The quantum circuit model is the most widely used model of quantum computation. It provides both a framework for formulating quantum algorithms and an architecture for the physical construction of quantum computers. However, several other models of quantum computation exist which provide useful alternative frameworks for both discovering new quantum algorithms and devising new physical implementations of quantum computers. In this thesis, I first present necessary background material for a general physics audience and discuss existing models of quantum computation. Then, I present three results relating to various models of quantum computation: a scheme for improving the intrinsic fault tolerance of adiabatic quantum computers using quantum error detecting codes, a proof that a certain problem of estimating Jones polynomials is complete for the one clean qubit complexity class, and a generalization of perturbative gadgets which allows k-body interactions to be directly simulated using 2-body interactions. Lastly, I discuss general principles regarding quantum computation that I learned in the course of my research, and using these principles I propose directions for future research.
Artificial atoms realized by superconducting circuits offer unique opportunities to store and process quantum information with high fidelity. Among them, implementations of circuits that harness intrinsic noise protection have been rapidly developed in recent years. These noise-protected devices constitute a new class of qubits in which the computational states are largely decoupled from local noise channels. The main challenges in engineering such systems are simultaneously guarding against both bit- and phase-flip errors, and also ensuring high-fidelity qubit control. Although partial noise …
Sampling from probability distributions of quantum circuits is a fundamentally and practically important task which can be used to demonstrate quantum supremacy using noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices. In the present work, we examine classical simulability of sampling from the output photon-number distribution of linear-optical circuits composed of random beam splitters with equally distributed squeezed vacuum states and single-photon states input. We provide efficient classical algorithms to simulate linear-optical random circuits and show that the algorithms' error is exponentially sm…
We study classical simulation of quantum computation, taking the Gottesman-Knill theorem as a starting point. We show how each Clifford circuit can be reduced to an equivalent, manifestly simulatable circuit (normal form). This provides a simple proof of the Gottesman-Knill theorem without resorting to stabilizer techniques. The normal form highlights why Clifford circuits have such limited computational power in spite of their high entangling power. At the same time, the normal form shows how the classical simulation of Clifford circuits fits into the standard way of embedding classical compu…
Construction of explicit quantum circuits follows the notion of the "standard circuit model" introduced in the solid and profound analysis of elementary gates providing quantum computation. Nevertheless the model is not always optimal (e.g. concerning the number of computational steps) and it neglects physical systems which cannot follow the "standard circuit model" analysis. We propose a computational scheme which overcomes the notion of the transposition from classical circuits providing a computation scheme with the least possible number of Hamiltonians in order to minimize the physical res…
Color code thresholds under circuit-level noise beyond the Pauli framework
INFN, Sezione di Padova（意大利国家核物理研究所帕多瓦分部）；Institute for Complex Quantum Systems, Ulm University（乌尔姆大学复杂量子系统研究所）；Padua Quantum Technologies Research Center, Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学帕多瓦量子技术中心）
Beyond Logical Circuits: Hardware-Aware Analysis of Expressibility and Trainability in Variational Quantum Algorithms
Division of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD)（纽约大学阿布扎比分校工程学院）；Center for Quantum and Topological Systems (CQTS), NYUAD Research Institute, NYUAD（纽约大学阿布扎比分校研究院量子与拓扑系统中心）
Steady-state phases in long-range measurement-only quantum circuits
Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Oklahoma（霍默·L·道奇物理与天文系，俄克拉荷马大学）；Center for Quantum Research and Technology, The University of Oklahoma（量子研究与技术中心，俄克拉荷马大学）
Diagonal quantum circuits are quantum circuits comprising only diagonal gates in the computational basis. In spite of a classical feature of diagonal quantum circuits in the sense of commutativity of all gates, their computational power is highly likely to outperform classical one and they are exploited for applications in quantum informational tasks. We review computational power of diagonal quantum circuits and their applications. We focus on the computational power of instantaneous quantum polynomial-time (IQP) circuits, which are a special type of diagonal quantum circuits. We then review …
In this paper we address the problem of translating one-way quantum computation (1WQC) into the circuit model. We start by giving a straightforward circuit representation of any 1WQC, at the cost of introducing many ancilla wires. We then propose a set of four simple circuit identities that explore the relationship between the entanglement resource and correction structure of a 1WQC, allowing one to obtain equivalent circuits acting on fewer qubits. We conclude with some examples and a discussion of open problems.
