Kliuchnikov, Maslov, and Mosca proved in 2012 that a $2\times 2$ unitary matrix $V$ can be exactly represented by a single-qubit Clifford+$T$ circuit if and only if the entries of $V$ belong to the ring $\mathbb{Z}[1/\sqrt{2},i]$. Later that year, Giles and Selinger showed that the same restriction applies to matrices that can be exactly represented by a multi-qubit Clifford+$T$ circuit. These number-theoretic characterizations shed new light upon the structure of Clifford+$T$ circuits and led to remarkable developments in the field of quantum compiling. In the present paper, we provide number-theoretic characterizations for certain restricted Clifford+$T$ circuits by considering unitary matrices over subrings of $\mathbb{Z}[1/\sqrt{2},i]$. We focus on the subrings $\mathbb{Z}[1/2]$, $\mathbb{Z}[1/\sqrt{2}]$, $\mathbb{Z}[1/i\sqrt{2}]$, and $\mathbb{Z}[1/2,i]$, and we prove that unitary matrices with entries in these rings correspond to circuits over well-known universal gate sets. In each case, the desired gate set is obtained by extending the set of classical reversible gates $\{X, CX, CCX\}$ with an analogue of the Hadamard gate and an optional phase gate.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises provably secure cryptography, even to attacks from an all-powerful adversary. However, with quantum computing development lagging behind QKD, the assumption that there exists an adversary equipped with a universal fault-tolerant quantum computer is unrealistic for at least the near future. Here, we explore the effect of restricting the eavesdropper's computational capabilities on the security of QKD, and find that improved secret key rates are possible. Specifically, we show that for a large class of discrete variable protocols higher key rates are possi…
We show that the class QMA does not change even if we restrict Arthur's computing ability to only Clifford gate operations (plus classical XOR gate). The idea is to use the fact that the preparation of certain single-qubit states, so called magic states, plus any Clifford gate operations are universal for quantum computing. If Merlin is honest, he sends the witness plus magic states to Arthur. If Merlin is malicious, he might send other states to Arthur, but Arthur can verify the correctness of magic states by himself. We also generalize the result to QIP[3]: we show that the class QIP[3] does…
The term Clifford group was introduced in 1998 by D. Gottesmann in his investigation of quantum error-correcting codes. The simplest Clifford group in multiqubit quantum computation is generated by a restricted set of unitary Clifford gates - the Hadamard, $π/4$-phase and controlled-X gates. Because of this restriction the Clifford model of quantum computation can be efficiently simulated on a classical computer (the Gottesmann-Knill theorem). However, this fact does not diminish the importance of the Clifford model, since it may serve as a suitable starting point for a full-fledged quantum co…
We analyze the structure of the logical operators from a class of quantum codes that generalizes the surface codes. These are the hypergraph product codes, restricted to the vertical sector. By generalizing an argument of Bravyi and König, we find that transversal gates for these codes must be restricted to the Clifford group.
Clifford circuits are insufficient for universal quantum computation or creating $t$-designs with $t\ge 4$. While the entanglement entropy is not a telltale of this insufficiency, the entanglement spectrum is: the entanglement levels are Poisson-distributed for circuits restricted to the Clifford gate-set, while the levels follow Wigner-Dyson statistics when universal gates are used. In this paper we show, using finite-size scaling analysis of different measures of level spacing statistics, that in the thermodynamic limit, inserting a single T $(π/8)$ gate in the middle of a random Clifford ci…
Clifford gates play a role in the optimisation of Clifford+T circuits. Reducing the count and the depth of Clifford gates, as well as the optimal scheduling of T gates, influence the hardware and the time costs of executing quantum circuits. This work focuses on circuits protected by the surface quantum error-correcting code. The result of compiling a quantum circuit for the surface code is called a topological assembly. We use queuing theory to model a part of the compiled assemblies, evaluate the models, and make the empiric observation that at least for certain Clifford+T circuits (e.g. add…
Clifford circuits -- i.e. circuits composed of only CNOT, Hadamard, and $π/4$ phase gates -- play a central role in the study of quantum computation. However, their computational power is limited: a well-known result of Gottesman and Knill states that Clifford circuits are efficiently classically simulable. We show that in contrast, "conjugated Clifford circuits" (CCCs) -- where one additionally conjugates every qubit by the same one-qubit gate $U$ -- can perform hard sampling tasks. In particular, we fully classify the computational power of CCCs by showing that essentially any non-Clifford c…
Constant-rate quantum codes with low-weight stabilizers and full logical Clifford actions via transversal and fold-transversal gates
OptQC Corp.（OptQC公司）；RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing (RQC)（理化学研究所量子计算中心）；Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo（东京大学工学研究科应用物理系）
