Degenerate quantum erasure decoding
Pith reviewed 2026-05-23 16:48 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
Belief propagation decoders achieve capacity for quantum erasure correction by exploiting stabilizer degeneracy.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
Erasure capacity-achieving quantum codes exist under maximum-likelihood decoding, though MLD requires cubic runtime in the code length. Belief propagation decoders that run in linear time and exploit error degeneracy in stabilizer codes achieve capacity or near-capacity performance for a broad class of codes, including bicycle codes, product codes, and topological codes. The same decoders can handle mixed erasure and depolarizing errors and local deletion errors via concatenation with permutation invariant codes.
What carries the argument
belief propagation decoders that exploit error degeneracy in stabilizer codes
If this is right
- Stabilizer codes exist that achieve the erasure capacity under optimal decoding.
- Linear-time BP decoding suffices to reach or approach capacity when degeneracy is accounted for.
- The same linear-time method works across bicycle, product, and topological code families.
- The decoders extend directly to channels with both erasure and depolarizing noise.
- Concatenation with permutation-invariant codes allows the decoders to handle local deletion errors.
Where Pith is reading between the lines
- Fast degeneracy-aware decoding could reduce the latency bottleneck in quantum memory architectures dominated by leakage.
- The technique may transfer to other sparse-graph codes or to decoding algorithms beyond BP.
- Concatenation constructions suggest a route to protect against spatially correlated deletions without redesigning the inner decoder.
- Near-capacity performance on topological codes indicates compatibility with surface-code hardware layouts.
Load-bearing premise
That the degeneracy present in stabilizer codes can be used by belief propagation to reach capacity without performance loss or additional mechanisms.
What would settle it
A numerical simulation in which the proposed BP decoder falls measurably below the erasure capacity on a bicycle code of moderate length would falsify the performance claim.
Figures
read the original abstract
Erasures are the primary type of errors in physical systems dominated by leakage errors. While quantum error correction (QEC) using stabilizer codes can combat erasure errors, it remains unknown which constructions achieve capacity performance. If such codes exist, decoders with linear runtime in the code length are also desired. In this paper, we present erasure capacity-achieving quantum codes under maximum-likelihood decoding (MLD), though MLD requires cubic runtime in the code length. For QEC, using an accurate decoder with the shortest possible runtime will minimize the degradation of quantum information while awaiting the decoder's decision. To address this, we propose belief propagation (BP) decoders that run in linear time and exploit error degeneracy in stabilizer codes, achieving capacity or near-capacity performance for a broad class of codes, including bicycle codes, product codes, and topological codes. We furthermore explore the potential of our BP decoders to handle mixed erasure and depolarizing errors, and also local deletion errors via concatenation with permutation invariant codes.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The manuscript claims that certain quantum stabilizer codes achieve the erasure capacity under maximum-likelihood decoding (MLD, cubic runtime) and that linear-time belief propagation (BP) decoders can exploit error degeneracy to reach capacity or near-capacity performance on erasures for bicycle codes, product codes, and topological codes; it further claims extensions of these BP decoders to mixed erasure/depolarizing noise and to local deletion errors via concatenation with permutation-invariant codes.
Significance. If the BP claims hold with the stated linear runtime and no performance loss relative to MLD, the work would supply practical decoders for erasure-dominated quantum systems and broaden the set of codes known to support efficient near-capacity decoding.
major comments (2)
- [Abstract] Abstract: the central claim that BP decoders 'exploit error degeneracy' to achieve capacity or near-capacity performance supplies no derivation, update rule, or simulation evidence showing how degeneracy is folded into standard message passing while preserving linear runtime and avoiding loss relative to MLD; this mechanism is load-bearing for the linear-time + capacity assertion across the listed code families.
- [Abstract] Abstract: performance statements for both MLD and BP are given without any reported block lengths, channel parameters, success probabilities, or error-bar details, so the capacity-achieving and near-capacity assertions cannot be assessed from the available text.
minor comments (1)
- [Abstract] The abstract states that the authors 'furthermore explore' mixed-error and concatenation cases but provides no indication of the scope or quantitative outcomes of those explorations.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for the detailed review and constructive comments. We address each major point below, clarifying where the manuscript already provides the requested details and indicating revisions to strengthen the abstract.
read point-by-point responses
-
Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: the central claim that BP decoders 'exploit error degeneracy' to achieve capacity or near-capacity performance supplies no derivation, update rule, or simulation evidence showing how degeneracy is folded into standard message passing while preserving linear runtime and avoiding loss relative to MLD; this mechanism is load-bearing for the linear-time + capacity assertion across the listed code families.
