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arXiv:2601.10042 · IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT)

Towards Minimal Fault-tolerant Error-Correction Sequence with Quantum Hamming Codes

Sha Shi, Xiao-Yang Xu, Min-Quan Cheng, Dong-Sheng Wang, Yun-Jiang Wang

quant-phSubmitted Jan 15, 2026• Announced Jan 16, 2026• 1 citation
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Abstract

The high overhead of fault-tolerant measurement sequences (FTMSs) poses a major challenge for implementing quantum stabilizer codes. Here, we address this problem by constructing efficient FTMSs for the class of quantum Hamming codes $[\![2^r-1, 2^r-1-2r, 3]\!]$ with $r=3k+1$ ($k \in \mathbb{Z}^+$). Our key result demonstrates that the sequence length can be reduced to exactly $2r+1$-only one additional measurement beyond the original non-fault-tolerant sequence, establishing a tight lower bound. The proposed method leverages cyclic matrix transformations to systematically combine rows of the initial stabilizer matrix and preserving a self-dual CSS-like symmetry analogous to that of the original quantum Hamming codes. This induced symmetry enables hardware-efficient circuit reuse: the measurement circuits for the first $r$ stabilizers are transformed into circuits for the remaining $r$ stabilizers simply by toggling boundary Hadamard gates, eliminating redundant hardware. For distance-3 fault-tolerant error correction, our approach simultaneously reduces the time overhead via shorting the FTMS length and the hardware overhead through symmetry-enabled circuit multiplexing. These results provide an important advance towards the important open problem regarding the design of minimal FTMSs for quantum Hamming codes and may shed light on similar challenges in other quantum stabilizer codes.

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11pages, 1 figure

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The high overhead of fault-tolerant measurement sequences (FTMSs) poses a major challenge for implementing quantum stabilizer codes. Here, we address this problem by constructing efficient FTMSs for the class of quantum Hamming codes [ ⁣[2r−1,2r−1−2r,3] ⁣][\![2^r-1, 2^r-1-2r, 3]\!][[2r−1,2r−1−2r,3]] with r=3k+1r=3k+1r=3k+1 (k∈Z+k \in \mathbb{Z}^+k∈Z+). Our key result demonstrates that the sequence length can be reduced to exactly 2r+12r+12r+1-only one additional measurement beyond the original non-fault-tolerant sequence, establishing a tight lower bound. The proposed method leverages cyclic matrix transformations to systematically combine rows of the initial stabilizer matrix and preserving a self-dual CSS-like symmetry analogous to that of the original quantum Hamming codes. This induced symmetry enables hardware-efficient circuit reuse: the measurement circuits for the first rrr stabilizers are transformed into circuits for the remaining rrr stabilizers simply by toggling boundary Hadamard gates, eliminating redundant hardware. For distance-3 fault-tolerant error correction, our approach simultaneously reduces the time overhead via shorting the FTMS length and the hardware overhead through symmetry-enabled circuit multiplexing. These results provide an important advance towards the important open problem regarding the design of minimal FTMSs for quantum Hamming codes and may shed light on similar challenges in other quantum stabilizer codes.
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One of the major challenges in realizing fault-tolerant quantum computers (FTQCs) is the requirement for a large number of physical qubits. To address this issue, high-rate quantum error correcting codes, which efficiently embed logical qubits into physical qubits, have recently attracted considerable attention. Among such codes, quantum BCH codes, which offer both high rates and large code distances, are promising yet underexplored candidates. However, no fault-tolerant ancilla preparation method specialized for this class had been established. We employ a two-stage approach (non-fault-tolerant preparation + entanglement distillation) for ancilla preparation. We then propose a framework for designing low-overhead distillation method that strategically leverages the cyclic symmetry of quantum BCH codes to determine which non-fault-tolerant circuits can successfully produce a fault-tolerant state. Numerical simulations on several high-performance quantum BCH codes up to 127 qubits demonstrate that our method achieves lower spatial overhead and logical error rates than conventional distillation circuits. Furthermore, we evaluated the logical error rates under a circuit-level noise model, and obtained performance benchmarks in realistic settings. This efficient state preparation technique is expected to contribute to the early realization of practical FTQCs, particularly on highly connected quantum platforms such as neutral atom systems.
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