Performance of Nonbinary Cubic Codes

Cubic codes were proposed by Haah as candidates for self-error correction in three dimensions (3D). While these codes are not self-correcting, Bravyi and Haah showed that they are partially self-correcting. In this paper we are interested in generalizations of the cubic code to prime alphabet. Kim initiated the study of such codes over prime alphabet. Haah also proposed a framework based on modules that enables the study of cubic codes over higher alphabet. However, there are many open questions remaining, especially those pertaining to the performance of nonbinary cubic codes. Building on Bravyi and Haah's decoder, we study the performance of nonbinary cubic codes over the quantum erasure and depolarizing channels. This is the first such study of nonbinary cubic codes.