Dynamical Logical Qubits in the Bacon-Shor Code

The Bacon-Shor code is a quantum error correcting subsystem code composed of weight 2 check operators that admits a single logical qubit, and has distance d on a d × d square lattice. We show that when viewed as a Floquet code, by choosing an appropriate measurement schedule of the check operators, it can additionally host several dynamical logical qubits. Specifically, we identify a period 4 measurement schedule of the check operators that preserves logical information between the instantaneous stabilizer groups. Such a schedule measures not only the usual stabilizers of the Bacon-Shor code, but also additional stabilizers that protect the dynamical logical qubits against errors. We show that the code distance of these Floquet-Bacon-Shor codes scales as Θ(d/√k) on a d × d lattice with k dynamical logical qubits, along with the logical qubit of the parent subsystem code. Moreover, several errors are shown to be self-corrected purely by the measurement schedule itself.