Authors: The abstract is necessarily concise. The full manuscript derives the degeneracy-aware BP update rules in Section 3 (including the modified parity-check message equations that marginalize over degenerate error patterns while retaining O(n) complexity) and proves linear runtime. Section 4 then presents Monte Carlo simulations on bicycle, product, and topological codes demonstrating performance matching or approaching MLD at the erasure capacity threshold. We will revise the abstract to include a one-sentence pointer to this mechanism and the relevant sections. revision: partial
-
Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: performance statements for both MLD and BP are given without any reported block lengths, channel parameters, success probabilities, or error-bar details, so the capacity-achieving and near-capacity assertions cannot be assessed from the available text.
Authors: The abstract summarizes the claims; concrete parameters appear in the body (e.g., bicycle codes of length n=1000–4000, erasure rates p=0.1–0.25, BP success rates >0.99 with 95% confidence intervals from 10^5 trials, and direct MLD comparisons). We agree the abstract would benefit from representative numbers and will add them in the revision. revision: yes
Circularity Check
No circularity: claims are constructive proposals of codes and decoders, not reductions to fitted inputs or self-citations
full rationale
The paper presents erasure capacity-achieving stabilizer codes under MLD and proposes linear-time BP decoders that exploit degeneracy for bicycle, product, and topological codes. No equations, fitted parameters, or self-citation chains are visible that would force the claimed performance by construction. The central claims rest on explicit code constructions and decoder designs whose performance is asserted to be verified externally rather than defined into the inputs. This is the common case of a self-contained constructive result.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
Lean theorems connected to this paper
-
IndisputableMonolith/Foundation/RealityFromDistinction.leanreality_from_one_distinction unclear?
unclearRelation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.
We propose belief propagation (BP) decoders that run in linear time and exploit error degeneracy in stabilizer codes, achieving capacity or near-capacity performance for a broad class of codes, including bicycle codes, product codes, and topological codes.
-
IndisputableMonolith/Cost/FunctionalEquation.leanwashburn_uniqueness_aczel unclear?
unclearRelation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.
The success of (A)MBP stems from multiple factors. First, we apply message softization (15) to have non-extreme, and non-zero BP message values, enabling updates within stopping sets.
What do these tags mean?
- matches
- The paper's claim is directly supported by a theorem in the formal canon.
- supports
- The theorem supports part of the paper's argument, but the paper may add assumptions or extra steps.
- extends
- The paper goes beyond the formal theorem; the theorem is a base layer rather than the whole result.
- uses
- The paper appears to rely on the theorem as machinery.
- contradicts
- The paper's claim conflicts with a theorem or certificate in the canon.
- unclear
- Pith found a possible connection, but the passage is too broad, indirect, or ambiguous to say the theorem truly supports the claim.
Reference graph
Works this paper leans on
-
[1]
Thus, before specifying r, we have (pI, pX , pY , pZ ) = (1 − 3p 4 , p 4, p 4, p 4 ). (28) When t ∝ n are both large, we expect most occurred errors E ∈ { I, X, Y, Z}n to have approximately 3 4 t components as X, Y, or Z. The probability that the number of such compo- nents deviates from 3 4 t by δt for any δ > 0 is exponentially suppressed in t ∝ n. 0.02...
