On Constructing and Decoding Quantum Triorthogonal Codes

Abstract

Triorthogonal codes are a basic ingredient in magic-state distillation, as they enable transversal implementation of logical $\mathsf{T}$ gates. As a non-Clifford operation, the $\mathsf{T}$ gate enables universal fault-tolerant quantum computation when combined with Clifford operations. We derive an existence criterion for even-weight triorthogonal generator matrices with a target dual minimum distance. The criterion combines triorthogonality constraints with MacWilliams identities via Krawtchouk-polynomial conditions on the dual weight distribution, yielding an integer linear programming formulation for the construction problem. We find novel nontrivial triorthogonal codes (degenerate and non-degenerate) that are not necessarily constructed from triply even binary linear codes. By imposing automorphism-group constraints, the formulation also recovers the known [[49,1,5]] and [[95,1,7]] triorthogonal codes. We also evaluate the performance of the obtained high-distance triorthogonal codes over the dephasing channel using different decoding methods, showing that automorphism ensemble decoding (AED) and guessing random additive-noise decoding (GRAND) are promising options.

10 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. v3: Added the proof of Theorem 2 (Appendix A)