Understanding Stabilizer Codes Under Local Decoherence Through a General Statistical Mechanics Mapping

Abstract

We consider the problem of a generic stabilizer Hamiltonian under local, incoherent Pauli errors. Using two different approaches -- (i) Haah's polynomial formalism arXiv:1204.1063 and (ii) the homological perspective on CSS codes -- we construct a mapping from the $n$th moment of the decohered ground state density matrix to a classical statistical mechanics model. We demonstrate that various measures of information capacity -- (i) quantum relative entropy, (ii) coherent information, and (iii) entanglement negativity -- map to thermodynamic quantities in the statistical mechanics model and can be used to characterize the decoding phase transition. As examples, we analyze the 3D toric code and X-cube model, deriving bounds on their optimal decoding thresholds and gaining insight into their information properties under decoherence. Additionally, we demonstrate that the SM mapping acts an an "ungauging" map; the classical models that describe a given code under decoherence also can be gauged to obtain the same code. Finally, we comment on correlated errors and non-CSS stabilizer codes.