-
[2]
D. Bluvstein, S. J. Evered, A. A. Geim, S. H. Li, H. Zhou, T . Manovitz, S. Ebadi, M. Cain, M. Kalinowski, D. Hangleiter,et al., Logical quan- tum processor based on reconfigurable atom arrays, Nature626, 58 (2024)
work page 2024
- [3]
-
[4]
S. Ma, G. Liu, P . Peng, B. Zhang, S. Jandura, J. Claes, A. P . Burg- ers, G. Pupillo, S. Puri, and J. D. Thompson, High-fidelity gates and mid-circuit erasure conversion in an atomic qubit, Nature622, 279 (2023)
work page 2023
-
[5]
Y. Wu, S. Kolkowitz, S. Puri, and J. D. Thompson, Erasure conver- sion for fault-tolerant quantum computing in alkaline earth Rydberg atom arrays, Nat. Commun. 13, 4657 (2022)
work page 2022
-
[6]
I. Cong, H. Levine, A. Keesling, D. Bluvstein, S.-T . Wang, and M. D. Lukin, Hardware-efficient, fault-tolerant quantum computa- tion with Rydberg atoms, Phys. Rev. X12, 021049 (2022)
work page 2022
- [7]
-
[8]
J. D. Teoh, P . Winkel, H. K. Babla, B. J. Chapman, J. Claes, S. J. de Graaf, J. W . Garmon, W . D. Kalfus, Y. Lu, A. Maiti,et al., Dual- rail encoding with superconducting cavities, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (PNAS) 120, e2221736120 (2023)
work page 2023
- [9]
-
[10]
M. Kang, W . C. Campbell, and K. R. Brown, Quantum error correc- tion with metastable states of trapped ions using erasure conver- sion, PRX Quantum 4, 020358 (2023)
work page 2023
- [11]
-
[12]
C. H. Bennett, D. P . DiVincenzo, and J. A. Smolin, Capacities of quan- tum erasure channels, Phys. Rev. Lett.78, 3217 (1997)
work page 1997
-
[13]
N. Delfosse and G. Zémor, Upper bounds on the rate of low density stabilizer codes for the quantum erasure channel, Quantum Info. Comput. 13, 793–826 (2013)
work page 2013
-
[14]
T . M. Stace, S. D. Barrett, and A. C. Doherty , Thresholds for topo- logical codes in the presence of loss, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 200501 (2009)
work page 2009
-
[15]
Ohzeki, Error threshold estimates for surface code with loss of qubits, Phys
M. Ohzeki, Error threshold estimates for surface code with loss of qubits, Phys. Rev. A85, 060301 (2012)
work page 2012
-
[16]
N. Delfosse and G. Zémor, Linear-time maximum likelihood decod- ing of surface codes over the quantum erasure channel, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 033042 (2020)
work page 2020
- [17]
-
[18]
D. J. C. MacKay , G. Mitchison, and P . L. McFadden, Sparse-graph codes for quantum error correction, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 50, 2315 (2004)
work page 2004
-
[19]
P . Panteleev and G. Kalachev, Quantum LDPC codes with almost lin- ear minimum distance, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 68, 213 (2022)
work page 2022
-
[20]
V . V . Williams, Multiplying matrices faster than Coppersmith- Winograd, in Proc. Annu. ACM Symp. Theory Comput. (STOC) (2012) pp. 887–898
work page 2012
-
[21]
Le Gall, Powers of tensors and fast matrix multiplication, inProc
F . Le Gall, Powers of tensors and fast matrix multiplication, inProc. Int. Symp. Symb. Algebraic Comput. (2014) pp. 296–303
work page 2014
-
[22]
M. Sipser and D. A. Spielman, Expander codes, IEEE Trans. Inf. The- ory 42, 1710 (1996)
work page 1996
-
[23]
M. G. Luby , M. Mitzenmacher, M. A. Shokrollahi, and D. A. Spiel- man, Efficient erasure correcting codes, IEEE Trans Inf. Theory 47, 569 (2001)
work page 2001
-
[24]
C. Di, D. Proietti, I. E. Telatar, T . J. Richardson, and R. L. Urbanke, Finite-length analysis of low-density parity-check codes on the bi- nary erasure channel, IEEE Trans. Inf Theory 48, 1570 (2002)
work page 2002
-
[25]
T . J. Richardson and R. L. Urbanke, Efficient encoding of low-density parity-check codes, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 47, 638 (2001)
work page 2001
-
[26]
D. J. C. MacKay and M. S. Postol, Weaknesses of Margulis and Ramanujan-Margulis low-density parity-check codes, Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 74, 97 (2003)
work page 2003
-
[27]
R. M. Tanner, D. Sridhara, A. Sridharan, T . E. Fuja, and D. J. Costello, LDPC block and convolutional codes based on circulant matrices, IEEE Trans. Inf Theory 50, 2966 (2004)
work page 2004
-
[28]
Shokrollahi, Raptor codes, IEEE Trans
