Spin squeezed GKP codes for quantum error correction in atomic ensembles

GKP codes encode a qubit in displaced phase space combs of a continuous-variable (CV) quantum system and are useful for correcting a variety of high-weight photonic errors. Here we propose atomic ensemble analogs of the single-mode CV GKP code by using the quantum central limit theorem to pull back the phase space structure of a CV system to the compact phase space of a quantum spin system. We study the optimal recovery performance of these codes under error channels described by stochastic relaxation and isotropic ballistic dephasing processes using the diversity combining approach for calculating channel fidelity. We find that the spin GKP codes outperform other spin system codes such as cat codes or binomial codes. Our spin GKP codes based on the two-axis countertwisting interaction and superpositions of SU(2) coherent states are direct spin analogs of the finite-energy CV GKP codes, whereas our codes based on one-axis twisting do not yet have well-studied CV analogs. A state preparation of the spin GKP codes is proposed which uses the linear combination of unitaries method, applicable to both the CV and spin GKP settings. Finally, we discuss a fault-tolerant approximate gate set for quantum computing with spin GKP-encoded qubits, obtained by translating gates from the CV GKP setting using the quantum central limit theorem.