We explore the background on error-correcting codes, including linear codes and quantum codes from curves. Then we consider the parameters of quantum codes constructed from two-point Hermitian codes.
The goal of this paper is twofold. First, to provide a self contained, detailed and rigorous mathematical introduction to some aspects of the quantum error-correcting codes and especially quantum stabilizer codes and their connection to self-orthogonal linear codes. This has been done without venturing that much, if at all, into the world of physics. While most of the results presented are not new, it is not easy to extract a precise mathematical formulation of results and to provide their rigorous proofs by reading the vast number of papers in the field, quite a few of which are written by computer scientists or physicists. It is this formulation and proofs, some of which are new, that we present here. Techniques from algebra of finite fields as well as representations of finite abelian groups have been employed. The second goal is the construction of some stabilizer codes via self-orthogonal linear codes associated to algebraic curves.
Sarvepalli and Klappenecker showed how classical one-point codes on the Hermitian curve can be used to construct quantum codes. Homma and Kim determined the parameters of a larger family of codes, the two-point codes. In quantum error-correction, the observed presence of asymmetry in some quantum channels led to the study of asymmetric quantum codes (AQECCs) where we no longer assume that the different types of errors are equiprobable. This paper considers quantum codes constructed from the two-point codes. In the asymmetric case, we show strict improvements over all possible finite fields for a range of designed distances. We produce large dimension pure AQECC and small dimension impure AQECC that have better parameters than AQECC from one-point codes. Numerical results for the Hermitian curves over F16 and F64 are used to illustrate the gain.
A curve attaining the Hasse-Weil bound is called a maximal curve. Usually, classical error-correcting codes obtained from a maximal curve have good parameters. However, the quantum stabilizer codes obtained from such classical error-correcting codes via Euclidean or Hermitian self-orthogonality do not always possess good parameters. In this paper, the Hermitian self-orthogonality of algebraic geometry codes obtained from two maximal curves is investigated. It turns out that the stabilizer quantum codes produced from such Hermitian self-orthogonal classical codes have good parameters.