Contents

# Contents

## Idea

In coding theory, an error correcting code is a means to encode data in a way that is robust against errors (noise).

Very broadly, for $L$ a finite set playing the role of a space of states that is to be saved/communicated/analyzed, an error correcting code for $L$ is an injection $L \overset{\;\;\;}{\hookrightarrow} P$ into a larger set. The idea is that noise/errors move the image of $L$ within $P$, but if $P$ is large enough and the embedding chosen well enough, then a sufficiently small number of errors stays within a small neighbourhood of $L$ in $P$ that allows to retract back to $L$.

The simplest example is the repetition code, where the inclusion is the diagonal on the $n$-fold Cartesian product

$\array{ L & \overset{diag}{\hookrightarrow} & P \coloneqq \underset{n \; factors}{\underbrace{L \times \cdots \times L}} \\ \ell &\mapsto& (\ell, \cdots, \ell) } \,.$

This code “protects against $n/2-1$ errors” in an evident sense.

Much attention in coding theory is instead on the special lass of linear codes, where $L$ and $P$ carry the structure of vector spaces (necessarily over a finite field if they are finite sets of relevance in practice) and where the inclsion $L \hookrightarrow P$ is a linear map.

## References

See the referennces at coding theory and linear code.

An observation on classical codes preconceiving aspects of holographic tensor network quantum error correcting codes:

Last revised on May 6, 2021 at 05:46:04. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.