Bicycle Race: small two-block codes on the Pareto frontier

Abstract: Two-block group-algebra codes are among the simplest quantum LDPC codes, and many of them are translation invariant on a twisted torus, which suits neutral-atom arrays and other platforms with movable qubits. We ask how far they go at small sizes when searched systematically across all groups. To tackle this question, we use a series of algebraic constraints and screens to design a search pipeline capable of enumerating broad and complete swathes of two-block codes on a laptop. With it we census about $10^8$ two-block codes with up to $320$ qubits at check weights five to nine. Several of these censuses are exhaustive, and support complete statements; for instance, the Gross code is, up to equivalence, the only abelian weight-six two-block code with $n \le 200$ to reach $kd<sup>2/n=12$, and the known $[[64,18,8]]$ is the best two-block code by $kd<sup>2/n$ across weights five to nine with $n \le 94$. The censuses are also large enough to give insights into where good codes live - they concentrate in a handful of groups; abelian groups give the best codes at small $n$ and non-abelian groups at large $n$, with the crossover appearing to move out as the check weight grows; and high quality codes become $100$ to $1000$ times rarer per draw from weight six to weights eight and nine. Using the group algebra and the census data to steer a statistical search finds four to fifteen times as many good codes as uniform draws in equal time. Among the codes found are $[[102,20,10]]$ and $[[120,24,10]]$ at check weight nine, which we simulate in noisy syndrome-extraction circuits, and $[[288,16,16]]$, the best weight-six two-block code with $n \le 300$. At check weights seven to nine, our best codes exceed the best published $kd<sup>2/n$ with exact distance at the same check weight in most length bands up to $320$ qubits. All codes are available in a public database.