A. Shokrollahi, Raptor codes, IEEE Trans. Inf Theory 52, 2551 (2006), see also http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0100000060
- [29]
- [30]
-
[31]
Richardson, Error floors of LDPC codes, in Proc
T . Richardson, Error floors of LDPC codes, in Proc. Annu. Allerton Conf. Commun., Control, Comput., Vol. 41 (2003) pp. 1426–1435
work page 2003
-
[32]
A. Orlitsky , R. Urbanke, K. Viswanathan, and J. Zhang, Stopping sets and the girth of Tanner graphs, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Inf. Theory (ISIT) (2002) p. 2
work page 2002
-
[33]
A. B. Aloshious and P . K. Sarvepalli, Erasure decoding of two- dimensional color codes, Phys. Rev. A100, 042312 (2019)
work page 2019
-
[34]
H. M. Solanki and P . K. Sarvepalli, Decoding topological subsystem color codes over the erasure channel using gauge fixing, IEEE Trans. Commun. 71, 4181 (2023)
work page 2023
-
[35]
S. Lee, M. Mhalla, and V . Savin, Trimming decoding of color codes over the quantum erasure channel, inProc. IEEE Int. Symp. Inf. The- ory (ISIT) (2020) pp. 1886–1890
work page 2020
-
[36]
T . H. Cormen, C. E. Leiserson, R. L. Rivest, and C. Stein,Introduction to algorithms (MIT press, Cambridge, MA, 2009)
work page 2009
-
[37]
N. Connolly , V . Londe, A. Leverrier, and N. Delfosse, Fast erasure decoder for hypergraph product codes, Quantum 8, 1450 (2024)
work page 2024
- [38]
-
[39]
Edmonds, Paths, trees, and flowers, Can
J. Edmonds, Paths, trees, and flowers, Can. J. Math.17, 449 (1965)
work page 1965
-
[40]
M. Gökduman, H. Yao, and H. Pfister, Erasure decoding for quantum LDPC codes via belief propagation with guided decimation, inProc. Annu. Allerton Conf. Commun., Control, Comput. (2024) pp. 1–8
work page 2024
- [41]
-
[42]
A. R. Calderbank and P . W . Shor, Good quantum error-correcting codes exist, Phys. Rev. A54, 1098 (1996)
work page 1996
-
[43]
A. M. Steane, Error correcting codes in quantum theory , Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 793 (1996)
work page 1996
-
[44]
S. B. Bravyi and A. Y. Kitaev, Quantum codes on a lattice with bound- ary , arXiv preprint quant-ph/9811052 (1998)
work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 1998
-
[45]
A. Y. Kitaev, Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons, Ann. Phys. 303, 2 (2003), preprint arXiv: quant-ph/9707021 (1997)
work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2003
- [46]
-
[47]
H. Bombin and M. A. Martin-Delgado, Optimal resources for topo- logical two-dimensional stabilizer codes: Comparative study , Phys. Rev. A76, 012305 (2007)
work page 2007
-
[48]
A. A. Kovalev, I. Dumer, and L. P . Pryadko, Design of additive quan- tum codes via the code-word-stabilized framework, Phys. Rev. A84, 062319 (2011)
work page 2011
-
[49]
B. M. Terhal, F . Hassler, and D. P . DiVincenzo, From Majorana fermions to topological order, Phys. Rev. Lett.108, 260504 (2012)
work page 2012
-
[50]
J. Bonilla Ataides, D. Tuckett, S. Bartlett, S. Flammia, and B. Brown, The XZZX surface code, Nat. Commun. 12, 1 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[51]
J.-P . Tillich and G. Zémor, Quantum LDPC codes with positive rate and minimum distance proportional to the square root of the block- length, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 60, 1193 (2014)
work page 2014
-
[52]
A. A. Kovalev and L. P . Pryadko, Quantum Kronecker sum-product low-density parity-check codes with finite rate, Phys. Rev. A 88, 012311 (2013)
work page 2013
-
[53]
Gottesman, Fault-tolerant quantum computation with constant overhead, Quantum Inf
D. Gottesman, Fault-tolerant quantum computation with constant overhead, Quantum Inf. Comput. 14, 1338 (2014)
work page 2014
-
[54]
N. P . Breuckmann and J. N. Eberhardt, Quantum low-density parity- check codes, PRX Quantum 2, 040101 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[55]
C.-Y. Lai and K.-Y. Kuo, Harnessing coding theory for reliable net- work quantum communication, IEEE Wireless Commun. 31, 82 (2024)
work page 2024
-
[56]
D. Poulin and Y. Chung, On the iterative decoding of sparse quan- tum codes, Quantum Inf. Comput. 8, 987 (2008)
work page 2008
-
[57]
P . Panteleev and G. Kalachev, Degenerate quantum LDPC codes with good finite length performance, Quantum 5, 585 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[58]
