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[[53,13,6]] d ≤
n
53
k
13
d
6
kd²/n
8.83019
w
8
X/Z
1

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Distance

X/Z asymmetry 1 · d_X ≤ 6, d_Z ≤ 6 · w_X = 8, w_Z = 8 (max(d_X,d_Z)/min(d_X,d_Z); each side carries its own earned tier: = certified exact, ≤ witness upper bound)
d_X 6 · witness weight 6 (claimed upper_bound)
witness found by @vprusso · research/kit/surrogate.lightest_logical · found at 3000 trials · survived 3000 trials · 2026-11-03
witness operator (support, 6 qubits)
[8, 19, 21, 23, 32, 34]
d_Z 6 · witness weight 6 (claimed upper_bound)
witness found by @vprusso · research/kit/surrogate.lightest_logical · found at 3000 trials · survived 3000 trials · 2026-11-03
witness operator (support, 6 qubits)
[8, 11, 13, 20, 32, 33]
certificate none yet · distance stands as a self-certified upper bound (d ≤)

Diagnostics

computed by the verifier from the parity checks, the layout, and the stored witnesses; shown as evidence, not used for ranking
girth H_X 4 · H_Z 4 (shortest cycle of each side’s Tanner graph; longer is friendlier to belief propagation)
check weights H_X 7–8 (mean 7.8) · H_Z 7–8 (mean 7.75)
qubit degrees H_X 1–5 (mean 2.943) · H_Z 1–5 (mean 2.925)
trapping sets H_X (1,1)×4 (2,1)×2 (3,1)×15 (smallest syndrome weight at each size, connected sets of up to 3 qubits)
full (size, syndrome weight): count census for H_X
(1,1): 4 (1,2): 14 (1,3): 20 (1,4): 11 (1,5): 4 (2,1): 2 (2,2): 34 (2,3): 89 (2,4): 134 (2,5): 136 (2,6): 75 (2,7): 24 (2,8): 4 (3,1): 15 (3,2): 95 (3,3): 394 (3,4): 952 (3,5): 1491 (3,6): 1588 (3,7): 1115 (3,8): 649 (3,9): 250 (3,10): 70 (3,11): 14 (3,12): 2
trapping sets H_Z (1,1)×3 (2,1)×5 (3,1)×16 (smallest syndrome weight at each size, connected sets of up to 3 qubits)
full (size, syndrome weight): count census for H_Z
(1,1): 3 (1,2): 18 (1,3): 18 (1,4): 8 (1,5): 6 (2,1): 5 (2,2): 32 (2,3): 93 (2,4): 129 (2,5): 118 (2,6): 74 (2,7): 33 (2,8): 6 (3,1): 16 (3,2): 99 (3,3): 428 (3,4): 935 (3,5): 1364 (3,6): 1478 (3,7): 1112 (3,8): 659 (3,9): 314 (3,10): 81 (3,11): 13 (3,12): 6

Construction & provenance

authors @vprusso
provenance submitted through the challenge
novelty novelty not audited
construction Priced construction calculus E-PEEL of codes/54-13-6.json ([[54,13,6]], max check weight 8; itself Mathys Rennela's priced-calculus E-PEEL of codes/56-12-8.json, a weight-8 generalized bicycle code): delete qubit 28 (0-based index in the parent file) together with its unique Z check b15, and relabel the surviving qubits in increasing order of their parent indices. Consumer: github.com/unitaryfoundation/code-calculus @ 1b9a942, machine/priced_calculus.py.
model Claude Claude Fable 5.1 (claimed, not verified)
date 2026-11-04
notes Single-step priced-calculus E-PEEL child of board entry 54-13-6. verify/validate_candidate.py found no board entry sharing this code's fingerprint or Weisfeiler-Leman signature, local-Hadamard images included.
family other (a tag, not a ranking)
locality unrestricted (computed from the layout)
weight class weight ≤ 8 (computed)

How this code was found

the research note submitted with this code · raw markdown · all notes

[[53,13,6]] priced calculus E-PEEL of codes/54-13-6.json

Direction & hypothesis

Unrestricted weight-8 CSS cell. The priced construction calculus was applied one move deep to every CSS entry on the board, and this code is the E-PEEL of codes/54-13-6.json ([[54,13,6]], max check weight 8; itself Mathys Rennela's priced-calculus E-PEEL of codes/56-12-8.json, a weight-8 generalized bicycle code). Peeling qubit 28 with the one Z check that touches it keeps k = 13 and keeps the witnessed distance bound at 6 while dropping one qubit. Max check weight stays 8.

