Fault-Tolerant Renormalization Group Decoder for Abelian Topological Codes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a 3D fault-tolerant renormalization group decoding algorithm for Abelian topological codes, improving error correction in quantum memories with imperfect syndrome measurements.

Contribution

It extends a 2D decoding algorithm to 3D, incorporating fault tolerance and measurement failure probabilities, with a demonstrated storage threshold.

Findings

Fault-tolerant threshold of 1.9% for Kitaev's toric code with measurement errors

Algorithm complexity is linear in space-time volume and can be parallelized to logarithmic time

Extension preserves properties of the 2D algorithm, enabling scalable quantum error correction

Abstract

We present a three-dimensional generalization of a renormalization group decoding algorithm for topological codes with Abelian anyonic excitations that we previously introduced for two dimensions. This 3D implementation extends our previous 2D algorithm by incorporating a failure probability of the syndrome measurements, i.e., it enables fault-tolerant decoding. We report a fault-tolerant storage threshold of 1.9(4)% for Kitaev's toric code subject to a 3D bit-flip channel (i.e. including imperfect syndrome measurements). This number is to be compared with the 2.9% value obtained via perfect matching. The 3D generalization inherits many properties of the 2D algorithm, including a complexity linear in the space-time volume of the memory, which can be parallelized to logarithmic time.