General scheme for perfect quantum network coding with free classical communication

by Hirotada Kobayashi, Francois Le Gall, Harumichi Nishimura and Martin Rötteler,

This paper considers the problem of efficiently transmitting quantum states through a network. It has been known for some time that without additional assumptions it is impossible to achieve this task perfectly in general - indeed, it is impossible even for the simple butterfly network. As additional resource we allow free classical communication between any pair of network nodes. It is shown that perfect quantum network coding is achievable in this model whenever classical network coding is possible over the same network when replacing all quantum capacities by classical capacities. More precisely, it is proved that perfect quantum network coding using free classical communication is possible over a network with k source-target pairs if there exists a classical linear (or even vector-linear) coding scheme over a finite ring. Our proof is constructive in that we give explicit quantum coding operations for each network node. This paper also gives an upper bound on the number of classical communication required in terms of k, the maximal fan-in of any network node, and the size of the network.


Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP'09), LNCS, vol. 5555, pp. 622-633. Springer, 2009.
See also ArXiv preprint
arXiv:0902.1299.



New decoding algorithms for a class of subsystem codes and generalized Shor codes

by Pradeep K. Sarvepalli, M. Rötteler, and A. Klappenecker

In this paper we give new decoding algorithms for the generalized Shor codes and a class of subsystem codes due to Bacon and Casaccino. Our interest in these codes stems from the fact these codes can allow us to construct quantum codes from non-dual containing codes. In this paper we show how to decode these codes efficiently.

Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'09), pp. 804-808, 2009.



Asymmetric quantum codes: constructions, bounds, and performance

by Pradeep K. Sarvepalli, A. Klappenecker, and M. Rötteler

Recently, quantum error-correcting codes were proposed that capitalize on the fact that many physical error models lead to a significant asymmetry between the probabilities for bit flip and phase flip errors. An example for a channel which exhibits such asymmetry is the combined amplitude damping and dephasing channel, where the probabilities of bit flips and phase flips can be related to relaxation and dephasing time, respectively. We study asymmetric quantum codes that are obtained from the CSS construction. For such codes we derive upper bounds on the code parameters using linear programming. A central result of this paper is the explicit construction of some new families of asymmetric quantum stabilizer codes from pairs of nested classical codes. For instance, we derive asymmetric codes using a combination of BCH and finite geometry LDPC codes. We show that asymmetric quantum codes offer two advantages, namely to allow a higher rate without sacrificing performance when compared to symmetric codes and vice versa to allow a higher performance when compared to symmetric codes of comparable rates. Our approach is based on a CSS construction that combines BCH and finite geometry LDPC codes.

Proceedings of the Royal Society London, Ser. A, vol. 465, no. 2105, pp. 1645-1672, 2009.



Quantum error correction and fault tolerant quantum computing

by Markus Grassl and Martin Rötteler

In the early days of quantum computing, Haroche and Raimond asked the poignant question whether the dream of quantum computing could ever be realized in a real physical system or if ``the large-scale quantum machine ... is the experimenter's nightmare''. At the time the article was written, the first quantum error-correcting code had just been proposed. However, Haroche and Raimond argued that "the implementation of error-correcting codes will become exceedingly difficult" given any detection efficiency less than 100%. It was only later that it was shown that even with imperfect quantum memory and imperfect quantum operations it is possible to implement arbitrary long quantum computation, provided that the failure probability of each element is below a certain threshold. Here we provide an overview of the ingredients leading to fault tolerant quantum computation (FTQC). In the first part, we present the theory of quantum error-correcting codes (QECCs) and in particular two important classes of QECCs, namely the so-called CSS codes and stabilizer codes. Both are related to classical error-correcting codes, so we start with some basics from this area. In the second part of the article, we present a high-level view of the main ideas of FTQC and the threshold theorem.

In R. A. Meyers, editor, Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, Springer, pp. 7324-7342, 2009.



Quantum error correction

by Martin Rötteler

This is an overview article about quantum error-correcting codes which appeared as an entry about Shor's 1995 paper in the Encyclopdia of Algorithms. Keywords: Asymptotically good quantum codes, CSS quantum codes, Knill-Laflamme conditions for quantum codes, Pauli spin matrices, quantum channels, quantum error-correcting codes, stabilizer codes.

Encyclopedia of Algorithms, Ming-Yang Kao (editor), pp. 705-708. Springer, 2008.



Quantum Goethals-Preparata codes

by Markus Grassl and Martin Rötteler

We present a family of non-additive quantum codes based on Goethals and Preparata codes with parameters ((2^m,2^{2^m-5m+1},8)). The dimension of these codes is eight times higher than the dimension of the best known additive quantum codes of equal length and minimum distance.

Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'08), pp. 300-304, 2008.
See also ArXiv preprint
arxiv.org/0801.2150.



Asymmetric quantum LDPC codes

by P.K. Sarvepalli, M. Rötteler, and A. Klappenecker

Recently, quantum error-correcting codes were proposed that capitalize on the fact that many physical error models lead to a significant asymmetry between the probabilities for bit flip and phase flip errors. An example for a channel which exhibits such asymmetry is the combined amplitude damping and dephasing channel, where the probabilities of bit flips and phase flips can be related to relaxation and dephasing time, respectively. We give systematic constructions of asymmetric quantum stabilizer codes that exploit this asymmetry. Our approach is based on a CSS construction that combines BCH and finite geometry LDPC codes.

Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'08), pp. 305-309, 2008.
See also ArXiv preprint
arxiv.org/0804.4316.



Non-additive quantum codes from Goethals and Preparata codes

by Markus Grassl and Martin Rötteler

We extend the stabilizer formalism to a class of non-additive quantum codes which are constructed from non-linear classical codes. As an example, we present infinite families of non-additive codes which are derived from Goethals and Preparata codes.

Proceedings 2008 IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW'08), pp. 396-400, 2008.
See also ArXiv preprint
arxiv.org/0801.2144.



Quantum convolutional BCH codes

by Salah Aly, Markus Grassl, Andreas Klappenecker, Martin Rötteler, and Pradeep Sarvepalli

Quantum convolutional codes can be used to protect a sequence of qubits of arbitrary length against decoherence. We introduce two new families of quantum convolutional codes. Our construction is based on an algebraic method which allows to construct classical convolutional codes from block codes, in particular BCH codes. These codes have the property that they contain their Euclidean, respectively Hermitian, dual codes. Hence, they can be used to define quantum convolutional codes by the stabilizer code construction. We compute BCH-like bounds on the free distances which can be controlled as in the case of block codes, and establish that the codes have non-catastrophic encoders.

Proceedings 10th Canadian Workshop on Information Theory (CWIT'07), pp. 180-183, 2007.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0703113.



Constructions of quantum convolutional codes

by Markus Grassl and Martin Rötteler

We address the problems of constructing quantum convolutional codes (QCCs) and of encoding them. The first construction is a CSS-type construction which allows us to find QCCs of rate 2/4. The second construction yields a quantum convolutional code by applying a product code construction to an arbitrary classical convolutional code and an arbitrary quantum block code. We show that the resulting codes have highly structured and efficient encoders. Furthermore, we show that the resulting quantum circuits have finite depth, independent of the lengths of the input stream, and show that this depth is polynomial in the degree and frame size of the code.

Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'07), pp. 816-820, 2007.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0703182.



Quantum convolutional codes: encoders and structural properties

by Markus Grassl and Martin Rötteler

Quantum convolutional codes can be used to protect streams of quantum bits against errors when sending them along a quantum channel. We review the underlying error model, conditions for quantum convolutional codes, and present a product code construction that yields families of quantum convolutional codes. Concerning the structure of encoding circuits for general quantum convolutional codes, we review the notion of catastrophic errors and show that each quantum convolutional code has encoders which are non-catastrophic, i.e., which have good error propagation properties. We present an algorithm to compute a quantum circuit which can be used to perform non-catastrophic encoding and inverse encoding in constant depth and give several examples for illustration.

Proceedings 44th Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, pp. 510-519, 2006.



Noncatastrophic encoders and encoder inverses for quantum convolutional codes

by Markus Grassl and Martin Rötteler

We present an algorithm to construct quantum circuits for encoding and inverse encoding of quantum convolutional codes. We show that any quantum convolutional code contains a subcode of finite index which has a non-catastrophic encoding circuit. Our work generalizes the conditions for non-catastrophic encoders derived in a paper by Ollivier and Tillich (
quant-ph/0401134) which are applicable only for a restricted class of quantum convolutional codes. We also show that the encoders and their inverses constructed by our method naturally can be applied online, i.e., qubits can be sent and received with constant delay.

Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'06), pp. 1109-1113, 2006.
See also ArXiv preprint quant-ph/0602129.



Mutually unbiased bases are complex projective 2-designs

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) are a primitive used in quantum information processing to capture the principle of complementarity. While constructions of maximal sets of d+1 such bases are known for systems of prime power dimension d, it is unknown whether this bound can be achieved for any non-prime power dimension. In this paper we demonstrate that maximal sets of MUBs come with a rich combinatorial structure by showing that they actually are the same objects as the complex projective 2-designs with angle set {0,1/d}. We also give a new and simple proof that symmetric informationally complete POVMs are complex projective 2-designs with angle set {1/(d+1)}.

Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'05), pp. 1740-1744, 2005.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0502031.



Quantum block and convolutional codes from self-orthogonal product codes

by Markus Grassl and Martin Rötteler

We present a construction of self-orthogonal codes using product codes. From the resulting codes, one can construct both block quantum error-correcting codes and quantum convolutional codes. We show that from the examples of convolutional codes found, we can derive ordinary quantum error-correcting codes using tail-biting with parameters [[42N,24N,3,2]]. While it is known that the product construction cannot improve the rate in the classical case, we show that this can happen for quantum codes: we show that a code [[15,7,3,2]] is obtained by the product of a code [[5,1,3,2]] with a suitable code.

Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'05), pp. 1018-1022, 2005.



Mutually unbiased bases, spherical designs, and frames

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

The principle of complementarity lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. In finite dimensional quantum systems this principle is captured by pairs of observables which are given by mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). Two orthonormal bases B and C of \C^d are mutually unbiased if |\langle b | c \rangle|^2 = 1/d holds for all vectors b in B and c in C. This implies that whenever we are given a vector from one of these bases and perform a measurement with respect to any other of the bases, then there is no information gained from this measurement. A basic question about MUBs is how many of them can be found in a given dimension d. While constructions of maximal sets of d+1 such bases are known for system of prime power dimension d, it is unknown whether this bound can be achieved for any non-prime power dimension. We review the known constructions of MUBs and demonstrate that maximal sets of MUBs come with a rich combinatorial structure by showing that they actually are the same objects as the complex projective 2-designs with angle set {0,1/d}. Furthermore, we address the problem of constructing positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) in finite dimension d consisting of d^2 operators of rank one which have an inner product equal to uniform or very close to uniform. This is motivated by the related question of constructing symmetric informationally complete POVMs (SIC-POVMs) for which the inner products are perfectly uniform. We also give a simple proof of the fact that symmetric informationally complete POVMs are complex projective 2-designs with angle set {1/(d+1)}. Moreover, we show that MUBs and SIC-POVMs form uniform tight frames in \C^d.

Proceedings of SPIE International Symposium on Optics and Photonics, Wavelets XI, vol. 5914, pp. 59140P (13 pages), 2005.



On approximately symmetric informationally complete positive operator-valued measures and related systems of quantum states

by Andreas Klappenecker, Martin Rötteler, Igor Shparlinski, and Arne Winterhof

We address the problem of constructing positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) in finite dimension $n$ consisting of $n^2$ operators of rank one which have an inner product close to uniform. This is motivated by the related question of constructing symmetric informationally complete POVMs (SIC-POVMs) for which the inner products are perfectly uniform. However, SIC-POVMs are notoriously hard to construct and despite some success of constructing them numerically, there is no analytic construction known. We present two constructions of approximate versions of SIC-POVMs, where a small deviation from uniformity of the inner products is allowed. The first construction is based on selecting vectors from a maximal collection of mutually unbiased bases and works whenever the dimension of the system is a prime power. The second construction is based on perturbing the matrix elements of a subset of mutually unbiased bases. Moreover, we construct vector systems in $\C^n$ which are almost orthogonal and which might turn out to be useful for quantum computation. Our constructions are based on results of analytic number theory.

Journal of Mathematical Physics, 46:082104, 2005.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0503239.



On the monomiality of nice error bases

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Unitary error bases generalize the Pauli matrices to higher dimensional systems. Two basic constructions of unitary error bases are known: An algebraic construction by Knill, which yields nice error bases, and a combinatorial construction by Werner, which yields shift-and-multiply bases. An open problem posed by Schlingemann and Werner relates these two constructions and asks whether each nice error basis is equivalent to a shift-and-multiply basis. We solve this problem and show that the answer is negative. However, we also show that it is always possible to find a fairly sparse representation of a nice error basis.

IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 1084-1089, 2005.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0301078.



On the structure of nonstabilizer Clifford codes

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Clifford codes are a class of quantum error control codes that form a natural generalization of stabilizer codes. These codes were introduced in 1996 by Knill, but only a single Clifford code was known, which is not already a stabilizer code. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition that allows to decide when a Clifford code is a stabilizer code, and compile a table of all true Clifford codes for error groups of small order.

Quantum Information and Computation, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 152-160.

See also paper "Remarks on Clifford codes" by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler,
Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'04), p. 354, 2004.

See also ArXiv preprint quant-ph/0312228.



