We study a 3D generalization of the toric code model introduced recently by Chamon. This is an exactly solvable spin model with six-qubit nearest-neighbor interactions on an FCC lattice whose ground space exhibits topological quantum order. The elementary excitations of this model which we call monopoles can be geometrically described as the corners of rectangular-shaped membranes. We prove that the creation of an isolated monopole separated from other monopoles by a distance R requires an operator acting on Ω(R²) qubits. Composite particles that consist of two monopoles (dipoles) and four monopoles (quadrupoles) can be described as end-points of strings. The peculiar feature of the model is that dipole-type strings are rigid, that is, such strings must be aligned with face-diagonals of the lattice. For periodic boundary conditions the ground space can encode 4g qubits where g is the greatest common divisor of the lattice dimensions. We describe a complete set of logical operators acting on the encoded qubits in terms of closed strings and closed membranes.

We initiate the study of Majorana fermion codes (MFCs). These codes can be viewed as extensions of Kitaev's one-dimensional (ID) model of unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires to higher spatial dimensions and interacting fermions. The purpose of MFCs is to protect quantum information against low-weight fermionic errors, that is, operators acting on sufficiently small subsets of fermionic modes. We examine to what extent MFCs can surpass qubit stabilizer codes in terms of their stability properties. A general construction of 2D MFCs is proposed that combines topological protection based on a macroscopic code distance with protection based on fermionic parity conservation. Finally, we use MFCs to show how to transform any qubit stabilizer code to a weakly self-dual CSS code.