Satisfiability Testing (SAT) techniques are well-established in classical computing where they are used to solve a broad variety of problems, e.g., in the design of classical circuits and systems. Analogous to the classical realm, quantum algorithms are usually modelled as circuits and similar design tasks need to be tackled. Thus, it is natural to pose the question whether these design tasks in the quantum realm can also be approached using SAT techniques. To the best of our knowledge, no SAT formulation for arbitrary quantum circuits exists and it is unknown whether such an approach is feasi…
We prove the equivalence between adiabatic quantum computation and quantum computation in the circuit model. An explicit adiabatic computation procedure is given that generates a ground state from which the answer can be extracted. The amount of time needed is evaluated by computing the gap. We show that the procedure is computationally efficient.
Generative AI Beyond Tokens: Quantum Resource Consumption of IQP Circuits
Technical University of Applied Sciences Regensburg（雷根斯堡应用技术大学）；Universität der Bundeswehr München（联邦国防军慕尼黑大学）；Siemens AG, Foundational Technology（西门子股份公司基础技术部门）
Driving quantum systems periodically in time plays an essential role in the coherent control of quantum states. The rotating wave approximation (RWA) is a good approximation technique for weak and nearly-resonance driven fields. However, these experiments sometimes require large detuning and strong driving fields, for which the RWA may not hold. In this work, we experimentally, numerically, and analytically explore strongly driven two-mode Josephson circuits in the regime of strong driving and large detuning. Specifically, we investigate beam-splitter and two-mode squeezing interaction between…
University of Geneva（日内瓦大学）；European Space Agency（欧洲空间局）
This paper explores the advantages of optimizing quantum circuits on $N$ wires as operators in the unitary group $U(2^N)$. We run gradient-based optimization in the Lie algebra $\mathfrak u(2^N)$ and use the exponential map to parametrize unitary matrices. We argue that $U(2^N)$ is not only more general than the search space induced by an ansatz, but in ways easier to work with on classical computers. The resulting approach is quick, ansatz-free and provides an upper bound on performance over all ansätze on $N$ wires.
We present a framework for modeling superconducting circuits that integrates classical microwave analysis with circuit quantization. Our framework enables the calculation of the lossy eigenmodes of superconducting circuits, and we demonstrate the method by analyzing several circuits relevant to multiplexed, Purcell filtered transmon readout architectures. We show that the transmon relaxation times obtained by our method agree with the established approximation $T_1 \approx C/\text{Re}[Y(iω_q)]$ away from environmental resonances and do not vanish on resonance. We also show that the hybridizati…
We suggest an efficient scheme for quantum computation with linear optical elements utilizing "linked" photon states. The linked states are designed according to the particular quantum circuit one wishes to process. Once a linked-state has been successfully prepared, the computation is pursued deterministically by a sequence of teleportation steps. The present scheme enables a significant reduction of the average number of elementary gates per logical gate to about 20-30 CZ_{9/16} gates.
