Topological approach toward quantum codes with realistic physical constraints

Abstract: The following open problems, which concern a fundamental limit on coding properties of quantum codes with realistic physical constraints, are analyzed and partially answered here: (a) the upper bound on code distances of quantum error-correcting codes with geometrically local generators, (b) the feasibility of a self-correcting quantum memory. To investigate these problems, we study stabilizer codes supported by local interaction terms with translation and scale symmetries on a $D$-dimensional lattice. Our analysis uses the notion of topology emerging in geometric shapes of logical operators, which sheds a surprising new light on theory of quantum codes with physical constraints.