. In particular, the decoherence induces an unconventional critical mixed state, where the logical information is preserved but the rest of the system exhibits mixed state criticality. For a fixed point, the decohered subsystem code is understood by the ``gauging out" prescription. By mapping the GHM to the toric code subject to decoherence, we can understand the properties of the subsystem code. We further discuss and investigate the robustness of the logical space of the subsystem code. Although this kind of subsystem code can be produced by using any bulk mixed state in the GHM, its robustness is a subtle problem due to the mixed critical gauge qubits. We consider some specific unitary for examining the robustness of the stored quantum information. For dynamical unitary perturbations described by interactions between the logical qubit and gauge qubits, the deformation of the subsystem code drastically depends on the initial mixed state of the gauge qubits.
Quantum critical phases are extended regions of phase space characterized by a diverging correlation length. By analogy, we define an \emph{information critical phase} as an extended region of a mixed state phase diagram where the Markov length, the characteristic length scale governing the decay of the conditional mutual information (CMI), diverges.
We demonstrate that such a phase arises in decohered ZN toric codes by assessing both the CMI and the coherent information, the latter quantifying the robustness of the encoded logical qudits. For N>4, we find that the system hosts an information critical phase intervening between the decodable and non-decodable phases where the coherent information saturates to a fractional value in the thermodynamic limit, indicating that a finite fraction of logical information is still preserved. We show that the density matrix in this phase can be decomposed into a convex sum of Coulombic pure states, where gapped anyons reorganize into gapless photons. We further consider the ungauged ZN toric code and interpret its mixed state phase diagram in the language of strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking. We argue that in the dual model, the information critical phase arises because the spontaneously broken off-diagonal ZN symmetry gets enhanced to a U(1) symmetry, resulting in a novel superfluid phase whose gapless modes involve coherent excitations of both the system and the environment. Finally, we propose an optimal decoding protocol for the corrupted ZN toric code and show that its logical error rate saturates to a fractional value in the information critical phase. Our findings identify a gapless analog for mixed-state phases that still acts as a fractional topological quantum memory, thereby extending the conventional paradigm of quantum memory phases.
It is now widely recognized that the toric code is a pure gauge-theory model governed by a projective Hamiltonian with topological orders. In this paper, we extend the interplay between quantum information system and gauge-theory model from the viewpoint of subsystem code, which is suitable for gauge systems including matter fields. As an example, we show that Z2 lattice gauge-Higgs model in (2+1)-dimensions with specific open boundary conditions is nothing but a kind of subsystem code. In the system, Gauss-law constraints are stabilizers, and order parameters identifying Higgs and confinement phases exist and they are nothing but logical operators in subsystem codes residing on the boundaries. Mixed anomaly of them dictates the existence of boundary-zero modes, which is a direct consequence of symmetry-protected topological order in Higgs and confinement phases. After identifying phase diagram, subsystem codes are embedded in the Higgs and confinement phases. As our main findings, we give an explicit description of the code (encoded qubit) in the Higgs and confinement phases, which clarifies duality between Higgs and confinement phases. The degenerate structure of subsystem code in the Higgs and confinement phases remains even in very high-energy levels, which is analogous to notion of strong-zero modes observed in some interesting condensed-matter systems. Numerical methods are used to corroborate analytically-obtained results and the obtained spectrum structure supports the analytical description of various subsystem codes in the gauge theory phases.
We introduce a classification of quantum phases of mixed states based on the ability to preserve and fault tolerantly transfer information. We formulate phase equivalence between sets of states that encode logical quantum information and are connected by shallow local channel circuits assisted by local measurements and global classical communication of measurement outcomes, where all quantum operations, including measurements, must be robust to noise. We show that the existence of a recovery threshold for local noise is a property of an entire phase. We prove that any two sets of states with nonzero thresholds that are related by finite-depth local channel circuits belong to the same fault tolerant phase. Our approach leads to a classification of subsystem codes without favoring any state of the gauge subsystem, and we demonstrate phase equivalence between 2D and 3D color codes using dimensional jumps within the 3D gauge color code. Lastly, we study how syndrome structure affects fault tolerance in circuits with measurements. We show that qudit stabilizer codes with extended syndromes permit single-shot state preparation, whereas a broad class of shallow circuits measuring point-like syndromes, including state preparation for 2D topological codes and non-Abelian topological orders with solvable anyon theories, is not fault tolerant.
