We introduce group surface codes, which are a natural generalization of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ surface code, and equivalent to quantum double models of finite groups with specific boundary conditions. We show that group surface codes can be leveraged to perform non-Clifford gates in $\mathbb{Z}_2$ surface codes, thus enabling universal computation along with established means of performing logical Clifford gates. Moreover, for suitably chosen groups, we demonstrate that arbitrary reversible classical gates can be implemented transversally in the group surface code. We present the logical operations in terms of a set of elementary logical operations, which include transversal logical gates, a means of transferring encoded information into and out of group surface codes, and preparation and readout. By composing these elementary operations, we implement a wide variety of logical gates and provide a unified perspective on recent constructions in the literature for sliding group surface codes and preparing magic states. We furthermore use tensor networks inspired by ZX-calculus to construct spacetime implementations of the elementary operations. This spacetime perspective also allows us to establish explicit correspondences with topological gauge theories. Our work extends recent efforts in performing universal quantum computation in topological orders without the braiding of anyons, and shows how certain group surface codes allow us to bypass the restrictions set by the Bravyi-König theorem, which limits the computational power of topological Pauli stabilizer models.
Comments
35+21 pages, many figures. v2 updates appendices and fixes typos
We introduce group surface codes, which are a natural generalization of the Z2 surface code, and equivalent to quantum double models of finite groups with specific boundary conditions. We show that group surface codes can be leveraged to perform non-Clifford gates in Z2 surface codes, thus enabling universal computation along with established means of performing logical Clifford gates. Moreover, for suitably chosen groups, we demonstrate that arbitrary reversible classical gates can be implemented transversally in the group surface code. We present the logical operations in terms of a set of elementary logical operations, which include transversal logical gates, a means of transferring encoded information into and out of group surface codes, and preparation and readout. By composing these elementary operations, we implement a wide variety of logical gates and provide a unified perspective on recent constructions in the literature for sliding group surface codes and preparing magic states. We furthermore use tensor networks inspired by ZX-calculus to construct spacetime implementations of the elementary operations. This spacetime perspective also allows us to establish explicit correspondences with topological gauge theories. Our work extends recent efforts in performing universal quantum computation in topological orders without the braiding of anyons, and shows how certain group surface codes allow us to bypass the restrictions set by the Bravyi-König theorem, which limits the computational power of topological Pauli stabilizer models.
We present an entirely 2D constant-depth realization of topologically protected phase gates at any level of the Clifford hierarchy, and beyond, using non-Abelian surface codes. Our construction encodes a logical qubit in the quantum double D(G) of a non-Abelian group G on a triangular spatial patch. The logical gate is implemented by a constant-depth circuit constructed from stacking on the spatial region a symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase specified by a group 2-cocycle and boundary counter-terms. The Bravyi-König theorem limits the unitary gates implementable by constant-depth quantum circuits on Pauli stabilizer codes in D dimensions to the D-th level of the Clifford hierarchy. We bypass this limitation, by constructing constant-depth unitary gates at arbitrary levels of the Clifford hierarchy purely in 2D, without sacrificing locality or fault tolerance, at the cost of using the quantum double of a non-Abelian group G. Specifically, for G=D4N, the dihedral group of order 8N, we realize the phase gate T1/N=diag(1,eiπ/(4N)) in the logical Z basis. In this context, we propose a non-abelian stabilizer group formalism, which we work out for dihedral groups. For 8N=2n, the logical gate lies at the n-th level of the Clifford hierarchy and, importantly, has a qubit-only realization: we show that it can be constructed in terms of Clifford-hierarchy stabilizers for a code with n physical qubits on each edge of the lattice. We also discuss code-switching to the double surface-code D(Z2×Z2), to complete a universal gate-set in this setup.
Fault-tolerant quantum computation can incur a substantial resource cost when a desired logical operation must be constructed from a restricted set of logical primitives. To make such operations directly available, we introduce irrep surface codes (ISCs), two-dimensional topological quantum error-correcting codes engineered to transversally implement a prescribed set of logical gates. The target logical gates only need to satisfy two conditions: (i) they generate a finite group, which, up to global phases, is forced by the Eastin-Knill theorem, and (ii) they are irreducible, meaning that any operator commuting with the set of gates must be proportional to the identity. This accommodates arbitrary finite groups of diagonal gates and arbitrary reversible classical gates, since each can be embedded into a larger irreducible finite group of gates. It also enables logical gates outside every finite level of the Clifford hierarchy. To incorporate these operations into surface-code computations, we further develop lattice-surgery protocols to transfer the encoded information between surface codes and ISCs obeying one of two sufficient conditions. Together, these results establish a systematic method for tailoring topological codes to desired logical operations and integrating them into conventional computations.
