Phase Transitions and Noise Robustness of Quantum Graph States

Abstract: Graph states are entangled states that are essential for quantum information processing, including measurement-based quantum computation. As experimental advances enable the realization of large-scale graph states, efficient fidelity estimation methods are crucial for assessing their robustness against noise. However, calculations of exact fidelity become intractable for large systems due to the exponential growth in the number of stabilizers. In this work, we show that the fidelity between any ideal graph state and its noisy counterpart under IID Pauli noise can be mapped to the partition function of a classical spin system, enabling efficient computation via statistical mechanical techniques, including transfer matrix methods and Monte Carlo simulations. Using this approach, we analyze the fidelity for regular graph states under depolarizing noise and uncover the emergence of phase transitions in fidelity between the pure-state regime and the noise-dominated regime governed by both the connectivity (degree) and spatial dimensionality of the graph state. Specifically, in 2D, phase transitions occur only when the degree satisfies $d\ge 6$, while in 3D they already appear at $d\ge 5$. However, for graph states with excessively high degree, such as fully connected graphs, the phase transition disappears, suggesting that extreme connectivity suppresses critical behavior. These findings reveal that robustness of graph states against noise is determined by their connectivity and spatial dimensionality. Graph states with lower degree and/or dimensionality, which exhibit a smooth crossover rather than a sharp transition, demonstrate greater robustness, while highly connected or higher-dimensional graph states are more fragile. Extreme connectivity, as the fully connected graph state possesses, restores robustness.