Lifts of quantum CSS codes

Abstract: We propose a notion of lift for quantum CSS codes, inspired by the geometrical construction of Freedman and Hastings. It is based on the existence of a canonical complex associated to any CSS code, that we introduce under the name of Tanner cone-complex, and over which we generate covering spaces. As a first application, we describe the classification of lifts of hypergraph product codes (HPC) and demonstrate the equivalence with the lifted product code (LPC) of Panteleev and Kalachev, including when the linear codes, factors of the HPC, are Tanner codes. As a second application, we report several new non-product constructions of quantum CSS codes, and we apply the prescription to generate their lifts which, for certain selected covering maps, are codes with improved relative parameters compared to the initial one.