Projective plane and planar quantum codes (Q5945650)

The idea of topological or anyonic quantum computation arose independently in papers of \textit{A. Yu. Kitaev} [Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons, quant-ph/9707021] and \textit{M. Freedman} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95, 98-101 (1998; Zbl 0895.68053)]. Topological properties of quantum systems might play a crucial role in stabilizing large-scale quantum computers. In this short note, the authors study a very beautiful example of this approach. Using celluations of the projective plane, the authors construct three inequivalent quantum error-correcting codes for a single qubit. They also identify one of the codes with Shor's original 9 qubit code. The idea is based on Kitaev's above-mentioned paper. Another equivalent construction is given by \textit{A. Yu. Kitaev} and \textit{S. B. Bravyi} [Quantum codes on a lattice with boundary, quant-ph/9811052]. A unified approach based on topological quantum field theories is given by \textit{M. Freedman} et al. [Topological quantum computation, Bull. Am. Math. Soc. (to appear)].