We describe a new efficient algorithm to approximate z-rotations by ancilla-free Clifford+V circuits, up to a given precision epsilon. Our algorithm is optimal in the presence of an oracle for integer factoring: it outputs the shortest Clifford+V circuit solving the given problem instance. In the absence of such an oracle, our algorithm is still near-optimal, producing circuits of V-count m + O(log(log(1/epsilon))), where m is the V-count of the third-to-optimal solution. A restricted version of the algorithm approximates z-rotations in the Pauli+V gate set. Our method is based on previous wor…
Clifford gates are a winsome class of quantum operations combining mathematical elegance with physical significance. The Gottesman-Knill theorem asserts that Clifford computations can be classically efficiently simulated but this is true only in a suitably restricted setting. Here we consider Clifford computations with a variety of additional ingredients: (a) strong vs. weak simulation, (b) inputs being computational basis states vs. general product states, (c) adaptive vs. non-adaptive choices of gates for circuits involving intermediate measurements, (d) single line outputs vs. multi-line ou…
We evaluate the usefulness of holographic stabilizer codes for practical purposes by studying their allowed sets of fault-tolerantly implementable gates. We treat them as subsystem codes and show that the set of transversally implementable logical operations is contained in the Clifford group for sufficiently localized logical subsystems. As well as proving this concretely for several specific codes, we argue that this restriction naturally arises in any stabilizer subsystem code that comes close to capturing certain properties of holography. We extend these results to approximate encodings, l…
The Eastin-Knill theorem states that no quantum error correcting code can have a universal set of transversal gates. For CSS codes that can implement Clifford gates transversally it suffices to provide one additional non-Clifford gate, such as the T-gate, to achieve universality. Common methods to implement fault-tolerant T-gates like magic state distillation generate a significant hardware overhead that will likely prevent their practical usage in the near-term future. Recently methods have been developed to mitigate the effect of noise in shallow quantum circuits that are not protected by er…
Symmetry-Accelerated Classical Simulation of Clifford-Dominated Circuits
University of Granada（格拉纳达大学）；University of Cologne（科隆大学）；Institute Carlos I for Theoretical and Computational Physics, University of Granada（格拉纳达大学卡尔洛斯I理论与计算物理研究所）
Standard randomized benchmarking protocols entail sampling from a unitary 2 design, which is not always practical. In this article we examine randomized benchmarking protocols based on subgroups of the Clifford group that are not unitary 2 designs. We introduce a general method for analyzing such protocols and subsequently apply it to two subgroups, the group generated by controlled-NOT, Hadamard, and Pauli gates and that generated by only controlled-NOT and Pauli gates. In both cases the error probability can be estimated to within a factor of two or less where the factor can be arranged to b…
Recently, Bravyi and König have shown that there is a tradeoff between fault-tolerantly implementable logical gates and geometric locality of stabilizer codes. They consider locality-preserving operations which are implemented by a constant depth geometrically local circuit and are thus fault-tolerant by construction. In particular, they shown that, for local stabilizer codes in D spatial dimensions, locality preserving gates are restricted to a set of unitary gates known as the D-th level of the Clifford hierarchy. In this paper, we elaborate this idea and provide several extensions and appli…
We investigate the problem of evaluating the output probabilities of Clifford circuits with nonstabilizer product input states. First, we consider the case when the input state is mixed, and give an efficient classical algorithm to approximate the output probabilities, with respect to the $l_1$ norm, of a large fraction of Clifford circuits. The running time of our algorithm decreases as the inputs become more mixed. Second, we consider the case when the input state is a pure nonstabilizer product state, and show that a similar efficient algorithm exists to approximate the output probabilities…
Let G(A,B) denote the 2-qubit gate which acts as the 1-qubit SU(2) gates A and B in the even and odd parity subspaces respectively, of two qubits. Using a Clifford algebra formalism we show that arbitrary uniform families of circuits of these gates, restricted to act only on nearest neighbour (n.n.) qubit lines, can be classically efficiently simulated. This reproduces a result originally proved by Valiant using his matchgate formalism, and subsequently related by others to free fermionic physics. We further show that if the n.n. condition is slightly relaxed, to allowing the same gates to act…
Recently it has been shown that Repeat-Until-Success (RUS) circuits can approximate a given single-qubit unitary with an expected number of $T$ gates of about $1/3$ of what is required by optimal, deterministic, ancilla-free decompositions over the Clifford+$T$ gate set. In this work, we introduce a more general and conceptually simpler circuit decomposition method that allows for synthesis into protocols that probabilistically implement quantum circuits over several universal gate sets including, but not restricted to, the Clifford+$T$ gate set. The protocol, which we call Probabilistic Quant…
