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Andrew Nemec

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew Nemec.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Quantum Secret Sharing with a Helper and Programmable Access Structures

Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is a process in which the state of a quantum system is partitioned into multiple shares, allowing only specific subsets of shareholders to reconstruct the state, while others gain no information about its identity. In this work, we propose a variant of QSS, called ``helper QSS,'' which designates a special shareholder whose participation with any other group of parties is sufficient for recovering the state. We present different families of helper codes that function for an arbitrary number of parties and system sizes. As an application, we introduce the idea of a programmable access structure in QSS, which allows for a third-party programmer to independently choose the access structure of the code even after the shares are delivered to all the shareholders. This choice is made blindly, meaning that the programmer has no information about the secret being encoded, and it is implemented using the nonlocal process of quantum steering.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2026

Codes for Quantum Secret Sharing with a Helper

Helper quantum secret sharing is a form of secret sharing defined by its unique access structure. One special fixed party, called the helper, can work together with any other party to fully decode the secret. A blind helper is one who can provide this assistance while not holding any local information about the encoded secret. In this work, we analyze the general structure of QSS helper codes and present new code constructions. We fully characterize the structure of blind helper stabilizer codes and show that for the encoding of a single qubit, recovery is always possible using one-way local operations and classical communication (LOCC) from the helper to the targeted party. Furthermore, we demonstrate how such codes also allow for the helper to target larger subsets of parties by one-way LOCC, enabling them to be authorized to recover the secret. Finally, when each party only holds a qubit, we identify the general form of all helper codes (including non-stabilizer codes) and find that LOCC recovery is only possible in special cases.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2026

Computationally Efficient Optimization of Per-Qubit Clifford Deformation for Non-uniform Biased Noise

In fault-tolerant quantum computing systems with biased noise, Clifford deformation can substantially reduce the logical error rate (LER) without additional physical hardware overhead, such as extra qubits, syndrome extraction rounds, or code distance. Although Google Willow calibration data shows that $43\%$ of qubits exhibit strong $X/Z$ bias, existing calibration-aware deformation techniques remain impractical: (1) global searches over the $6^n$ deformation choices rely on computing-intensive simulations, and (2) local heuristics often underperform undeformed baselines. We present Chameleon, a fast, high-performance, and code-agnostic Clifford deformation compiler. We utilize our approximation to tackle a deformation problem based on an analytical bound on the LER. By minimizing this surrogate, Chameleon finds an optimized deformation that empirically reduces the LER with substantially lower computational overhead. In our evaluation, using calibration models derived from real superconducting devices, Chameleon demonstrates that improvements in our surrogate are strongly correlated with actual LER reductions, with an average rank correlation of $\rho=0.8$ and $\rho=0.89$-$0.94$ on the most strongly biased system. It also reduces classical computational time from $1.2$ days to $3.1$ minutes for the BB72 code. Chameleon achieves maximum LER reductions of $19\%$ ($13\%$ on average) for surface codes, $16\%$ ($7\%$) for color codes, and $10\%$ ($4\%$) for bivariate bicycle codes relative to competing baselines. The maximum gains for all code families are observed on the most strongly biased system.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2026

Hybrid Clifford Codes via Operator Algebra Quantum Error Correction and Projective Representation Theory

Clifford codes are a natural generalization of quantum stabilizer codes based primarily on representation theory. This class of codes has previously been extended to the setting of quantum subsystem codes. We formulate a two-fold generalization of Clifford codes, for both the hybrid classical and quantum information and projective representation theory settings. This leads to new classes of hybrid subspace and subsystem Clifford codes. We extend the fundamental representation theoretic quantum error correction theorem to include these codes, based on the operator algebra quantum error correction framework. We also discuss several examples throughout the presentation, of both stabilizer and non-stabilizer type.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2026

Quantum Anonymous Secret Sharing with Permutation Invariant Codes

Quantum secret sharing schemes are a family of quantum cryptographic protocols which provide secure quantum encodings, mapping one secret to multiple shares of information such that the original secret cannot be accessed without an authorized set of shares present for decoding. In this work, we describe a protocol that enables sender-anonymity during the secret decoding process. By using permutation-invariant QEC codes along with a set of anonymous quantum transmission algorithms, we construct a quantum anonymous secret sharing scheme that achieves sender-anonymity. We quantify information leakage in ramp quantum secret sharing schemes via the quantum conditional min-entropy, justifying it as a valid measure of leaked information by relating it to the Knill-Laflamme quantum error correction conditions. Finally, we evaluate several permutation-invariant codes using this measure to make observations on the information leakage of intermediate shares for each quantum anonymous secret sharing scheme.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2026

