MDS, Hermitian almost MDS, and Gilbert–Varshamov quantum codes from generalized monomial-Cartesian codes

We construct new stabilizer quantum error-correcting codes from generalized monomial-Cartesian codes. Our construction uses an explicitly defined twist vector, and we present formulas for the minimum distance and dimension. Generalized monomial-Cartesian codes arise from polynomials in m variables. When $$m=1$$ m=1 our codes are MDS, and when $$m=2$$ m=2 and our lower bound for the minimum distance is 3, the codes are at least Hermitian almost MDS. For an infinite family of parameters, when $$m=2$$ m=2 we prove that our codes beat the Gilbert–Varshamov bound. We also present many examples of our codes that are better than any known code in the literature.