On optimal quantum codes

by Markus Grassl, Thomas Beth, and Martin Rötteler

We present families of quantum error-correcting codes which are optimal in the sense that the minimum distance is maximal. These maximum distance separable (MDS) codes are defined over q-dimensional quantum systems, where q is an arbitrary prime power. It is shown that codes with parameters [[n,n-2d+2,d]]_q exist for all 3 <= n <= q and 1 <= d <= n/2+1. We also present quantum MDS codes with parameters [[q^2,q^2-2d+2,d]]_q for 1 <= d <= q which additionally give rise to shortened codes [[q^2-s,q^2-2d+2-s,d]]_q for some s.

International Journal of Quantum Information, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 55-64, 2004.

See also paper "On quantum MDS codes" by Martin Rötteler, Markus Grassl, and Thomas Beth,
Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'04), p. 356, 2004.

See also ArXiv preprint quant-ph/0312164.



Constructions of mutually unbiased bases

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Two orthonormal bases B and B' of a d-dimensional complex inner-product space are called mutually unbiased if and only if |< b|b'>|^2=1/d holds for all b in B and b' in B'. The size of any set containing (pairwise) mutually unbiased bases of C^d cannot exceed d+1. If d is a power of a prime, then extremal sets containing d+1 mutually unbiased bases are known to exist. We give a simplified proof of this fact based on the estimation of exponential sums. We discuss conjectures and open problems concerning the maximal number of mutually unbiased bases for arbitrary dimensions.

Proceedings International Conference on Finite Fields and Applications (Fq7),
vol. 2948 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 137-144. Springer, 2004.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0309120.



Unitary error bases: constructions, equivalence, and applications

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Unitary error bases are fundamental primitives in quantum computing, which are instrumental for quantum error-correcting codes and the design of teleportation and super-dense coding schemes. There are two prominent constructions of such bases: an algebraic construction using projective representations of finite groups and a combinatorial construction using Latin squares and Hadamard matrices. An open problem posed by Schlingemann and Werner relates these two constructions, and asks whether each algebraic construction is equivalent to a combinatorial construction. We answer this question by giving an explicit counterexample in dimension 165 which has been constructed with the help of a computer algebra system.

Proceedings Applied Algebra, Algebraic Algorithms and Error-Correcting Codes (AAECC-15),
vol. 2643 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 139-149, Springer, 2001.
Springer Link



Efficient quantum circuits for non-qubit quantum error-correcting codes

by Markus Grassl, Martin Rötteler, and Thomas Beth

We present two methods for the construction of quantum circuits for quantum error-correcting codes (QECC). The underlying quantum systems are tensor products of subsystems (qudits) of equal dimension which is a prime power. For a QECC encoding k qudits into n qudits, the resulting quantum circuit has O(n(n-k)) gates. The running time of the classical algorithm to compute the quantum circuit is O(n(n-k)^2).

International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 757-775, 2003.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0211014.



Graphs, quadratic forms, and quantum codes

by Markus Grassl, Andreas Klappenecker, and Martin Rötteler

We show that any stabilizer code over a finite field is equivalent to a graphical quantum code. Furthermore we prove that a graphical quantum code over a finite field is a stabilizer code. The technique used in the proof establishes a new connection between quantum codes and quadratic forms. We provide some simple examples to illustrate our results.

Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT'02), p. 45, Lausanne, 2002.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0703112.



Clifford codes

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Quantum error control codes allow to detect and correct errors that are due to decoherence effects. We review some basic properties of these codes and give some constructions. Our main focus will be on a construction of quantum error control codes that have been introduced by Knill in 1996 with the intention to generalize stabilizer codes. These so-called Clifford codes can be constructed and analyzed with tools from representation theory of finite groups. We show that a large class of Clifford codes are actually stabilizer codes. And we construct the smallest example of a Clifford code that is not a stabilizer code.

In: R. Brylinski and G. Chen, editors, The Mathematics of Quantum Computation, pp. 253-273. CRC Press, 2002.



Beyond stabilizer codes I: nice error bases

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Nice error bases have been introduced by Knill as a generalization of the Pauli basis. These bases are shown to be projective representations of finite groups. We classify all nice error bases of small degree, and all nice error bases with abelian index groups. We show that in general an index group of a nice error basis is necessarily solvable.

IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 2392-2395, 2002.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0010082.



Beyond stabilizer codes II: Clifford codes

by Andreas Klappenecker and Martin Rötteler

Knill introduced a generalization of stabilizer codes, in this note called Clifford codes. It remained unclear whether or not Clifford codes can be superior to stabilizer codes. We show that Clifford codes are stabilizer codes provided that the abstract error group is given by an extraspecial p-group. Suppose that the abstract error group has an abelian index group, then we show that a Clifford code can be derived from an abelian normal subgroup.

IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 2396-2399, 2002.
See also ArXiv preprint
quant-ph/0010076.