The Heisenberg representation of quantum operators provides a powerful technique for reasoning about quantum circuits, albeit those restricted to the common (non-universal) Clifford set H, S and CNOT. The Gottesman-Knill theorem showed that we can use this representation to efficiently simulate Clifford circuits. We show that Gottesman's semantics for quantum programs can be treated as a type system, allowing us to efficiently characterize a common subset of quantum programs. We also show that it can be extended beyond the Clifford set to partially characterize a broad range of programs. We ap…
We consider the problem of approximating arbitrary single-qubit z-rotations by ancilla-free Clifford+T circuits, up to given epsilon. We present a fast new probabilistic algorithm for solving this problem optimally, i.e., for finding the shortest possible circuit whatsoever for the given problem instance. The algorithm requires a factoring oracle (such as a quantum computer). Even in the absence of a factoring oracle, the algorithm is still near-optimal under a mild number-theoretic hypothesis. In this case, the algorithm finds a solution of T-count m + O(log(log(1/epsilon))), where m is the T…
The Clifford group plays a central role in quantum randomized benchmarking, quantum tomography, and error correction protocols. Here we study the structural properties of this group. We show that any Clifford operator can be uniquely written in the canonical form $F_1HSF_2$, where $H$ is a layer of Hadamard gates, $S$ is a permutation of qubits, and $F_i$ are parameterized Hadamard-free circuits chosen from suitable subgroups of the Clifford group. Our canonical form provides a one-to-one correspondence between Clifford operators and layered quantum circuits. We report a polynomial-time algori…
Randomized benchmarking (RB) is a powerful method for determining the error rate of experimental quantum gates. Traditional RB, however, is restricted to gatesets, such as the Clifford group, that form a unitary 2-design. The recently introduced character RB can benchmark more general gates using techniques from representation theory; up to now, however, this method has only been applied to "multiplicity-free" groups, a mathematical restriction on these groups. In this paper, we extend the original character RB derivation to explicitly treat non-multiplicity-free groups, and derive several app…
Twists are defects in the lattice that can be used to perform encoded computations. Three basic types of twists can be introduced in color codes, namely, twists that permute color, charge of anyons and domino twists that permute the charge label of an anyon with a color label. In this paper, we study a subset these twists from coding theoretic viewpoint. Specifically, we discuss systematic construction of charge permuting and color permuting twists in color codes. We show that by braiding alone, Clifford gates can be realized in color codes with charge permuting twists. We also discuss impleme…
Matchgates are a restricted set of two-qubit gates known to be classically simulable under particular conditions. Specifically, if a circuit consists only of nearest-neighbour matchgates, an efficient classical simulation is possible if either (i) the input is a computational basis state and the simulation requires computing probabilities of multi-qubit outcomes (including also adaptive measurements), or (ii) if the input is an arbitrary product state, but the output of the circuit consists of a single qubit. In this paper we extend these results to show that matchgates are classically simulab…
We study the problem of CNOT-optimal quantum circuit synthesis over gate sets consisting of CNOT and Z-basis rotations of arbitrary angles. We show that the circuit-polynomial correspondence relates such circuits to Fourier expansions of pseudo-Boolean functions, and that for certain classes of functions this expansion uniquely determines the minimum CNOT cost of an implementation. As a corollary we prove that CNOT minimization over CNOT and phase gates is at least as hard as synthesizing a CNOT-optimal circuit computing a set of parities of its inputs. We then show that this problem is NP-com…
For a quantum computer acting on d-dimensional systems, we analyze the computational power of circuits wherein stabilizer operations are perfect and we allow access to imperfect non-stabilizer states or operations. If the noise rate affecting the non-stabilizer resource is sufficiently high, then these states and operations can become simulable in the sense of the Gottesman-Knill theorem, reducing the overall power of the circuit to no better than classical. In this paper we find the depolarizing noise rate at which this happens, and consequently the most robust non-stabilizer states and non-C…
Any technology requires precise benchmarking of its components, and the quantum technologies are no exception. Randomized benchmarking allows for the relatively resource economical estimation of the average gate fidelity of quantum gates from the Clifford group, assuming identical noise levels for all gates, making use of suitable sequences of randomly chosen Clifford gates. In this work, we report significant progress on randomized benchmarking, by showing that it can be done for individual quantum gates outside the Clifford group, even for varying noise levels per quantum gate. This is possi…