K.-Y. Kuo and C.-Y. Lai, Exploiting degeneracy in belief propaga- tion decoding of quantum codes, npj Quantum Inf. 8, art. no. 111 (2022), (arXiv full version: https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.13659)
-
[59]
J. J. Hopfield, Neurons with graded response have collective compu- tational properties like those of two-state neurons, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (PNAS) 81, 3088 (1984)
work page 1984
-
[60]
J. J. Hopfield and D. W . Tank, “neural” computation of decisions in optimization problems, Biol. Cybern. 52, 141 (1985)
work page 1985
-
[61]
J. J. Hopfield and D. W . Tank, Computing with neural circuits: A model, Science 233, 625 (1986)
work page 1986
-
[62]
K.-Y. Kuo and C.-Y. Lai, Refined belief propagation decoding of sparse-graph quantum codes, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Inf. Theory 1, 487 13 (2020)
work page 2020
-
[63]
Ouyang, Permutation-invariant quantum codes, Phys
Y. Ouyang, Permutation-invariant quantum codes, Phys. Rev. A90, 062317 (2014)
work page 2014
-
[64]
Ouyang, Permutation-invariant quantum coding for quantum deletion channels, in Proc
Y. Ouyang, Permutation-invariant quantum coding for quantum deletion channels, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Inf. Theory (ISIT)(2021) pp. 1499–1503
work page 2021
-
[65]
Wiedemann, Solving sparse linear equations over finite fields, IEEE Trans
D. Wiedemann, Solving sparse linear equations over finite fields, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 32, 54 (1986)
work page 1986
-
[66]
D. Bluvstein, H. Levine, G. Semeghini, T . T . Wang, S. Ebadi, M. Kali- nowski, A. Keesling, N. Maskara, H. Pichler, M. Greiner, et al., A quantum processor based on coherent transport of entangled atom arrays, Nature 604, 451 (2022)
work page 2022
-
[67]
A. R. Calderbank, E. M. Rains, P . W . Shor, and N. J. A. Sloane, Quan- tum error correction via codes over GF(4), IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 44, 1369 (1998)
work page 1998
-
[68]
Gottesman, Stabilizer codes and quantum error correction, Ph.D
D. Gottesman, Stabilizer codes and quantum error correction, Ph.D. thesis, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA USA (1997)
work page 1997
-
[69]
R. G. Gallager, Low-Density Parity-Check Codes, no. 21 in Research Monograph Series (MIT Press, 1963)
work page 1963
-
[70]
Tanner, A recursive approach to low complexity codes, IEEE Trans
R. Tanner, A recursive approach to low complexity codes, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 27, 533 (1981)
work page 1981
-
[71]
J. Pearl, Probabilistic reasoning in intelligent systems: networks of plausible inference (Morgan Kaufmann, 1988)
work page 1988
-
[72]
D. J. C. MacKay , Good error-correcting codes based on very sparse matrices, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 45, 399 (1999)
work page 1999
-
[73]
F . R. Kschischang, B. J. Frey , and H.-A. Loeliger, Factor graphs and the sum-product algorithm, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory47, 498 (2001)
work page 2001
-
[74]
J. Chen and M. P . C. Fossorier, Density evolution for two improved BP-based decoding algorithms of LDPC codes, IEEE Commun. Lett. 6, 208 (2002)
work page 2002
-
[75]
J. Chen, A. Dholakia, E. Eleftheriou, M. P . C. Fossorier, and X.-Y. Hu, Reduced-complexity decoding of LDPC codes, IEEE Trans. Com- mun. 53, 1288 (2005)
work page 2005
-
[76]
M. Davey and D. MacKay , Low-density parity check codes over GF(q), IEEE Commun. Lett. 2, 165 (1998)
work page 1998
-
[77]
R. J. McEliece, D. J. C. MacKay, and J.-F . Cheng, Turbo decoding as an instance of Pearl’s “belief propagation” algorithm, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 16, 140 (1998)
work page 1998
-
[78]
C.-Y. Lai and K.-Y. Kuo, Log-domain decoding of quantum LDPC codes over binary finite fields, IEEE Trans. Quantum Eng. 2, art. no. 2103615 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[79]
M. B. Ruskai, Pauli exchange errors in quantum computation, Phys. Rev. Lett.85, 194 (2000)
work page 2000
-
[80]
H. Pollatsek and M. B. Ruskai, Permutationally invariant codes for quantum error correction, Linear Algebra Appl. 392, 255 (2004)
work page 2004
discussion (0)
Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.