An important measure of utility for a quantum code is the identification of which logical operations can be implemented fault-tolerantly on its codespace. We introduce a framework which leverages the automorphism groups of associated classical codes, the choice of logical basis and exploitation of code equivalence to construct all distinct implementable realisations of each valid logical operation for a given $[[n,k,d]]$ code. We establish conjugacy classes and group transversals (unrelated to transversality) as key explanatory concepts. We subsequently motivate and calculate two figures-of-merit that can be optimised with this framework. Our results yield a table of optimal logical operations and their corresponding physical circuits for all small stabiliser codes with $n \leq 7$ and $k \leq 2$, drawn from quantum databases. This exhaustive table of results provides the optimal physical implementations of logical operations which may be advantageous for both magic state cultivation and experimental purposes.
An important measure of utility for a quantum code is the identification of which logical operations can be implemented fault-tolerantly on its codespace. We introduce a framework which leverages the automorphism groups of associated classical codes, the choice of logical basis and exploitation of code equivalence to construct all distinct implementable realisations of each valid logical operation for a given [[n,k,d]] code. We establish conjugacy classes and group transversals (unrelated to transversality) as key explanatory concepts. We subsequently motivate and calculate two figures-of-merit that can be optimised with this framework. Our results yield a table of optimal logical operations and their corresponding physical circuits for all small stabiliser codes with n≤7 and k≤2, drawn from quantum databases. This exhaustive table of results provides the optimal physical implementations of logical operations which may be advantageous for both magic state cultivation and experimental purposes.
Fault-tolerant quantum computation is a technique that is necessary to build a scalable quantum computer from noisy physical building blocks. Key for the implementation of fault-tolerant computations is the ability to perform a universal set of quantum gates that act on the code space of an underlying quantum code. To implement such a universal gate set fault-tolerantly is an expensive task in terms of physical operations, and any possible shortcut to save operations is potentially beneficial and might lead to a reduction in overhead for fault-tolerant computations. We show how the automorphism group of a quantum code can be used to implement some operators on the encoded quantum states in a fault-tolerant way by merely permuting the physical qubits. We derive conditions that a code has to satisfy in order to have a large group of operations that can be implemented transversally when combining transversal CNOT with automorphisms. We give several examples for quantum codes with large groups, including codes with parameters [8, 3, 3], [15, 7, 3], [22, 8, 4], and [31, 11, 5].
We study the implementation of fault-tolerant logical Clifford gates on stabilizer quantum error-correcting codes based on their symmetries. Our approach is to map the stabilizer code to a binary linear code, compute its automorphism group, and impose constraints based on the Clifford operators permitted. We provide a rigorous formulation of the method for finding automorphisms of stabilizer codes and generalize the Z X dualities previously introduced for Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) codes to non-CSS codes. We provide a package implementing our algorithms that uses the computational-algebra software system for certain subroutines. Our algorithms map automorphism-group generators to physical circuits, calculate Pauli corrections based on the destabilizers of the code, and determine their logical action. We discuss the fault tolerance of the circuits and include examples of gates through automorphisms for the [ [ 4 , 2 , 2 ] ] and perfect [ [ 5 , 1 , 3 ] ] codes, bivariate bicycle codes, and the best-known distance codes.
Executing a logical quantum circuit fault-tolerantly incurs a large spacetime overhead. Recent work has proposed and investigated phantom codes, defined by the property that every in-block logical CNOT circuit can be implemented with a physical permutation, a property that has the potential to greatly reduce the depth of compiled circuits. Here we show that phantomness comes at the cost of low encoding rate. Specifically, we prove that any binary phantom code encoding k logical qubits into n physical qubits with distance d≥2 obeys the bound k≤log2(n+1) for all k=4. For k=4 we explicitly construct a nonstabiliser ((8,24,2)) phantom code that violates the bound and has a transversal non-Clifford gate. We further show that, within the class of nontrivial CSS phantom codes with k=4, there is a unique family of codes saturating this bound. In addition, we prove that this logarithmic ceiling cannot be circumvented by permitting additional local unitary gates, or by making use of subsystem codes: any subspace or subsystem code admitting a SWAP-transversal implementation of every logical CNOT circuit is constrained to satisfy the same bound. These bounds follow from a general theorem relating the length of a quantum code to the structure of its automorphism group, a result which may find applications beyond phantom codes.
