Lifting Lifted Product Codes

Abstract

Lifted product (LP) codes form an important class of quantum error correcting codes with favorable code parameters. We introduce a systematic construction of LP code families based on group extensions and graph lifts. The construction increases the code size while preserving the local structure of the Tanner graph, and relates code parameters, logical operators, and fault-tolerant logical-operation gadgets within the families through chain and cochain maps. As a first application, we obtain LP codes with better code parameters than previously reported ones. We then demonstrate that code-surgery gadgets can be transferred across the selected finite lifts through chain maps and, in several cases, implemented with lower space overhead. We also develop parallel product surgery for lifted clustered cyclic codes. Finally, we propose lifting as a systematic first step toward defining thermodynamic families for algebraically defined qLDPC codes without an underlying Euclidean lattice. For several base codes and selected lifts, coherent information exhibits finite-size crossings, while our results also indicate that additional conditions are needed to determine a unique family.