Modular Bosonic Subsystem Codes

Abstract: We introduce a framework to decompose a bosonic mode into two virtual subsystems-a logical qubit and a gauge mode. This framework allows the entire toolkit of qubit-based quantum information to be applied in the continuous-variable setting. We give a detailed example based on a modular decomposition of the position basis and apply it in two situations. First, we decompose Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill grid states and find that the encoded logical state can be damaged due to entanglement with the gauge mode. Second, we identify and disentangle qubit cluster states hidden inside of Gaussian continuous-variable cluster states.