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Almost Any Quantum Spin System With Short-Range Interactions Can Support Toric Codes

Maxim Raginsky

Published Nov 6, 2001• 3 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Inspired by Kitaev's argument that physical error correction is possible in a system of interacting anyons, we demonstrate that such "self-correction" is fairly common in spin systems with classical Hamiltonians that admit the Peierls argument and where errors are modelled by quantum perturbations.

Related papers

Topological quantum error correction in the Kitaev honeycomb model

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Abstract The Kitaev honeycomb model is an approximate topological quantum error correcting code in the same phase as the toric code, but requiring only a 2-body Hamiltonian. As a frustrated spin model, it is well outside the commuting models of topological quantum codes that are typically studied, but its exact solubility makes it more amenable to analysis of effects arising in this noncommutative setting than a generic topologically ordered Hamiltonian. Here we study quantum error correction in the honeycomb model using both analytic and numerical techniques. We first prove explicit exponential bounds on the approximate degeneracy, local indistinguishability, and correctability of the code space. These bounds are tighter than can be achieved using known general properties of topological phases. Our proofs are specialized to the honeycomb model, but some of the methods may nonetheless be of broader interest. Following this, we numerically study noise caused by thermalization processes in the perturbative regime close to the toric code renormalization group fixed point. The appearance of non-topological excitations in this setting has no significant effect on the error correction properties of the honeycomb model in the regimes we study. Although the behavior of this model is found to be qualitatively similar to that of the standard toric code in most regimes, we find numerical evidence of an interesting effect in the low-temperature, finite-size regime where a preferred lattice direction emerges and anyon diffusion is geometrically constrained. We expect this effect to yield an improvement in the scaling of the lifetime with system size as compared to the standard toric code.

arXiv:1705.01563•Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment•Aug 1, 2017•18 citations

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Almost any quantum spin system with short-range interactions can support toric codes

Maxim Raginsky

arXiv:quant-ph/0111035•Physics Letters A•Feb 1, 2002•2 citations

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Jacopo Gliozzi, Taylor L. Hughes, Kyung-Su Kim

We introduce two-dimensional toric code models with additional long-range loop interactions. Our models preserve the topologically ordered ground states of the ordinary toric code, while confining anyons at zero temperature. For sufficiently long-ranged interactions, we argue that this confinement persists at finite temperatures, strongly constraining anyon mobility and giving rise to finite-temperature topological order. This topological phase acts as a self-correcting quantum memory and exhibits long-range entanglement. For shorter-ranged interactions, signatures of topological order survive only up to an exponentially large length scale at finite temperature, yielding a partially self-correcting quantum memory.

cond-mat.str-elCross-listedarXiv:2610.37765•Oct 29, 2026•0 citations

Designing Codes around Interactions: The Case of a Spin

Jonathan A. Gross

I present a new approach for designing quantum error-correcting codes guaranteeing a physically natural implementation of Clifford operations. Inspired by the scheme put forward by Gottesman, Kitaev, and Preskill for encoding a qubit in an oscillator in which Clifford operations may be performed via Gaussian unitaries, this approach yields new schemes for encoding a qubit in a large spin in which single-qubit Clifford operations may be performed via spatial rotations. I construct all possible examples of such codes, provide universal-gate-set implementations using quadratic angular-momentum Hamiltonians, and derive criteria for when these codes exactly correct physically relevant errors.

arXiv:2005.10910•Physical Review Letters•Jul 2, 2021•63 citations
Abstract The Kitaev honeycomb model is an approximate topological quantum error correcting code in the same phase as the toric code, but requiring only a 2-body Hamiltonian. As a frustrated spin model, it is well outside the commuting models of topological quantum codes that are typically studied, but its exact solubility makes it more amenable to analysis of effects arising in this noncommutative setting than a generic topologically ordered Hamiltonian. Here we study quantum error correction in the honeycomb model using both analytic and numerical techniques. We first prove explicit exponential bounds on the approximate degeneracy, local indistinguishability, and correctability of the code space. These bounds are tighter than can be achieved using known general properties of topological phases. Our proofs are specialized to the honeycomb model, but some of the methods may nonetheless be of broader interest. Following this, we numerically study noise caused by thermalization processes in the perturbative regime close to the toric code renormalization group fixed point. The appearance of non-topological excitations in this setting has no significant effect on the error correction properties of the honeycomb model in the regimes we study. Although the behavior of this model is found to be qualitatively similar to that of the standard toric code in most regimes, we find numerical evidence of an interesting effect in the low-temperature, finite-size regime where a preferred lattice direction emerges and anyon diffusion is geometrically constrained. We expect this effect to yield an improvement in the scaling of the lifetime with system size as compared to the standard toric code.
The ability to store information is of fundamental importance to any computer, be it classical or quantum. To identify systems for quantum memories, which rely, analogously to classical memories, on passive error protection (``self-correction''), is of greatest interest in quantum information science. While systems with topological ground states have been considered to be promising candidates, a large class of them was recently proven unstable against thermal fluctuations. Here, we propose two-dimensional (2D) spin models unaffected by this result. Specifically, we introduce repulsive long-range interactions in the toric code and establish a memory lifetime polynomially increasing with the system size. This remarkable stability is shown to originate directly from the repulsive long-range nature of the interactions. We study the time dynamics of the quantum memory in terms of diffusing anyons and support our analytical results with extensive numerical simulations. Our findings demonstrate that self-correcting quantum memories can exist in 2D at finite temperatures.
We explore the possibility of passive error correction in the toric code model. We first show that even coherent dynamics, stemming from spin interactions or the coupling to an external magnetic field, lead to logical errors. We then argue that Anderson localization of the defects, arising from unavoidable fluctuations of the coupling constants, provides a remedy. This protection is demonstrated by using general analytical arguments that are complemented with numerical results which show that self-correcting memory can in principle be achieved in the limit of a nonzero density of identical defects.
We introduce two-dimensional toric code models with additional long-range loop interactions. Our models preserve the topologically ordered ground states of the ordinary toric code, while confining anyons at zero temperature. For sufficiently long-ranged interactions, we argue that this confinement persists at finite temperatures, strongly constraining anyon mobility and giving rise to finite-temperature topological order. This topological phase acts as a self-correcting quantum memory and exhibits long-range entanglement. For shorter-ranged interactions, signatures of topological order survive only up to an exponentially large length scale at finite temperature, yielding a partially self-correcting quantum memory.
I present a new approach for designing quantum error-correcting codes guaranteeing a physically natural implementation of Clifford operations. Inspired by the scheme put forward by Gottesman, Kitaev, and Preskill for encoding a qubit in an oscillator in which Clifford operations may be performed via Gaussian unitaries, this approach yields new schemes for encoding a qubit in a large spin in which single-qubit Clifford operations may be performed via spatial rotations. I construct all possible examples of such codes, provide universal-gate-set implementations using quadratic angular-momentum Hamiltonians, and derive criteria for when these codes exactly correct physically relevant errors.