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Consider an $ ((n,K=2^k,d)) $ non-stabilizer code. The weight enumerator coefficients are $$ A_j:=\frac{1}{(2^k)^2} \sum_{p \in P_n,\,\mathrm{wt}(p)=j} |\mathrm{tr}(p \Pi)|^2 $$ where $ \Pi $ is the projector onto the code subspace.

Are the $ A_j $ always integers?

For stabilizer codes this is true see Are the coefficients of the weight enumerator polynomial of a stabilizer code always integers?

Is it the case that the $ A_j $ are always integers for non-stabilizer codes as well? If not, what is an example of a non-stabilizer code with $ A_j $ not integers?

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No. Weight enumerators with the given normalization are not necessarily integers for non-stabilizer codes. In fact, the first discovered non-stabilizer code provides a counterexample. However, the logical subspace of that code is six-dimensional. See this paper for a $(\!(11,2)\!)$ code which is a counterexample encoding a logical qubit (thank you to Ian Gershon Teixeira for pointing out this paper).

$(\!(5,6)\!)$ counterexample

The first discovered non-stabilizer code is defined by the following projector $$ \begin{align} \Pi=\frac{1}{16}[ \,3\,&I\otimes I\otimes I\otimes I\otimes I\\ +\,&(I\otimes Z\otimes Y\otimes Y\otimes Z)_{\text{cyc}}\\ +\,&(I\otimes X\otimes Z\otimes Z\otimes X)_{\text{cyc}}\\ -\,&(I\otimes Y\otimes X\otimes X\otimes Y)_{\text{cyc}}\\ +2\,&(Z\otimes X\otimes Y\otimes Y\otimes X)_{\text{cyc}}\\ -2\,&Z\otimes Z\otimes Z\otimes Z\otimes Z] \end{align}\tag1 $$ where the subscript "cyc" indicates the presence of all five cyclic shifts. We have $$ \begin{align} A_4&=\frac{1}{(2^{\log_2 6})^2}\sum_{p\in P_5,\mathrm{wt}(p)=4}\mathrm{tr}(p\Pi)^2\tag2\\ &=\frac{1}{6^2}\frac{1}{16^2}(5+5+5)\,\mathrm{tr}(I\otimes I\otimes I\otimes I\otimes I)^2\tag3\\ &=\frac{15}{6^2}\frac{32^2}{16^2}=\frac{5}{3}.\tag4 \end{align} $$ Admittedly, this code does not match the parameters of the question exactly since its logical subspace is six-dimensional.


$[\![4,2]\!]$ is not a counterexample

Let $C$ denote the joint $+1$ eigenspace of $Y^{\otimes 4}$ and $H^{\otimes 4}$. Any single-qubit Pauli error anti-commutes with one of the two operators, so $C$ is a code that can detect all single-qubit Pauli errors. The projector is $$ \begin{align} \Pi&=\frac{I^{\otimes 4}+Y^{\otimes 4}}{2}\frac{I^{\otimes 4}+H^{\otimes 4}}{2}\tag5\\ &=\frac14[I^{\otimes 4}+Y^{\otimes 4}+H^{\otimes 4}+Y^{\otimes 4}H^{\otimes 4}]\tag6\\ &=\frac14\left[I^{\otimes 4}+Y^{\otimes 4}+\frac14(X+Z)^{\otimes 4}+\frac14Y^{\otimes 4}(X+Z)^{\otimes 4}\right]\tag7 \end{align} $$ where $(X+Z)^{\otimes 4}$ expands to the sum of all sixteen weight four Pauli strings consisting solely of $X$ and $Z$. Let us denote this set with $Q_n=\{P\in P_n\,|\,\mathrm{wt}(p)=n\wedge\mathrm{wt}_Y(p)=0\}$ where $\mathrm{wt}_Y(p)$ denotes the number of qubits on which $p$ acts as $Y$. Now, $YX=-iZ$ and $YZ=iX$,so $$ \begin{align} \Pi&=\frac14\left[I^{\otimes 4}+Y^{\otimes 4}+\frac14(X+Z)^{\otimes 4}+\frac14Y^{\otimes 4}(X+Z)^{\otimes 4}\right]\tag7\\ &=\frac{1}{16}\left[4I^{\otimes 4}+4Y^{\otimes 4}+\sum_{q\in Q_4} q+Y^{\otimes 4}\sum_{q\in Q_4} q\right]\tag8\\ &=\frac{1}{16}\left[4I^{\otimes 4}+4Y^{\otimes 4}+\sum_{q\in Q_4} q+\sum_{q\in Q_4} (-1)^{\mathrm{wt}_Z(q)}q\right]\tag9\\ &=\frac{1}{16}\left[4I^{\otimes 4}+4Y^{\otimes 4}+2\sum_{r\in R_4} r\right]\tag{10}\\ \end{align} $$ where $$ \begin{align} R_4=\{ &XXXX, ZZZZ,\\ &XXZZ, ZZXX,\\ &XZXZ, ZXZX,\\ &ZXXZ, XZZX\}\tag{11} \end{align} $$ is the set of all eight four-qubit Pauli strings made up of an even number of $X$, an even number of $Z$ and no identity or $Y$. Having found the expansion of the code subspace projector in the Pauli basis, we are ready to compute weight enumerators $$ \begin{align} A_4&=\frac{1}{(2^2)^2}\sum_{p\in P_4,\mathrm{wt}(p)=4}\mathrm{tr}(p\Pi)^2\tag{12}\\ &=\frac{1}{4^2}\frac{1}{16^2}(4^2+8\cdot 2^2)\,\mathrm{tr}(I\otimes I\otimes I\otimes I)^2\tag{13}\\ &=\frac{48}{4^2}\frac{16^2}{16^2}=3\tag{14} \end{align} $$ where we used $k=2$ which follows from $\mathrm{tr}(\Pi)=4$.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks so much. Interesting to note that even though these codes are fairly exotic the codewords still have a form very similar to stabilizer states. In particular there is basis of codewords for both codes above in which the basis codewords have support with size a power of $ 2 $ and are just a uniform $ \pm 1 $ signed superposition over their support, times the a global scalar $ 1/\sqrt{|Support|}$. This observation is essentially my question quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/q/30218/19675 which you might be interested in. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 13:53
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    $\begingroup$ I think most (all?) known non-stabilizer codes are examples of union stabilizer codes which can be constructed as the direct sum of stabilizer codes. In those codes you can always find codewords that are stabilizer states. However, their stabilizer groups will in general be different (and in particular cannot be extended to a stabilizer group of the whole code). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 17:39
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    $\begingroup$ I've encountered them in Chapter 10 in the red book "Quantum Error Correction" edited by by Daniel A. Lidar and Todd A. Brun, but yeah the papers you link to look relevant too. Also, AFAIR "codeword stabilized codes" are the same as "union stabilizer codes" (the construction is different, but IIRC they work out to be the same thing). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 18:33
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    $\begingroup$ The code projector you have in line (5) gives an $ ((n=4,K=4,2)) $ code and all such codes are equivalent to the $ [[4,2,2]] $ stabilizer code by Theorem 8 of arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9704043 and so in particular the code you are describing has weight enumerator $ (1,0,0,0,3) $. There is an error somewhere, probably line (8), and the expression in line (10) is not equal to the code projector given in line (5). $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 22, 2023 at 17:31
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    $\begingroup$ A counterexample of the sort asked for in the original question is the $ ((11,K=2,3)) $ non-stabilizer code given in arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9710031 which has weight enumerator $ (1,0,0,0,\frac{110}{3},0,88,0,605,0,\frac{880}{3},0) $ $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 22, 2023 at 17:35

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