We extensively study long-time dynamics and the fate of a topologically ordered state in the toric code model evolving through a projective measurement-only circuit. The circuit is composed of several measurement operators corresponding to each term of the toric code Hamiltonian with magnetic-field perturbations, which is a gauge-fixed version of a (2+1)-dimensional gauge Higgs model. We employ a cylinder geometry with distinct upper and lower boundaries to classify stationary states after long-time measurement dynamics. The appearing stationary states depend on measurement probabilities for each measurement operator. The Higgs, confined, and deconfined phases emerge in the time evolution by the circuit. We find that both Higgs and confined phases are separated from the deconfined phase by topological entanglement entropy. We numerically clarify that both Higgs and confined phases are characterized by a long-range order on the boundaries accompanying edge modes, and they shift with each other by a crossover reflecting properties in the bulk phase diagram.
We investigate the stability of logical information in quantum stabilizer codes subject to coherent unitary errors. Beginning with a logical state, we apply a random unitary error channel and subsequently measure stabilizer checks, resulting in a syndrome-dependent post-measurement state. By examining both this \emph{syndrome state} and the associated syndrome distribution, we identify a phase transition in the behavior of the logical information. In the Clifford/stabilizer setting, the change of logical stabilizer structure in a syndrome branch determines the state-level MAP Pauli-frame return probability for a chosen logical-basis input. We separately use quantum coherent information to diagnose recoverability of arbitrary encoded inputs at the channel level. Below a critical error threshold pc, the syndrome branches remain compatible with the original logical sector, enabling a high state-return probability. Above pc, the data are consistent with effective scrambling of the encoded subspace relative to the stabilizer checks, where the syndrome-resolved logical maps approach a global-Clifford-induced stabilizer instrument. This common post-threshold picture organizes both the toric-code and finite-rate random-stabilizer-code results within the same scrambling mechanism. The syndrome distribution supplies complementary local and global structural diagnostics whose scaling depends on the code family. We refer to this phenomenon as a \emph{coherent error induced phase transition}. To illustrate this transition, we study two classes of quantum error-correcting codes, the toric code and finite-rate random stabilizer codes, thereby shedding light on the design and performance limits of quantum error correction under coherent errors.
Subsystem quantum error-correcting codes typically involve measuring a sequence of noncommuting parity check operators. They can sometimes exhibit greater fault tolerance than conventional codes, which use commuting checks. However, unlike subspace codes, it is unclear if subsystem codes—in particular their advantages—can be understood in terms of ground-state properties of a physical Hamiltonian. In this paper, we address this question for the three-dimensional subsystem toric code (3D STC), as recently constructed by Kubica and Vasmer [], which exhibits single-shot error correction. Motivated by a conjectured relation between single-shot properties and thermal stability, we study the zero- and finite-temperature phases of an associated noncommuting Hamiltonian. By mapping the Hamiltonian model to a pair of 3D Z 2 gauge theories coupled by a kinetic constraint, we find various phases at zero temperature, all separated by first-order transitions: There are 3D toric code-like phases with deconfined point-like excitations in the bulk, and there are phases with a confined bulk supporting a 2D toric code on the surface when appropriate boundary conditions are chosen. The latter is similar to the surface topological order present in 3D STC. However, the similarities between the single-shot correction in 3D STC and the confined phases are only partial: they share the same sets of degrees of freedom, but they are governed by different dynamical rules. Instead, we argue that the process of single-shot error correction can more suitably be associated with a path (rather than a point) in the zero-temperature phase diagram, a perspective, which inspires alternative measurement sequences enabling single-shot error correction. Moreover, since none of the above-mentioned phases survives at nonzero temperature, the single-shot error-correction property of the code does not imply thermal stability of the associated Hamiltonian phase. Published by the American Physical Society 2024