Finite-Degree Quantum LDPC Codes Reaching the Gilbert-Varshamov Bound

We construct asymptotically good nested Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) code pairs from Hsu-Anastasopoulos codes and MacKay-Neal codes. For fixed balanced triples with even component degrees and $j_Z\ge4$ , we prove that the coding rate stays bounded away from zero and that the relative distances on both sides stay bounded away from zero with probability tending to one as the blocklength grows. Moreover, within an explicit low-degree search window, we prove that all 56 balanced triples in that window with even common row degree, column degree at least four, and positive design quantum rate attain the classical Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound on both constituent sides, and consequently the CSS GV bound at fixed finite degree.We construct asymptotically good nested Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) code pairs from Hsu-Anastasopoulos codes and MacKay-Neal codes. For fixed balanced triples with even component degrees and $j_Z\ge4$, we prove that the coding rate stays bounded away from zero and that the relative distances on both sides stay bounded away from zero with probability tending to one as the blocklength grows. Moreover, within an explicit low-degree search window, we prove that all 56 balanced triples in that window with even common row degree, column degree at least four, and positive design quantum rate attain the classical Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound on both constituent sides, and consequently the CSS GV bound at fixed finite degree.

quant-pharXiv:2603.24588Mar 26, 20260 citations

Breaking the Orthogonality Barrier in Quantum LDPC Codes

Kenta Kasai, Kenta Kasai

Sep 27, 20260 citations

Random Quantum LDPC Codes Approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov Bound

Tushant Mittal, Shashank Srivastava, Madhur Tulsiani +1 more

We show that for any $R,ε>0$ and any prime $p\geq 2$ , there exists an infinite family of $p$ -ary quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes, rate $R$ , checks of weight $O_ε(1)$ , and normalized distance at least $δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)-ε$ . Here, $δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)$ denotes the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound for $p$ -ary stabilizer codes. In fact, we construct an ensemble of such QLDPC codes, such that a random code from this ensemble is close to the GV bound with high probability. Moreover, this ensemble matches the performance of random stabilizer codes on several quantum channels. Specifically, it approaches the quantum capacity of the erasure channel and the hashing bound for memoryless Pauli channels, including the depolarizing channel. A significant challenge in working with QLDPC codes is that they are necessarily \emph{degenerate}, i.e., contain many low-weight stabilizers. A key contribution of our work is a construction of QLDPC codes with quantitative control on their degeneracy. These codes are obtained by combining known constructions of asymptotically good QLDPC codes with the expander-based distance amplification procedure of Alon, Edmonds, and Luby [FOCS'95]. Our random ensemble is constructed by starting with these low-degeneracy QLDPC codes near the quantum Singleton bound and concatenating each coordinate with a random inner code. This can be viewed as a quantum analogue of Thommesen's construction, and as an LDPC version of a result of Ouyang, with an appropriately designed outer code.We show that for any $R,ε>0$ and any prime $p\geq 2$, there exists an infinite family of $p$-ary quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes, rate $R$, checks of weight $O_ε(1)$, and normalized distance at least $δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)-ε$. Here, $δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)$ denotes the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound for $p$-ary stabilizer codes. In fact, we construct an ensemble of such QLDPC codes, such that a random code from this ensemble is close to the GV bound with high probability. Moreover, this ensemble matches the performance of random stabilizer codes on several quantum channels. Specifically, it approaches the quantum capacity of the erasure channel and the hashing bound for memoryless Pauli channels, including the depolarizing channel. A significant challenge in working with QLDPC codes is that they are necessarily \emph{degenerate}, i.e., contain many low-weight stabilizers. A key contribution of our work is a construction of QLDPC codes with quantitative control on their degeneracy. These codes are obtained by combining known constructions of asymptotically good QLDPC codes with the expander-based distance amplification procedure of Alon, Edmonds, and Luby [FOCS'95]. Our random ensemble is constructed by starting with these low-degeneracy QLDPC codes near the quantum Singleton bound and concatenating each coordinate with a random inner code. This can be viewed as a quantum analogue of Thommesen's construction, and as an LDPC version of a result of Ouyang, with an appropriately designed outer code.

cs.ITCross-listedarXiv:2610.02648Oct 5, 20260 citations

Breaking the Orthogonality Barrier in Quantum LDPC Codes

Kenta Kasai

Jan 1, 20260 citations

We construct asymptotically good nested Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) code pairs from Hsu-Anastasopoulos codes and MacKay-Neal codes. For fixed balanced triples with even component degrees and

j_Z\ge4

, we prove that the coding rate stays bounded away from zero and that the relative distances on both sides stay bounded away from zero with probability tending to one as the blocklength grows. Moreover, within an explicit low-degree search window, we prove that all 56 balanced triples in that window with even common row degree, column degree at least four, and positive design quantum rate attain the classical Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound on both constituent sides, and consequently the CSS GV bound at fixed finite degree.

We show that for any

R,ε>0

and any prime

p\geq 2

, there exists an infinite family of

p

-ary quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes, rate

R

, checks of weight

O_ε(1)

, and normalized distance at least

δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)-ε

. Here,

δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)

denotes the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound for

p

-ary stabilizer codes. In fact, we construct an ensemble of such QLDPC codes, such that a random code from this ensemble is close to the GV bound with high probability. Moreover, this ensemble matches the performance of random stabilizer codes on several quantum channels. Specifically, it approaches the quantum capacity of the erasure channel and the hashing bound for memoryless Pauli channels, including the depolarizing channel. A significant challenge in working with QLDPC codes is that they are necessarily \emph{degenerate}, i.e., contain many low-weight stabilizers. A key contribution of our work is a construction of QLDPC codes with quantitative control on their degeneracy. These codes are obtained by combining known constructions of asymptotically good QLDPC codes with the expander-based distance amplification procedure of Alon, Edmonds, and Luby [FOCS'95]. Our random ensemble is constructed by starting with these low-degeneracy QLDPC codes near the quantum Singleton bound and concatenating each coordinate with a random inner code. This can be viewed as a quantum analogue of Thommesen's construction, and as an LDPC version of a result of Ouyang, with an appropriately designed outer code.