Asymmetric and Symmetric Subsystem BCH Codes and Beyond (0803.0764v1)

Abstract: Recently, the theory of quantum error control codes has been extended to subsystem codes over symmetric and asymmetric quantum channels -- qubit-flip and phase-shift errors may have equal or different probabilities. Previous work in constructing quantum error control codes has focused on code constructions for symmetric quantum channels. In this paper, we develop a theory and establish the connection between asymmetric quantum codes and subsystem codes. We present families of subsystem and asymmetric quantum codes derived, once again, from classical BCH and RS codes over finite fields. Particularly, we derive an interesting asymmetric and symmetric subsystem codes based on classical BCH codes with parameters $[[n,k,r,d]]_q$, $[[n,k,r,d_z/d_x]]_q$ and $[[n,k',0,d_z/d_x]]_q$ for arbitrary values of code lengths and dimensions. We establish asymmetric Singleton and Hamming bounds on asymmetric quantum and subsystem code parameters; and derive optimal asymmetric MDS subsystem codes. Finally, our constructions are well explained by an illustrative example. This paper is written on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of classical BCH codes and their quantum counterparts were derived nearly 10 years ago.