A fundamental problem in fault-tolerant quantum computation is the tradeoff between universality and dimensionality, exemplified by the the Bravyi-König bound for n-dimensional topological stabilizer codes. In this work, we extend topological Pauli stabilizer codes to a broad class of n-dimensional Clifford hierarchy stabilizer codes. These codes correspond to the (n+1)D Dijkgraaf-Witten gauge theories with non-Abelian topological order. We construct transversal non-Clifford gates through automorphism symmetries represented by cup products. In 2D, we obtain the first transversal non-Clifford logical gates including T and CS for Clifford stabilizer codes, using the automorphism of the twisted Z23 gauge theory (equivalent to D4 topological order). We also combine it with the just-in-time decoder to fault-tolerantly prepare the logical T magic state in O(d) rounds via code switching. In 3D, we construct a transversal logical T gate in a non-Clifford stabilizer code at the third level of the Clifford hierarchy, located on a tetrahedron corresponding to a twisted Z24 gauge theory. Our constructions surpass the Bravyi-König bound by achieving the logical gates in the (n+1)-th level of Clifford hierarchy in n spatial dimension.
A technique for realizing a universal set of fault-tolerant quantum operations is the code switching method, which leverages two quantum codes with complementary sets of transversal gates. To date, the application of this technique has been largely limited to families of color codes supporting a logical T gate. No analogous code switching protocols exist for many other prominent families, such as rotated surface codes, or for finer Z-rotation gates. In this work, we first utilize the doubling technique as a unified framework to construct a class of quantum color codes encoding a single logical qubit with an arbitrarily large minimum distance, enabling the transversal realization of arbitrary small logical Z-rotation gates. We investigate the structural properties of this code family, demonstrating that they improve upon the parameters of state-of-the-art triorthogonal codes, achieve lower qubit overhead compared to certain known color codes, and admit single-shot decoding of Z-syndromes via meta-checks. Furthermore, we show that this framework extends beyond color codes; specifically, it enables the generation of r-orthogonal quantum codes, r≥2, that inherit the local geometry of rotated surface codes. We then provide an overhead optimization protocol alongside several candidate codes tailored for realizing logical Z-rotation gates within rotated surface codes. Finally, we extend the fault-tolerant code switching protocol based on transversal CNOT gates to incorporate fault-tolerant realization of Z-rotation gates at any level of the Clifford hierarchy for geometries compatible with rotated surface codes. We present the first demonstration of fault-tolerant magic state preparation by means of code switching within a distance-three rotated surface code using a total footprint of only 45 physical qubits, and evaluate its performance through a simulation.
In fault-tolerant quantum computing with the surface code, non-Clifford gates are crucial for universal computation. However, implementing these gates is usually more challenging and resource-intensive than Clifford gates. Methods such as distilling a high-fidelity magic state from noisy copies or transforming to higher-dimensional codes require a significant qubit count overhead. In this work, we propose a new protocol that combines magic state preparation and code transformation to realize logical non-Clifford operations, which has the potential for reducing the qubit count overhead, provided an efficient decoding algorithm exists for the intermediate non-Abelian code involved. Our approach begins with a special logical state in the Z4 surface code. By applying a sequence of transformations, the system goes through different topological codes, including the non-Abelian D 4 quantum double model. This process ultimately produces a magic state encoded in the Z2 surface code. A logical T gate can be implemented in the standard Z2 surface code by gate teleportation. In our analysis, we employ a framework where the topological codes are represented by their topological orders and all the transformations are considered as topological manipulations such as gauging symmetries and condensing anyons. This perspective is particularly useful for understanding transformations between topological codes.
Topological quantum computation encodes quantum information in the internal fusion space of non-Abelian anyonic quasiparticles, whose braiding implements logical gates. This goes beyond Abelian topological order (TO) such as the toric code, as its anyons lack internal structure. However, the simplest non-Abelian generalizations of the toric code do not support universality via braiding alone. Here we demonstrate that such minimally non-Abelian TOs can be made universal by treating anyon fusion as a computational primitive. We prepare a 54-qubit TO wavefunction associated with the smallest non-Abelian group, S3, on Quantinuum's H2 quantum processor. This phase of matter exhibits cyclic anyon fusion rules, known to underpin universality, which we evidence by trapping a single non-Abelian anyon on the torus. We encode logical qutrits in the nonlocal fusion space of non-Abelian fluxes and, by combining an entangling braiding operation with anyon charge measurements, realize a universal topological gate set and read-out, which we further demonstrate by topologically preparing a magic state. This work establishes S3 TO as simple enough to be prepared efficiently, yet rich enough to enable universal topological quantum computation.