Geometry-optimized hyperbolic codes for modular fault-tolerant quantum architectures

Abstract

Quantum fault tolerance is a prerequisite to harness the full potential of quantum computers. However, achieving fault tolerance remains a major challenge since it requires optimizing tradeoffs between several intertwined theoretical and experimental parameters, including the encoding rate, code distance, parity-check weights, code planarity, and routing. Surface codes remain strong candidates for fault tolerance due to their simple geometric structure, established decoding methods, locality, and experimental attainability. In this work, we present finite families of hyperbolic surface codes that leverage the optimal efficiency scaling $kd^2/n = C (\log{k})^2$ attainable by surface codes with bounded local geometry. We show that optimizing the periodic identifications can double the code distance and thereby increase the code's efficiency by a factor of four, at fixed qubit count, encoding rate, and parity-check weight. We also address the routing problem of hyperbolic surface codes by introducing a topology-aware algorithm that partitions a hyperbolic code into bounded planar modules while reducing long-range communications demand. Circuit-level Monte Carlo simulations yield finite-size threshold estimates for both modular and monolithic layouts, showing that tripling the long-range gate error probability mildly lowers, but does not eliminate, the estimated error-correction thresholds. Together, these results strengthen the case for hyperbolic surface codes as structured and highly efficient large-scale quantum error correction codes for future fault-tolerant architectures.