arXiv subjects

Vincent Steffan

Publications and source records attributed to Vincent Steffan.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Nearest-neighbour gates are all you need: High-rate quantum low-density parity-check codes on a planar grid

High-performance quantum low-density parity-check codes promise substantial reductions in the overhead of fault-tolerant quantum computation, but most constructions require long-range connectivity or qubit shuttling, both of which are difficult to realise in superconducting architectures. Here we introduce a family of quantum low-density parity-check codes that, for the first time, combines planar open-boundary layouts, finite-size advantages over surface codes, and syndrome extraction using only nearest-neighbour gates on a square grid of qubits. The key idea is to generate check-data connectivity dynamically: nearest-neighbour iSWAP walks both define the stabiliser supports and implement their measurement, avoiding the need for a long-range hardware graph. The resulting circuits achieve optimal constant-depth stabiliser measurement, independent of code size, and naturally remove leakage from the system by exchanging the role of check and data qubits at each syndrome extraction round. We find finite-size instances such as a [[323,14,15]] code, whose code-efficiency ratio is nearly an order of magnitude larger than that of rotated surface-code patches. At around 30 circuit qubits per logical qubit, the best directional tile-code layouts reduce the per-logical per-round logical error rate by up to a factor of 1000 relative to rotated surface-code memories. These results show that the advantages of quantum low-density parity-check codes can survive compilation into strictly planar nearest-neighbour circuits, bringing low-overhead fault-tolerant memories closer to near-term hardware.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Barbell Codes: qLDPC Codes for Superconducting Quantum Hardware

The major challenge on the way to fault-tolerant quantum computing comes from the insufficient quality of hardware components and the difficulty of scaling their number without further compromising fidelity. Quantum Low-Density Parity-Check (qLDPC) codes offer a promising solution by encoding logical qubits with low overhead and at a comparatively high code distance. However, it remains an open question how to scalably implement efficient qLDPC codes on fixed-connectivity quantum chips without increasing hardware complexity to enable the non-local interactions in their underlying QEC cycles. We resolve this challenge for the first time by introducing a family of qLDPC "barbell" codes accompanied by a realistic chip layout that natively supports all required two-qubit interactions. Crucially, the hardware complexity required to implement barbell codes remains constant as code distance increases. We provide a detailed investigation into the feasibility of all required hardware components and simulate a specific family of barbell codes against circuit-level noise. We find that, with a modest overhead of $<30$ data qubits per logical qubit, barbell codes can preserve information at a physical noise strength of $10^{-4}$ for several trillion QEC cycles. Simulations of logical multi-Pauli measurements, performed with circuits tailored to the chip, yield similar logical performance per QEC round, indicating that entangling gates between logical qubits in barbell codes can be realized fault-tolerantly.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Logical Operators and Derived Automorphisms of Tile Codes

The recently introduced tile codes are a promising alternative to surface codes, combining two-dimensional locality with higher encoding efficiency. While surface codes are well understood in terms of their logical operators and boundary behavior, much less is known about tile codes. In this work, we establish a natural and precise description of their logical operator space. We prove that, under mild assumptions, any tile code admits a canonical symplectic basis of logical operators supported along lattice boundaries, which can be generated efficiently by a simple cellular automaton with the number of update rules only depending on the non-locality of the tile code. Further, we develop algebraic and algebro-geometric frameworks for tile codes, by resolving them by translationally invariant Pauli stabilizer models and showing that they arise as derived sections of a Koszul complex on $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$. Finally, we introduce the concept of derived automorphisms for quantum codes. These are automorphism-like operations that can exist even for codes that do not have symmetries. We explain how derived automorphisms can be implemented for tile codes in a low-overhead and fault-tolerant manner by extending the lattice on one side and shrinking it on the other. While this operation is trivial for the surface code, it induces a product of logical CNOT gates on the encoded information. Our results provide new structural insights into tile codes and lay the groundwork for tile codes as building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Tile Codes: High-Efficiency Quantum Codes on a Lattice with Boundary

We introduce tile codes, a simple yet powerful way of constructing quantum codes that are local on a planar 2D-lattice. Tile codes generalize the usual surface code by allowing for a bit more flexibility in terms of locality and stabilizer weight. Our construction does not compromise on the fact that the codes are local on a lattice with open boundary conditions. Despite its simplicity, we use our construction to find codes with parameters $[[288, 8, 12]]$ using weight-6 stabilizers and $[[288, 8, 14]]$ using weight-8 stabilizers, outperforming all previously known constructions in this direction. Allowing for a slightly higher non-locality, we find a $[[512, 18, 19]]$ code using weight-8 stabilizers, which outperforms the rotated surface code by a factor of more than 12. Our approach provides a unified framework for understanding the structure of codes that are local on a 2D planar lattice and offers a systematic way to explore the space of possible code parameters. In particular, due to its simplicity, the construction naturally accommodates various types of boundary conditions and stabilizer configurations, making it a versatile tool for quantum error correction code design.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Pruning qLDPC codes: Towards bivariate bicycle codes with open boundary conditions