Entanglement-Assisted Codes Outside the Stabilizer Framework

We show how entanglement-assisted codes can be constructed from arbitrary quantum codes by associating them with quantum codes for erasure channels. If a subset of physical qubits is correctable for an erasure error, then it naturally forms the receiver's share of a bipartite state that can be used for entanglement-assisted communications, both in the noiseless and noisy ebit error models. In the case of degenerate codes, we show that the receiver's share of the bipartite state can sometimes be compressed, at the cost of potentially reduced error-correction ability in the noisy ebit error model. We also give examples of permutation-invariant and XP-stabilizer entanglement-assisted codes, the first outside of the stabilizer and codeword-stabilized frameworks.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2026

BiBiEQ: Bivariate Bicycle Codes on Erasure Qubits

Erasure qubits reduce overhead in fault-tolerant quantum error correction (QEC) by converting dominant faults into detectable errors known as erasures. They have demonstrated notable improvements in thresholds and scaling in surface and Floquet code memories. In this work, we use erasure qubits on Bivariate Bicycle (BB) codes from the quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) regime. Owing to their sparse structure and favorable rate-distance trade-offs, BB codes are practical candidates for QEC. We introduce BiBiEQ, a novel framework that compiles a given BB code into an erasure-aware memory circuit C_E. This erasure circuit C_E comprises erasure checks (ECs), resets, and erasures spread over a user-specified erasure check schedule (2EC, 4EC). BiBiEQ converts this erasure circuit C_E into the stabilizer circuit C for general-purpose decoding. BiBiEQ provides two engines for this conversion, BiBiEQ-Exact and BiBiEQ-Approx. BiBiEQ-Exact preserves the joint-erasure correlations and serves as our accuracy benchmark, while BiBiEQ-Approx uses an independence approximation to accelerate large sweeps and expose accuracy-throughput trade-offs. Using BiBiEQ, we decode the stabilizer circuits to get a per-round logical error rate (LER) for the BB codes and quantify the effect of the EC schedules on the correctable operating region below the pseudo-threshold. The 4EC schedule keeps the accuracy of both engines close to one another, making BiBiEQ-Approx a reliable proxy for BiBiEQ-Exact for faster sweeps. Below the pseudo-threshold, the code distance (d) hop from distance (d) 6 to 10 yields a drop in LER by 10-17x larger than distance (d) 10 to 12, showing that most gains are realized by d=10.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2025

Structure Theorem for Quantum Replacer Codes

Quantum replacer codes are codes that can be protected from errors induced by a given set of quantum replacer channels, an important class of quantum channels that includes the erasures of subsets of qubits that arise in quantum error correction. We prove a structure theorem for such codes that synthesizes a variety of special cases with earlier theoretical work in quantum error correction. We present several examples and applications of the theorem, including a mix of new observations and results together with some subclasses of codes revisited from this new perspective.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2024

Synchronizable hybrid subsystem codes

Quantum synchronizable codes are quantum error correcting codes that can correct not only Pauli errors but also errors in block synchronization. The code can be constructed from two classical cyclic codes $\mathcal{C}$, $\mathcal{D}$ satisfying $\mathcal{C}^{\perp} \subset \mathcal{C} \subset \mathcal{D}$ through the Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) code construction. In this work, we establish connections between quantum synchronizable codes, subsystem codes, and hybrid codes constructed from the same pair of classical cyclic codes. We also propose a method to construct a synchronizable hybrid subsystem code which can correct both Pauli and synchronization errors, is resilient to gauge errors by virtue of the subsystem structure, and can transmit both classical and quantum information, all at the same time. The trade-offs between the number of synchronization errors that the code can correct, the number of gauge qubits, and the number of logical classical bits of the code are also established. In addition, we propose general methods to construct hybrid and hybrid subsystem codes of CSS type from classical codes, which cover relevant codes from our main construction.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2024

SDP bounds on quantum codes

This paper provides a semidefinite programming hierarchy based on state polynomial optimization to determine the existence of quantum codes with given parameters. The hierarchy is complete, in the sense that a $(\!(n, K, {\delta})\!)_2$ code exists if and only if every level of the hierarchy is feasible. It is not limited to stabilizer codes and thus is applicable generally. While the machinery is formally dimension-free, we restrict it to qubit codes through quasi-Clifford algebras. We derive the quantum analog of a range of classical results: first, from an intermediate level a Lov\'asz bound for self-dual quantum codes is recovered. Second, a symmetrization of a minor variation of this Lov\'asz bound recovers the quantum Delsarte bound. Third, a symmetry reduction using the Terwilliger algebra leads to semidefinite programming bounds of size $O(n^4)$. With this we give an alternative proof that there is no $(\!(7, 1, 4)\!)_2$ quantum code, and show that $(\!(8, 9, 3)\!)_2$ and $(\!(10, 5, 4)\!)_2$ codes do not exist.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2023

