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arXiv:2603.26819

Approximate Error Correction for Quantum Simulations of SU(2) Lattice Gauge Theories

Zachary P. Bradshaw

quant-phhep-latSubmitted Mar 26, 2026• Announced Mar 30, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Mar 26, 2026v2 · Apr 5, 2026v3 · May 20, 2026
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Abstract

We present a protocol for actively suppressing Gauss law violations in quantum simulations of SU(2) lattice gauge theory. The protocol uses mid-circuit measurements to extract a characterization of the gauge-violation sector at each lattice vertex, resolving both the total angular momentum and magnetic quantum numbers of the violation via a group quantum Fourier transform. Syndrome-conditional recovery operations map the state back to the gauge-invariant subspace through an iterative sweep over vertices, a procedure we call gauge cooling. We show that while the Knill-Laflamme conditions are not generically satisfied at vertices with nontrivial singlet multiplicity, every single-qubit error is detected by the gauge syndrome. We demonstrate gauge cooling on a single-plaquette simulation of the Kogut-Susskind Hamiltonian truncated to the spin-$1/2$ representation under depolarizing and amplitude damping noise, showing that the protocol restores gauge invariance and improves fidelity at noise rates representative of current superconducting hardware.

Comments
16 pages, 1 figure

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We present a protocol for actively suppressing Gauss law violations in quantum simulations of SU(2) lattice gauge theory. The protocol uses mid-circuit measurements to extract a characterization of the gauge-violation sector at each lattice vertex, resolving both the total angular momentum and magnetic quantum numbers of the violation via a group quantum Fourier transform. Syndrome-conditional recovery operations map the state back to the gauge-invariant subspace through an iterative sweep over vertices, a procedure we call gauge cooling. We show that while the Knill-Laflamme conditions are not generically satisfied at vertices with nontrivial singlet multiplicity, every single-qubit error is detected by the gauge syndrome. We demonstrate gauge cooling on a single-plaquette simulation of the Kogut-Susskind Hamiltonian truncated to the spin-1/21/21/2 representation under depolarizing and amplitude damping noise, showing that the protocol restores gauge invariance and improves fidelity at noise rates representative of current superconducting hardware.
We construct two quantum error correction codes for pure SU(2) lattice gauge theory in the electric basis truncated at the electric flux jmax=1/2j_{\rm max}=1/2jmax​=1/2, which are applicable on quasi-1D plaquette chains, 2D honeycomb and 3D triamond and hyperhoneycomb lattices. The first code converts Gauss's law at each vertex into a stabilizer while the second only uses half of the vertices and is locally the carbon code. Both codes are able to correct single-qubit errors. The electric and magnetic terms in the SU(2) Hamiltonian are expressed in terms of logical gates in both codes. The logical-gate Hamiltonian in the first code exactly matches the spin Hamiltonian for gauge singlet states found in previous work.
Quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories (LGTs) are often formulated on an enlarged Hilbert space containing both physical and unphysical sectors in order to retain a local Hamiltonian.We provide simple fault-tolerant procedures that exploit such redundancy by combining a phase flip error correction code with the Gauss' law constraint to correct one-qubit errors for a Z 2 or truncated U(1) LGT in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions with a link flux cutoff of 1. Unlike existing work on detecting violations of Gauss' law, our circuits are fault tolerant and the overall error correction scheme outperforms a naïve application of the [5, 1, 3] code.The constructions outlined can be extended to LGT systems with larger cutoffs and may be of use in understanding how to hybridize error correction and quantum simulation for LGTs in higher space-time dimensions and with different symmetry groups.
Gauge theories and quantum error-correcting codes share the same underlying structure: both use constraints to identify a specific subspace of the full Hilbert space. In quantum error correction, these constraints are known as stabilizers, while in gauge theories they correspond to Gauss law. In this work, we consider a family of discrete Abelian lattice gauge theories described by a ZN\mathbb{Z}_{N}ZN​ gauge group with NNN an arbitrary power of two. In this setting, we find a set of stabilizers for the gauge-invariant subspace which is an alternative to the Gauss operators, and we call them binary Gauss stabilizers. We use this alternative stabilizer group to build practical error-correcting codes exploiting the gauge symmetries of the system without the addition of extra qubits. The applications of our finding are not limited to error correction though. We also provide a new strategy of gauge fixing to remove the redundancies based on our alternative stabilizer, which might provide advantages with respect to already-existing approaches such as the axial gauge. Our results provide new tools to study lattice gauge theories and their quantum simulation, and opens directions for future work at the interface of lattice gauge theory and quantum information.
Abstract Quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories (LGTs) are often formulated on an enlarged Hilbert space containing both physical and unphysical sectors in order to retain a local Hamiltonian. We provide simple fault-tolerant procedures that exploit such redundancy by combining a phase flip error correction code with the Gauss’ law constraint to correct one-qubit errors for a Z2{{\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}Z2​ Z 2 or truncated U(1) LGT in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions with a link flux cutoff of 1. Unlike existing work on detecting violations of Gauss’ law, our circuits are fault tolerant and the overall error correction scheme outperforms a naïve application of the [5, 1, 3] code. The constructions outlined can be extended to LGT systems with larger cutoffs and may be of use in understanding how to hybridize error correction and quantum simulation for LGTs in higher space-time dimensions and with different symmetry groups.
We develop a comprehensive framework for constructing quantum error correcting codes (QECCs) from Abelian lattice gauge theories (LGTs) using quantum reference frames (QRFs) as a unifying formalism. We consider LGTs with arbitrary compact Abelian gauge groups supported on lattices in arbitrary numbers of spatial dimensions, and we work with both pure gauge theories and theories with couplings to bosonic and fermionic matter. The codes that we construct fall into two classes: First, Gauss law codes identify the code subspace with the full gauge-invariant sector of the theory. In models with matter coupled to gauge fields, these codes inherit a natural subsystem structure in which gauge-invariant Wilson loops and dressed matter excitations factorize the code space. Second, vacuum codes restrict the code subspace to the matter vacuum sector within the gauge-invariant subspace, yielding codes where errors correspond to gauge-invariant charge excitations rather than to violations of the Gauss law. Despite their distinct setup, we show that when the gauge group is finite, vacuum codes are unitarily equivalent to pure gauge theory Gauss law codes, and that when the group is continuous, this is only true upon a charge coarse-graining of the vacuum code. In all cases, QRFs provide a systematic apparatus for fully characterizing the codes' algebraic structures and correctable error sets. For clarity, we illustrate our general results in Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​-gauge theory, as well as in scalar and fermionic QED. These findings offer fundamental insights into the parallelism between quantum error correction and gauge theory and point toward practical advantages for simulating LGTs on noisy quantum devices.
We show that using the loop-string-hadron (LSH) formulation of SU(2) lattice gauge theory (arXiv:1912.06133) as a basis for digital quantum computation easily solves an important problem of fundamental interest: implementing gauge invariance (or Gauss's law) exactly. We first discuss the structure of the LSH Hilbert space in ddd spatial dimensions, its truncation, and its digitization with qubits. Error detection and mitigation in gauge theory simulations would benefit from physicality oracles,'so we decompose circuits that flag gauge invariant wavefunctions. We then analyze the logical qubit costs and entangling gate counts involved with the protocols. The LSH basis could save or cost more qubits than a Kogut-Susskind-type representation basis, depending on how the bases are digitized as well as the spatial dimension. The numerous other clear benefits encourage future studies into applying this framework.