Quantum low-density parity-check codes are promising candidates for quantum error correcting codes as they might offer more resource-efficient alternatives to surface code architectures. In particular, bivariate bicycle codes have recently gained attention due to their 2D-local structure, high encoding rate, and promising performance under simulation. In this work, we will explore how one can transform bivariate bicycle codes defined on lattices with periodic boundary conditions to codes with the same locality properties on a 2D lattice with open boundary conditions. For this, we introduce the concept of pruning quantum codes. We explain how pruning bivariate bicycle codes is always possible when the codes are hypergraph products of two classical cyclic codes. We also indicate that this might be possible for more general bivariate bicycle codes by constructing explicit examples. Finally, we investigate fault-tolerant quantum computation using the constructed pruned codes by describing fold-transversal gates.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Logical Operators and Fold-Transversal Gates of Bivariate Bicycle Codes

Quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes offer a promising route to scalable fault-tolerant quantum computation with constant overhead. Recent advancements have shown that qLDPC codes can outperform the quantum memory capability of surface codes even with near-term hardware. The question of how to implement logical gates fault-tolerantly for these codes is still open. We present new examples of high-rate bivariate bicycle (BB) codes with enhanced symmetry properties. These codes feature explicit nice bases of logical operators (similar to toric codes) and support fold-transversal Clifford gates without overhead. As examples, we construct $[[98,6,12]]$ and $[[162, 8, 12]]$ BB codes which admit interesting fault-tolerant Clifford gates. Our work also lays the mathematical foundations for explicit bases of logical operators and fold-transversal gates in quantum two-block and group algebra codes, which might be of independent interest.

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arXiv2023

The resource theory of tensor networks

Tensor networks provide succinct representations of quantum many-body states and are an important computational tool for strongly correlated quantum systems. Their expressive and computational power is characterized by an underlying entanglement structure, on a lattice or more generally a (hyper)graph, with virtual entangled pairs or multipartite entangled states associated to (hyper)edges. Changing this underlying entanglement structure into another can lead to both theoretical and computational benefits. We study a natural resource theory which generalizes the notion of bond dimension to entanglement structures using multipartite entanglement. It is a direct extension of resource theories of tensors studied in the context of multipartite entanglement and algebraic complexity theory, allowing for the application of the sophisticated methods developed in these fields to tensor networks. The resource theory of tensor networks concerns both the local entanglement structure of a quantum many-body state and the (algebraic) complexity of tensor network contractions using this entanglement structure. We show that there are transformations between entanglement structures which go beyond edge-by-edge conversions, highlighting efficiency gains of our resource theory that mirror those obtained in the search for better matrix multiplication algorithms. We also provide obstructions to the existence of such transformations by extending a variety of methods originally developed in algebraic complexity theory for obtaining complexity lower bounds. The resource theory of tensor networks allows to compare different entanglement structures and should lead to more efficient tensor network representations and contraction algorithms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Partial Degeneration of Tensors

Tensors are often studied by introducing preorders such as restriction and degeneration: the former describes transformations of the tensors by local linear maps on its tensor factors; the latter describes transformations where the local linear maps may vary along a curve, and the resulting tensor is expressed as a limit along this curve. In this work we introduce and study partial degeneration, a special version of degeneration where one of the local linear maps is constant whereas the others vary along a curve. Motivated by algebraic complexity, quantum entanglement and tensor networks, we present constructions based on matrix multiplication tensors and find examples by making a connection to the theory of prehomogeneous tensor spaces. We highlight the subtleties of this new notion by showing obstruction and classification results for the unit tensor. To this end, we study the notion of aided rank, a natural generalization of tensor rank. The existence of partial degenerations gives strong upper bounds on the aided rank of a tensor, which allows one to turn degenerations into restrictions. In particular, we present several examples, based on the W-tensor and the Coppersmith-Winograd tensors, where lower bounds on aided rank provide obstructions to the existence of certain partial degenerations.

math.AG↗

arXiv2022

Quantum max-flow in the bridge graph

The quantum max-flow is a linear algebraic version of the classical max-flow of a graph, used in quantum many-body physics to quantify the maximal possible entanglement between two regions of a tensor network state. In this work, we calculate the quantum max-flow exactly in the case of the bridge graph. The result is achieved by drawing connections to the theory of prehomogenous tensor spaces and the representation theory of quivers. Further, we highlight relations to invariant theory and to algebraic statistics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

New techniques for bounding stabilizer rank

In this work, we present number-theoretic and algebraic-geometric techniques for bounding the stabilizer rank of quantum states. First, we refine a number-theoretic theorem of Moulton to exhibit an explicit sequence of product states with exponential stabilizer rank but constant approximate stabilizer rank, and to provide alternate (and simplified) proofs of the best-known asymptotic lower bounds on stabilizer rank and approximate stabilizer rank, up to a log factor. Second, we find the first non-trivial examples of quantum states with multiplicative stabilizer rank under the tensor product. Third, we introduce and study the generic stabilizer rank using algebraic-geometric techniques.

quant-ph↗