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Quantum error-correcting codes (QECCs) is at the heart of fault-tolerant quantum computing. As the size of quantum platforms is expected to grow, one of the open questions is to design new optimal codes of ever-increasing size. A related challenge is to ``certify'' the quality of a given code by evaluating its minimum distance, a quantity characterizing code's capacity to preserve quantum information. This problem is known to be NP-hard. Here we propose to harness the power of contemporary quantum platforms to address this question, and in this way help design quantum platforms of the future. Namely, we introduce an approach to compute the minimum distance of quantum stabilizer codes by reformulating the problem as a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem and leveraging established QUBO algorithms and heuristics as well as quantum annealing (QA) to address the latter. The reformulation as a QUBO introduces only a logarithmic multiplicative overhead in the required number of variables. We demonstrate practical viability of our method by comparing the performance of purely classical algorithms with the D-Wave Advantage 4.1 quantum annealer as well as hybrid quantum-classical algorithm Qbsolv. We found that the hybrid approach demonstrates competitive performance, on par with the best available classical algorithms to solve QUBO. In a practical sense, the QUBO-based approach is currently lagging behind the best deterministic minimal distance algorithms, however this advantage may disappear as the size of the platforms grows.

We employ semiclassical quantization to calculate spectrum of quantum KdV charges in the limit of large central charge $c$. Classically, KdV charges $Q_{2n-1}$ generate completely integrable dynamics on the co-adjoint orbit of the Virasoro algebra. They can be expressed in terms of action variables $I_k$, e.g.~as a power series expansion. Quantum-mechanically this series becomes the expansion in $1/c$, while action variables become integer-valued quantum numbers $n_i$. Crucially, classical expression, which is homogeneous in $I_k$, acquires quantum corrections that include terms of subleading powers in $n_k$. At first two non-trivial orders in $1/c$ expansion these ``quantum'' terms can be fixed from the analytic form of $Q_{2n-1}$ acting on the primary states. In this way we find explicit expression for the spectrum of $Q_{2n-1}$ up to first three orders in $1/c$ expansion. We apply this result to study thermal expectation values of $Q_{2n-1}$ and free energy of the KdV Generalized Gibbs Ensemble.

Code CFTs are 2d conformal field theories defined by error-correcting codes. Recently, Dymarsky and Shapere generalized the construction of code CFTs to include quantum error-correcting codes. In this paper, we explore this connection at higher genus. We prove that the higher-genus partition functions take the form of polynomials of higher-weight theta functions, and that the higher-genus modular group acts as simple linear transformations on these polynomials. We explain how to solve the modular constraints explicitly, which we do for genus 2. The result is that modular invariance at genus 1 and genus 2 is much more constraining than genus 1 alone. This allows us to drastically reduce the space of possible code CFTs. We also consider a number of examples of "isospectral theories" -- CFTs with the same genus 1 partition function -- and we find that they have different genus 2 partition functions. Finally, we make connection to some 2d CFTs known from the modular bootstrap. The $n = 4$ theory conjectured to have the largest possible gap, the $SO(8)$ WZW model, is a code CFT, allowing us to give an expression for its genus 2 partition function. We also find some other known CFTs which are not code theories but whose partition functions satisfy the same simple polynomial ansatz as the code theories. This leads us to speculate about the usefulness of the code polynomial form beyond the study of code CFTs., Comment: 48pp

Hardware errors are a major obstacle to demonstrating quantum advantage with the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). Recently, symmetry verification has been proposed and empirically demonstrated to boost the quantum state fidelity, the expected solution quality, and the success probability of QAOA on a superconducting quantum processor. Symmetry verification uses parity checks that leverage the symmetries of the objective function to be optimized. We develop a theoretical framework for analyzing this approach under local noise and derive explicit formulas for fidelity improvements on problems with global $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. We numerically investigate the symmetry verification on the MaxCut problem and identify the error regimes in which this approach improves the QAOA objective. We observe that these regimes correspond to the error rates present in near-term hardware. We further demonstrate the efficacy of symmetry verification on an IonQ trapped ion quantum processor where an improvement in the QAOA objective of up to 19.2\% is observed., Comment: 11 pages

Higher genus modular invariance of two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) is a largely unexplored area. In this paper, we derive explicit expressions for the higher genus partition functions of a specific class of CFTs: code CFTs, which are constructed using classical error-correcting codes. In this setting, the $\mathrm{Sp}(2g,\mathbb Z)$ modular transformations of genus $g$ Riemann surfaces can be recast as a simple set of linear maps acting on $2^g$ polynomial variables, which comprise an object called the code enumerator polynomial. The CFT partition function is directly related to the enumerator polynomial, meaning that solutions of the linear constraints from modular invariance immediately give a set of seemingly consistent partition functions at a given genus. We then find that higher genus constraints, plus consistency under degeneration limits of the Riemann surface, greatly reduces the number of possible code CFTs. This work provides a step towards a full understanding of the constraints from higher genus modular invariance on 2d CFTs., Comment: 48pp

We explore perturbative corrections to quantum information geometry. In particular, we study a Bures information metric naturally associated with the correlation functions of a conformal field theory. We compute the metric of holographic four-point functions and include corrections generated by tree Witten diagrams in the bulk. In this setting, we translate properties of correlators into the language of information geometry. Cross terms in the information metric encode non-identity operators in the OPE. We find that the information metric is asymptotically AdS. Finally, we discuss an information metric for transition amplitudes., Comment: 18 pages, no figures; v2: typos fixed, transition amplitude discussion refined

Assuming the existence of a field theory in D dimensions dual to (D+1)-dimensional flat space, governed by the asymptotic symmetries of flat space, we make some preliminary remarks about the properties of this field theory. We review briefly some successes of the 3d bulk - 2d boundary case and then focus on the 4d bulk - 3d boundary example, where the symmetry in question is the infinite dimensional BMS4 algebra. We look at the constraints imposed by this symmetry on a 3d field theory by constructing highest weight representations of this algebra. We construct two and three point functions of BMS primary fields and surprisingly find that symmetries constrain these correlators to be identical to those of a 2d relativistic conformal field theory. We then go one dimension higher and construct prototypical examples of 4d field theories which are putative duals of 5d Minkowski spacetimes. These field theories are ultra-relativistic limits of electrodynamics and Yang-Mills theories which exhibit invariance under the conformal Carroll group in D=4. We explore the different sectors within these Carrollian gauge theories and investigate the symmetries of the equations of motion to find that an infinite ultra-relativistic conformal structure arises in each case., Comment: 45 pages

We investigate the symmetry structure of the non-relativistic limit of Yang-Mills theories. Generalising previous results in the Galilean limit of electrodynamics, we discover that for Yang-Mills theories there are a variety of limits inside the Galilean regime. We first explicitly work with the $SU(2)$ theory and then generalise to $SU(N)$ for all $N$, systematising our notation and analysis. We discover that the whole family of limits lead to different sectors of Galilean Yang-Mills theories and the equations of motion in each sector exhibit hitherto undiscovered infinite dimensional symmetries, viz. infinite Galilean Conformal symmetries in $D=4$. These provide the first examples of interacting Galilean Conformal Field Theories (GCFTs) in $D>2$., Comment: 35 pages