Quantum theory of molecular orientations: topological classification, complete entanglement, and fault-tolerant encodings

We formulate a quantum phase space for molecular rotational and nuclear-spin states. Taking in molecular geometry and nuclear-spin data, we reproduce a molecule's admissible angular momentum states known from spectroscopy, introduce its angular position states using quantization theory, and develop a generalized Fourier transform converting between the two. We classify molecules into three types -- asymmetric, rotationally symmetric, and perrotationally symmetric -- with the last type having no macroscopic analogue due to nuclear-spin statistics constraints. We discuss two general features in perrotationally symmetric state spaces that are Hamiltonian-independent and induced solely by symmetry and spin statistics. First, we quantify when and how the state space of a molecular species is completely rotation-spin entangled, meaning that it does not admit any separable states. Second, we identify molecular species whose position states house an internal pseudo-spin or "fiber" degree of freedom, and the fiber's Berry phase or matrix after adiabatic changes in position yields naturally robust operations, akin to braiding anyonic quasiparticles or realizing fault-tolerant quantum gates. We outline how the fiber can be used as a quantum error-correcting code and discuss scenarios where these features can be experimentally probed.
Comment: 10 + 40 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables, 49 examples; v3 new QEC application