An infinite class of quantum codes derived from duadic constacyclic codes

We present a family of quantum stabilizer codes using the structure of duadic constacyclic codes over $\mathbb{F}_4$. Within this family, quantum codes can possess varying dimensions, and their minimum distances are lower bounded by a square root bound. For each fixed dimension, this allows us to construct an infinite sequence of binary quantum codes with a growing minimum distance. Additionally, we prove that this family of quantum codes includes an infinite subclass of degenerate codes. We also introduce a technique for extending splittings of duadic constacyclic codes, providing new insights into the minimum distance and minimum odd-like weight of specific duadic constacyclic codes. Finally, we provide numerical examples of some quantum codes with short lengths within this family.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2023

Robust Syndrome Extraction via BCH Encoding

Quantum data-syndrome (QDS) codes are a class of quantum error-correcting codes that protect against errors both on the data qubits and on the syndrome itself via redundant measurement of stabilizer group elements. One way to define a QDS code is to choose a syndrome measurement code, a classical block code that encodes the syndrome of the underlying quantum code by defining additional stabilizer measurements. We propose the use of primitive narrow-sense BCH codes as syndrome measurement codes. We show that these codes asymptotically require $O(t\log\ell)$ extra measurements, where $\ell$ is the number of stabilizer generators of the quantum code and $t$ is the number of errors corrected by the BCH code. Previously, the best known general method of constructing QDS codes out of quantum codes requires $O(t^3\log\ell)$ extra measurements. As the number of additional syndrome measurements is a reasonable metric for the amount of additional time a general QDS code requires, we conclude that our construction protects against the same number of syndrome errors with significantly less time overhead.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2023

A Hamming-Like Bound for Degenerate Stabilizer Codes

The quantum Hamming bound was originally put forward as an upper bound on the parameters of nondegenerate quantum codes, but over the past few decades much work has been done to show that many degenerate quantum codes must also obey this bound. In this paper, we show that there is a Hamming-like bound stricter than the quantum Hamming bound that applies to degenerate $t$-error-correcting stabilizer codes of length greater than some positive integer $N(t)$. We show that this bound holds for all single-error-correcting degenerate stabilizer codes, forcing all but a handful of optimal distance-3 stabilizer codes to be nondegenerate.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2023

Quantum Data-Syndrome Codes: Subsystem and Impure Code Constructions

Quantum error correction requires the use of error syndromes derived from measurements that may be unreliable. Recently, quantum data-syndrome (QDS) codes have been proposed as a possible approach to protect against both data and syndrome errors, in which a set of linearly dependent stabilizer measurements are performed to increase redundancy. Motivated by wanting to reduce the total number of measurements performed, we introduce QDS subsystem codes, and show that they can outperform similar QDS stabilizer codes derived from them. We also give a construction of single-error-correcting QDS stabilizer codes from impure stabilizer codes, and show that any such code must satisfy a variant of the quantum Hamming bound for QDS codes. Finally, we use this bound to prove a new bound that applies to impure, but not pure, stabilizer codes that may be of independent interest.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2022

Encoding Classical Information in Gauge Subsystems of Quantum Codes

We show how to construct hybrid quantum-classical codes from subsystem codes by encoding the classical information into the gauge qudits using gauge fixing. Unlike previous work on hybrid codes, we allow for two separate minimum distances, one for the quantum information and one for the classical information. We give an explicit construction of hybrid codes from two classical linear codes using Bacon-Casaccino subsystem codes, as well as several new examples of good hybrid code.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2020

Infinite Families of Quantum-Classical Hybrid Codes

Hybrid codes simultaneously encode both quantum and classical information into physical qubits. We give several general results about hybrid codes, most notably that the quantum codes comprising a genuine hybrid code must be impure and that hybrid codes can always detect more errors than comparable quantum codes. We also introduce the weight enumerators for general hybrid codes, which we then use to derive linear programming bounds. Finally, inspired by the construction of some families of nonadditive codes, we construct several infinite families of genuine hybrid codes with minimum distance two and three.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2020

Nonbinary Error-Detecting Hybrid Codes

Hybrid codes simultaneously encode both quantum and classical information, allowing for the transmission of both across a quantum channel. We construct a family of nonbinary error-detecting hybrid stabilizer codes that can detect one error while also encoding a single classical bit over the residue class rings $\mathbb{Z}_{q}$ inspired by constructions of nonbinary non-additive codes.

quant-ph↗