Far from Perfect: Quantum Error Correction with (Hyperinvariant) Evenbly Codes

Abstract: We introduce a new class of qubit codes that we call Evenbly codes, building on a previous proposal of hyperinvariant tensor networks. Its tensor network description consists of local, non-perfect tensors describing CSS codes interspersed with Hadamard gates, placed on a hyperbolic ${p,q}$ geometry with even $q\geq 4$, yielding an infinitely large class of subsystem codes. We construct an example for a ${5,4}$ manifold and describe strategies of logical gauge fixing that lead to different rates $k/n$ and distances $d$, which we calculate analytically, finding distances which range from $d=2$ to $d \sim n^{2/3}$ in the ungauged case. Investigating threshold performance under erasure, depolarizing, and pure Pauli noise channels, we find that the code exhibits a depolarizing noise threshold of about $19.1\%$ in the code-capacity model and $50\%$ for pure Pauli and erasure channels under suitable gauges. We also test a constant-rate version with $k/n = 0.125$, finding excellent error resilience (about $40\%$) under the erasure channel. Recovery rates for these and other settings are studied both under an optimal decoder as well as a more efficient but non-optimal greedy decoder. We also consider generalizations beyond the CSS tensor construction, compute error rates and thresholds for other hyperbolic geometries, and discuss the relationship to holographic bulk/boundary dualities. Our work indicates that Evenbly codes may show promise for practical quantum computing applications.