Quantum computations are expressed in general as quantum circuits, which are specified by ordered lists of quantum gates. The resulting specifications are used during the optimisation and execution of the expressed computations. However, the specification format makes it difficult to verify that optimised or executed computations still conform to the initial gate list specifications: showing the computational equivalence between two quantum circuits expressed by different lists of quantum gates is exponentially complex in the worst case. In order to solve this issue, this work presents a deriv…
We devise a classical algorithm which efficiently computes the quantum expectation values arising in a class of continuous variable quantum circuits wherein the final quantum observable | after the Heisenberg evolution associated with the circuits | is at most second order in momentum. The classical computational algorithm exploits a specific epistemic restriction in classical phase space which directly captures the quantum uncertainty relation, to transform the quantum circuits in the complex Hilbert space into classical albeit unconventional stochastic processes in the phase space. The resul…
One-way measurement based quantum computations (1WQC) may describe unitary transformations, via a composition of CPTP maps which are not all unitary themselves. This motivates the following decision problems: Is it possible to determine whether a ``quantum-to-quantum'' 1WQC procedure (having non-trivial input and output subsystems) performs a unitary transformation? Is it possible to describe precisely how such computations transform quantum states, by translation to a quantum circuit of comparable complexity? In this article, we present an efficient algorithm for transforming certain families…
Resilience Beyond the Light Cone: Error-Detected Primitives for Practical Dynamic Circuits
IBM Quantum, IBM Research Cambridge（IBM量子，IBM剑桥研究院）；IBM Quantum, Thomas J. Watson Research Center（IBM量子，托马斯·J·沃森研究中心）；University of Wisconsin-Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）
In this paper, we propose quantum circuits for runtime assertions, which can be used for both software debugging and error detection. Runtime assertion is challenging in quantum computing for two key reasons. First, a quantum bit (qubit) cannot be copied, which is known as the non-cloning theorem. Second, when a qubit is measured, its superposition state collapses into a classical state, losing the inherent parallel information. In this paper, we overcome these challenges with runtime computation through ancilla qubits, which are used to indirectly collect the information of the qubits of inte…
Superconducting circuits consisting of a few low-anharmonic transmons coupled to readout and bus resonators can perform basic quantum computations. Since the number of qubits in such circuits is limited to not more than a few tens, the qubits can be designed to operate within the dispersive regime, where frequency detuning are much stronger than coupling strengths. However, scaling up the number of qubits will bring the circuit out of this regime and invalidates current theories. We develop a formalism that allows to consistently diagonalize superconducting circuit hamiltonian beyond dispersiv…
In the framework of quantum computational tensor network [D. Gross and J. Eisert, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf98}, 220503 (2007)], which is a general framework of measurement-based quantum computation, the resource many-body state is represented in a tensor-network form, and universal quantum computation is performed in a virtual linear space, which is called a correlation space, where tensors live. Since any unitary operation, state preparation, and the projection measurement in the computational basis can be simulated in a correlation space, it is natural to expect that fault-tolerant quantum circu…
The opportunities afforded by near-term quantum computers to calculate the ground-state properties of small molecules depend on the structure of the computational ansatz as well as the errors induced by device noise. Here we investigate the behavior of these noisy quantum circuits using numerical simulations to estimate the accuracy and fidelity of the prepared quantum states relative to the ground truth obtained by conventional means. We implement several different types of ansatz circuits derived from unitary coupled cluster theory for the purposes of estimating the ground-state energy of So…
Translations between the quantum circuit model and the measurement-based one-way model are useful for verification and optimisation of quantum computations. They make crucial use of a property known as gflow. While gflow is defined for one-way computations allowing measurements in three different planes of the Bloch sphere, most research so far has focused on computations containing only measurements in the XY-plane. Here, we give the first circuit-extraction algorithm to work for one-way computations containing measurements in all three planes and having gflow. The algorithm is efficient and …
We show that families of Instantaneous Quantum Polynomial (IQP) circuits corresponding to nontrivial Bell tests exhibit nonlocality. However, we also prove that this nonlocality can only be demonstrated using post-selection or nonlinear processing of the measurement outcomes. Therefore if the output of a computation is encoded in the parity of the measurement outcomes, then families of IQP circuits whose full output distributions are hard to sample still only provide a computational advantage relative to locally causal theories under post-selection. Consequently, post-selection is a crucial te…
We study the computational power of unitary Clifford circuits with solely magic state inputs (CM circuits), supplemented by classical efficient computation. We show that CM circuits are hard to classically simulate up to multiplicative error (assuming PH non-collapse), and also up to additive error under plausible average-case hardness conjectures. Unlike other such known classes, a broad variety of possible conjectures apply. Along the way we give an extension of the Gottesman-Knill theorem that applies to universal computation, showing that for Clifford circuits with joint stabiliser and non…
