Beyond Stabilizer Codes II: Clifford Codes

Knill introduced a generalization of stabilizer codes, in this note called Clifford codes. It remained unclear whether or not Clifford codes can be superior to stabilizer codes. We show that Clifford codes are stabilizer codes provided that the abstract error group is given by an extraspecial p-group. Suppose that the abstract error group has an abelian index group, then we show that a Clifford code can be derived from an abelian normal subgroup.