Nishimori Threshold Estimation for Bayesian Inference and ℤ_q Surface Code Decoding

In quantum error correction, the error threshold provides essential quantitative guidance for the ability to bring about fault-tolerance through decoding the effects of incoherent noise, weak measurement or inference. However, the numerical value of an error threshold is typically only accessible through large-scale numerical simulations of the underlying noise model. Here we introduce an analytical estimate of error thresholds falling into the Nishimori universality class via a Fourier–Walsh projection scheme that maps the critical point of the underlying disorder-free statistical-mechanics model to the Born-disordered Nishimori critical point. Using a minimal replica theory approach, this closed-form estimate is obtained from a projection of the exact replicated single-bond weight which we find to reproduce (within a percentage point) the known numerical thresholds of random-bond and random-plaquette Ising models / ℤ_2 stabilizer codes in spatial dimensions d=2-5, and extends to Potts variables with q≤4. The main application of our projection scheme is to ℤ_q surface codes, whose decoding problem maps to the disordered q-state clock model. For q≥5 the clean clock model has two Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transitions, which the projection maps to two Nishimori temperatures that bound an intermediate information-critical phase. The resulting threshold values not only accurately agree with recent decohered-ℤ_q-toric-code numerics, but are found to satisfy the Gilbert–Varshamov self-dual entropy relation ln q ≃ H_q(T_1^∗)+H_q(T_2^∗), although no duality condition is imposed in the construction. Our approach thereby points to a deeper connection between the clean and Born-disordered models, while allowing for instant analytical estimates of error thresholds for a variety of stabilizer codes.