Encoding Classical Information in Gauge Subsystems of Quantum Codes

Abstract: We show how to construct hybrid quantum-classical codes from subsystem codes by encoding the classical information into the gauge qudits using gauge fixing. Unlike previous work on hybrid codes, we allow for two separate minimum distances, one for the quantum information and one for the classical information. We give an explicit construction of hybrid codes from two classical linear codes using Bacon-Casaccino subsystem codes, as well as several new examples of good hybrid code.