Performing quantum computing that is robust against noise will require that all operations are fault-tolerant, meaning that they succeed with high probability even if a limited number of errors occur. We address the problem of fault-tolerantly implementing logical operators on quantum error-correcting codes – operators that apply logic gates to information protected by such codes. Specifically, we investigate what classes of logical operators are possible by particular approaches in important types of codes, especially topological stabiliser codes. We also analyse what fundamental limitations constrain the goal of realising fault-tolerant quantum computing by such implementations and how these limitations can be overcome. \n \nWe begin by presenting necessary background theory on quantum computing, quantum error-correcting codes and fault tolerance. We then specifically consider the approach to fault tolerance of locality-preserving logical operators in topological stabiliser codes. We present a method for determining the set of such operators admitted by a wide range of such codes and apply this method to important examples such as surface codes and colour codes. Next, we consider the alternative approach of implementing logical operators in topological stabiliser codes with defects, especially by the technique of braiding. We show that such approaches are fundamentally limited, but that effective schemes can nonetheless be constructed, both within these limitations and by circumventing them. We then consider fault tolerance in a more general context. We prove a highly general no-go theorem in this context, applicable to a wide range of stabiliser codes. We also show that this proof illuminates how it can be circumvented and provides perspective on a range of fault-tolerant schemes. Finally, we conclude by reviewing how these results collectively address our research questions and suggesting future work.
To implement quantum algorithms on a quantum computer, we must overcome the twin problems of fault-tolerance -- how can we realize a relatively noiseless computation by cleverly combining noisy components? -- and compilation -- how can we realize an arbitrary quantum algorithm given the basic operations available on the quantum device at hand? We show how treating the former problem via error-correcting codes enables greater flexibility in resolving the latter. Specifically, we explicitly leverage the fact that error-correcting codes introduce redundancy which renders physically distinct operators logically indistinguishable. In terms of computation, it suffices to implement any operator logically equivalent to some target, yet from a compilation perspective, certain choices may be preferable to others. Our novel contribution is making this intuition precise in the general setting of the special unitary group. In particular, we describe how to reduce the problem of making a compilation-ideal choice to a least squares problem and provide a closed form solution thereof. Using our framework, it is possible to circumvent inserting costly swaps to adhere to hardware connectivity; instead, we could realize the logical target through a distinct physical Hamiltonian that is natively accessible. We elucidate our approach using the [[4,2,2]] code. We discuss connections to compressed sensing that may pave the way to efficient compilation leveraging physical degrees of freedom.
Identifying stabilizer codes that admit fault-tolerant implementations of the full logical Clifford group would significantly advance fault-tolerant quantum computation. Motivated by this goal, we study several classes of fault-tolerant gadget constructions consisting of Clifford gates acting on the physical qubits, including transversal gadgets, code automorphisms, and fold-transversal gadgets. While stabilizer codes encoding a single logical qubit, most notably the [[7,1,3]] Steane code, are known to admit transversal implementations of the full logical Clifford group, no analogous examples are known for codes encoding multiple logical qubits. In this work, we prove a no-go theorem establishing that no stabilizer code admits a fully transversal implementation of the Clifford group on more than one logical qubit. We further strengthen this result by showing that fold-transversal implementations of the full logical Clifford group are impossible for stabilizer codes encoding more than two logical qubits. More generally, we introduce the notion of k-fold transversal gadgets and prove that implementing the full Clifford group on k logical qubits requires at least k-fold transversal gadgets at the physical level. In addition, we analyze code-automorphism based constructions and demonstrate that they also fail to realize the full Clifford group on multiple logical qubits for any stabilizer code. Together, these results place fundamental constraints on fault-tolerant Clifford gadget design and show that stabilizer codes supporting the full logical Clifford group on multiple logical qubits via these architectures do not exist. Since the Clifford group is a core component of universal gate sets, our findings imply that quantum computing with codes encoding multiple logical qubits within a single code block necessarily entails more complex constructions for fault tolerance.