CAREER: Quantum Gravity-Inspired Quantum Error Correction and Quantum Lego

Quantum computers could enable transformative advances in science and technology, but practical quantum computing requires protecting fragile quantum information from errors. Designing efficient quantum error-correcting codes remains one of the central challenges in the field because quantum errors are fundamentally more complex than their classical counterparts. This project will develop new mathematical and computational tools for building and understanding quantum error-correcting codes using ideas inspired by quantum gravity and a modular design framework called Quantum Lego. By enabling more reliable quantum information processing, the project will advance fundamental knowledge at the intersection of physics, mathematics, and computer science and contribute to the long-term development of quantum technologies. The project also supports workforce development through undergraduate and graduate research opportunities, outreach activities, and the expansion of an open-source educational software platform that makes advanced concepts in quantum information science more accessible to students and researchers. The project investigates how complex quantum error-correcting codes can be constructed from smaller modular building blocks represented by tensor networks. The proposed research has three interconnected objectives: (1) developing efficient fault-tolerant decoding and error-correction protocols for holographic codes inspired by ideas from quantum gravity; (2) constructing new families of quantum codes that support low-overhead fault-tolerant logical operations through symmetry-based design principles; and (3) establishing a general theoretical framework for modular quantum code synthesis, analysis, and optimization. The work combines methods from tensor networks, coding theory, quantum gravity, and statistical physics to characterize code performance, discover new code families, and develop scalable computational tools. The resulting framework is expected to advance the theoretical understanding of quantum code design and provide practically relevant protocols for fault-tolerant quantum computation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2542568 | Program: 01002930DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT,01003031DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT,01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Chun Jun Cao | Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, BLACKSBURG, VA | Award Amount: $335,239 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2542568 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2542568.html