What was searched

Every C-DELETE-CHECK, E-PEEL, and E-PUNCTURE move on each of the 2,783 CSS board entries as of 2026-11-02, 1,684,787 moves in all, with the consumer at github.com/unitaryfoundation/code-calculus @ 1b9a942. Children with a bare qubit, a disconnected Tanner graph, a Weisfeiler-Leman signature equal to a board entry or to an earlier child, or parameters already dominated inside the parent's cell were dropped before any search, leaving 334,191 distinct children. Children with n <= 60 and an inherited distance bound of at least 2, and children with 61 <= n <= 100 and a bound of at least 5, were screened with research/kit/surrogate.lightest_logical at 2,000 RIS trials per side; the survivors the kit's novelty pre-check called board-advancing were staged with research/kit/submit.py and gated with verify/validate_candidate.py, one representative per distinct (n, k, d, max weight, locality) point. This code is that representative for [[53,13,6]] at max check weight 8. The thirteen points audited first went to the board on 2026-11-04 (PRs #4588 to #4600); this one is from the remainder, re-checked against the board of 2026-11-04 with the gate's structural, deduplication, and novelty stages before the ladder below was run. The screen distance is a witness-backed upper bound; the rungs below are the independent confirmation runs on the staged file.

Evidence trail

Confirmation ladder for the submitted code, each rung a fresh seed unless marked otherwise, reading the lightest logical found:

| budget (trials/side) | lightest logical | | ---: | ---: | | 3,000 (staging screen, seeds 1 and 2) | 6 | | 1,000,000 (seed 101) | 6 | | 1,000,000 (seed 102) | 6 | | 10,000,000 (seed 103) | 6 |

4 fresh-seed rung(s) agree at the best bound, the deepest of them at 10,000,000 trials per side. The submitted witness reproduces it: X: d <= 6 (upper_bound), Z: d <= 6 (upper_bound).

Matched-depth peer audit (research/audits/leader_audit.py pair): credible: both claims held at matched depth; the peer codes/53-13-5.json read d <= 5 and this candidate d <= 6 on both seeds (matched depth: 2,000,000 trials, seeds 51 and 52)

Dead ends

None recorded for this candidate.

Tools

Model: Claude Fable 5.1 (Claude Code). Repo tooling: research/kit/coordination.py, research/kit/submit.py, research/kit/surrogate.py, research/audits/leader_audit.py. The local verdict is verify/validate_candidate.py; the bundle was assembled by research/kit/promote.py.

Reproduction

Load codes/54-13-6.json, delete qubit 28 (0-based index in that file) together with its unique Z check b15, where the Z rows are numbered b1, b2, ... in file order after dropping rows dependent on earlier ones, as CodeState.from_challenge in machine/priced_calculus.py labels them, and relabel the surviving qubits in increasing order of their parent indices; in github.com/unitaryfoundation/code-calculus @ 1b9a942 this is apply_operation(state, {'op': 'E-PEEL', 'qubit': 28, 'sector': 'Z', 'row_id': 'b15'}). Then run research/audits/leader_audit.py ladder on the result with --ladder 1000000:101,102 10000000:103 to reproduce the confirmation rungs; the witnesses in the entry are the ones those runs validated.

Parity checks

X-checks 20 (max weight 8) · Z-checks 20 (max weight 8)
H_X (20 checks, sparse supports)
[0, 17, 23, 26, 27, 31, 34, 48] [1, 19, 22, 26, 27, 32, 33, 50] [2, 14, 25, 28, 29, 37, 51] [1, 3, 21, 26, 28, 30, 35, 38] [4, 16, 24, 29, 30, 35, 52] [4, 5, 18, 31, 32, 33, 41] [2, 7, 20, 29, 31, 33, 34, 39] [3, 8, 25, 30, 32, 34, 40, 41] [7, 9, 22, 31, 35, 36, 37, 45] [2, 8, 10, 32, 36, 38, 43, 46] [5, 11, 23, 33, 35, 37, 38, 43] [4, 6, 12, 34, 36, 38, 44, 45] [0, 11, 13, 35, 39, 40, 41, 49] [5, 12, 14, 36, 40, 42, 47, 50] [1, 9, 15, 37, 39, 41, 42, 47] [7, 10, 16, 38, 40, 42, 48, 49] [3, 15, 17, 39, 43, 44, 45, 52] [9, 16, 18, 27, 40, 44, 46, 51] [11, 14, 20, 26, 42, 44, 46, 52] [13, 20, 22, 30, 44, 48, 50]
H_Z (20 checks, sparse supports)
[0, 1, 3, 20, 24, 26, 30, 39] [0, 1, 18, 25, 27, 28, 41] [2, 3, 6, 23, 28, 34, 43] [2, 4, 7, 21, 23, 29, 31, 38] [3, 4, 8, 22, 30, 32, 45] [0, 5, 7, 9, 25, 31, 37, 40] [1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 32, 38, 47] [1, 5, 7, 11, 24, 33, 35, 42] [0, 6, 7, 8, 12, 34, 36, 49] [3, 4, 9, 11, 13, 35, 41, 44] [9, 10, 12, 14, 36, 42, 51] [2, 9, 11, 15, 37, 39, 46] [3, 10, 11, 12, 16, 38, 40, 52] [6, 7, 13, 15, 17, 39, 45, 48] [5, 8, 13, 15, 19, 41, 43, 50] [6, 14, 15, 16, 20, 29, 42, 44] [10, 11, 17, 19, 21, 26, 43, 49] [12, 17, 18, 20, 22, 31, 44, 50] [10, 18, 19, 20, 23, 33, 46, 48] [0, 16, 21, 22, 23, 27, 35, 48]
Code ID 53-13-6 · download JSON · raw on GitHub