Molecular quantum simulations with the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) rely on ansatz states that approximate the molecular ground states. These ansatz states are generally defined by parametrized fermionic excitation operators and an initial reference state. Efficient ways to perform fermionic excitations are vital for the realization of the VQE on noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers. Here, we address this issue by first demonstrating circuits that perform qubit excitations, excitations that do not account for fermionic anticommutation relations. We then extend the functionality …
We study analytically the time-dependent boundary conditions of superconducting microwave circuit experiments in the high plasma frequency limit, in which the conditions are Robin-type and relate the value of the field to the spatial derivative of the field. We give an explicit solution to the field evolution for boundary condition modulations that are small in magnitude but may have arbitrary time dependence, in a formalism that applies both to a semiopen waveguide and to a closed waveguide with two independently adjustable boundaries. The correspondence between the microwave Robin boundary c…
Representations of quantum computations are almost always based on a tensor product $\otimes$-structure. This coincides with what we are able to execute in our experiments, as well as what we observe in Nature, but it makes certain familiar quantum primitives convoluted. Reversible classical circuits, diagonal operations or controlled unitaries all have very elegant and simple matrix representations that cannot be expressed succinctly as a circuit in a simple gate set, complicating quantum algorithm design and circuit optimization. We propose a new additive presentation of quantum computation …
The study of quantum circuits composed of commuting gates is particularly useful to understand the delicate boundary between quantum and classical computation. Indeed, while being a restricted class, commuting circuits exhibit genuine quantum effects such as entanglement. In this paper we show that the computational power of commuting circuits exhibits a surprisingly rich structure. First we show that every 2-local commuting circuit acting on d-level systems and followed by single-qudit measurements can be efficiently simulated classically with high accuracy. In contrast, we prove that such st…
Recent work of Bravyi et al. and follow-up work by Bene Watts et al. demonstrates a quantum advantage for shallow circuits: constant-depth quantum circuits can perform a task which constant-depth classical (i.e., AC$^0$) circuits cannot. Their results have the advantage that the quantum circuit is fairly practical, and their proofs are free of hardness assumptions (e.g., factoring is classically hard, etc.). Unfortunately, constant-depth classical circuits are too weak to yield a convincing real-world demonstration of quantum advantage. We attempt to hold on to the advantages of the above resu…
Low depth measurement-based quantum computation with qudits ($d$-level systems) is investigated and a precise relationship between this powerful model and qudit quantum circuits is derived in terms of computational depth and size complexity. To facilitate this investigation a qudit `unbounded fan-out' circuit model, in which a qudit may be quantum-copied into an arbitrary number of ancillas in a single time-step, is introduced and shown to be capable of implementing interesting $n$-qudit unitaries in constant depth. A procedure for reducing the quantum computational depth in the measurement-ba…
Geometric phases induced in quantum evolutions have built-in noise-resilient characters, and thus can find applications in many robust quantum manipulation tasks. Here, we propose a feasible and fast scheme for universal quantum computation on superconducting circuits with nonadiabatic non-Abelian geometric phases, using resonant interaction of three-level quantum system. In our scheme, arbitrary single-qubit quantum gates can be implemented in a single-loop scenario by shaping both the amplitudes and phases of the two driving microwave fields resonantly coupled to a transmon device. Moreover,…
We exhibit some simple gadgets useful in designing shallow parallel circuits for quantum algorithms. We prove that any quantum circuit composed entirely of controlled-not gates or of diagonal gates can be parallelized to logarithmic depth, while circuits composed of both cannot. Finally, while we note the Quantum Fourier Transform can be parallelized to linear depth, we exhibit a simple quantum circuit related to it that we believe cannot be parallelized to less than linear depth, and therefore might be used to prove that QNC < QP.
This paper concerns the efficient implementation of quantum circuits for qudits. We show that controlled two-qudit gates can be implemented without ancillas and prove that the gate library containing arbitrary local unitaries and one two-qudit gate, CINC, is exact-universal. A recent paper (PRL 94 230502) describes quantum circuits for qudits which require O(d^n) two-qudit gates for state synthesis and O(d^{2n}) two-qudit gates for unitary synthesis, matching the respective lower bound complexities. In this work, we present the state synthesis circuit in much greater detail and prove that it i…
We provide an explicit construction of a universal gate set for continuous-variable quantum computation with microwave circuits. Such a universal set has been first proposed in quantum-optical setups, but its experimental implementation has remained elusive in that domain due to the difficulties in engineering strong nonlinearities. Here, we show that a realistic three-wave mixing microwave architecture based on the SNAIL [Frattini et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 222603 (2017)] allows us to overcome this difficulty. As an application, we show that this architecture allows for the generation of …
