In this work, we introduce a technique for reducing the length of a quantum stabilizer code, and we call this deflation of the code. Deflation can be seen as a generalization of the well-known puncturing and shortening techniques in cases where more than a single qudit is removed. We show that the parameters of the deflated quantum code can be controlled, and argue that a similar approach is not as beneficial when applied to classical linear codes. Furthermore, it is shown that deflation introduces additional freedom compared to applying just puncturing and shortening consecutively. We exemplify that it is possible to obtain better parameters by deflating a code rather than consecutively using puncturing and shortening.

翻译：本文提出了一种缩减量子稳定子码长度的方法，称之为码的紧缩。紧缩可视为在移除多个量子比特（qudit）情形下，对经典穿刺与缩短技术的推广。研究表明，紧缩后量子码的参数可被有效控制，并论证了类似方法应用于经典线性码时效果有限。此外，与连续应用穿刺和缩短相比，紧缩操作引入了额外的自由度。通过实例证明，采用紧缩技术获得的码参数优于连续使用穿刺与缩短操作所得结果。