We introduce a new family of quantum circuits for which the scrambling of a subspace of non-local operators is classically simulable. We call these circuits `super-Clifford circuits', since the Heisenberg time evolution of these operators corresponds to a Clifford evolution in operator space. By simulating the Clifford evolution in operator space we are able to simulate the time evolution of certain single Pauli strings into operators with an operator entanglement that grows linearly with the number of qubits. These circuits provide a new technique for studying scrambling in systems with a large number of qubits, and are an explicit counter example to the intuition that classical simulability implies the absence of scrambling.
Entanglement has been shown to be necessary for pure state quantum computation to have an advantage over classical computation. However, it remains open whether entanglement is necessary for quantum computers that use mixed states to also have an advantage. The one clean qubit model is a form of quantum computer in which the input is the maximally mixed state plus one pure qubit. Previous work has shown that there is a limited amount of entanglement present in these computations, despite the fact that they can efficiently solve some problems that are seemingly hard to solve classically. This c…
Weakly interacting fermionic Gibbs states are Gaussian mixtures and classically simulable
Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University（清华大学丘成桐数学科学中心）；State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University（清华大学物理系低维量子物理国家重点实验室）
Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks are Effectively Classically Simulable
Information Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory（信息科学部，洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）；Donostia International Physics Center（多诺斯蒂亚国际物理中心）；Department of Applied Physics, Gipuzkoa School of Engineering, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)（应用物理系，吉普斯夸工程学院，巴斯克大学）；Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory（理论部，洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）；Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院）
We address the following criterion for quantifying the quantum information resources: classically simulable {\it vs.} classically non-simulable information processing. This approach gives rise to existence of a deeper level of quantum information processing--which we refer to as "quantum communication channel". We particularly show, that following the recipes of the standard theory of entanglement measures does not necessarily give rise to un-locking the quantum communication channel, which is naturally quantified by Bell inequalities.
Interactions between particles are usually a resource for quantum computing, making quantum many-body systems intractable by any known classical algorithm. In contrast, noise is typically considered as being inimical to quantum many-body correlations, ultimately leading the system to a classically tractable state. This work shows that noise represented by two-body processes, such as pair loss, plays the same role as many-body interactions and makes otherwise classically simulable systems universal for quantum computing. We analyze such processes in detail and establish a complexity transition …
Matchgates are a restricted set of two-qubit gates known to be classically simulable when acting on nearest-neighbor qubits on a path, but universal for quantum computation when the qubits are arranged on certain other graphs. Here we characterize the power of matchgates acting on arbitrary graphs. Specifically, we show that they are universal on any connected graph other than a path or a cycle, and that they are classically simulable on a cycle. We also prove the same dichotomy for the XY interaction, a proper subset of matchgates related to some implementations of quantum computing.
The cost of simulating classically tractable quantum circuits and dynamics
Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）；European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)（欧洲核子研究组织（CERN））；Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院（EPFL））；Chulalongkorn University（朱拉隆功大学）
Extended Clifford circuits straddle the boundary between classical and quantum computational power. Whether such circuits are efficiently classically simulable seems to depend delicately on the ingredients of the circuits. While some combinations of ingredients lead to efficiently classically simulable circuits, other combinations, which might just be slightly different, lead to circuits which are likely not. We extend the results of Jozsa and Van den Nest [Quant. Info. Comput. 14, 633 (2014)] by studying two further extensions of Clifford circuits. First, we consider how the classical simulat…
As quantum devices scale up, many-body quantum gates and algorithms begin to surpass what is possible to simulate classically. Validation methods which rely on such classical simulation, such as process tomography and randomized benchmarking, cannot efficiently check correctness of most of the processes involved. In particular non-Clifford gates are a requirement for not only universal quantum computation but for any algorithm or quantum simulation that yields fundamental speedup in comparison with its classical counterpart. We show that it is in fact still possible to validate such non-simula…
Quantum computations that involve only Clifford operations are classically simulable despite the fact that they generate highly entangled states; this is the content of the Gottesman-Knill theorem. Here we isolate the ingredients of the theorem and provide generalisations of some of them with the aim of identifying new classes of simulable quantum computations. In the usual construction, Clifford operations arise as projective normalisers of the first and second tensor powers of the Pauli group. We consider replacing the Pauli group by an arbitrary finite subgroup G of U(d). In particular we s…
We present a method for classically simulating quantum circuits based on the tensor contraction model of Markov and Shi (quant-ph/0511069). Using this method we are able to classically simulate the approximate quantum Fourier transform in polynomial time. Moreover, our approach allows us to formulate a condition for the composability of simulable quantum circuits. We use this condition to show that any circuit composed of a constant number of approximate quantum Fourier transform circuits and log-depth circuits with limited interaction range can also be efficiently simulated.
In a locally interacting many-body system, two isolated qubits, separated by a large distance $r$, become correlated and entangled with each other at a time $t \ge r/v$. This finite speed $v$ of quantum information scrambling limits quantum information processing, thermalization and even equilibrium correlations. Yet most experimental systems contain long range power law interactions -- qubits separated by $r$ have potential energy $V(r)\propto r^{-α}$. Examples include the long range Coulomb interactions in plasma ($α=1$) and dipolar interactions between spins ($α=3$). In one spatial dimensio…
Graph-State Circuit Blocks control Entanglement and Scrambling Velocities
Paderborn University（帕德博恩大学）；Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS), Paderborn University（帕德博恩大学光子量子系统研究所）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理珀塞尔研究所）；University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学量子计算研究所）；University of Bristol（布里斯托大学）；Jagiellonian University（雅盖隆大学）；Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学）；Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems, Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学达勒姆复杂量子系统中心）；University of Münster（明斯特大学）
This work presents a precise connection between Clifford circuits, Shor's factoring algorithm and several other famous quantum algorithms with exponential quantum speed-ups for solving Abelian hidden subgroup problems. We show that all these different forms of quantum computation belong to a common new restricted model of quantum operations that we call \emph{black-box normalizer circuits}. To define these, we extend the previous model of normalizer circuits [arXiv:1201.4867v1,arXiv:1210.3637,arXiv:1409.3208], which are built of quantum Fourier transforms, group automorphism and quadratic phas…
We extend the concept of Anderson localization, the confinement of quantum information in a spatially irregular potential, to quantum circuits. Considering matchgate circuits, generated by time-dependent spin-1/2 XY Hamiltonians, we give an analytic formula for the out-of-time-ordered correlator of a local observable, and show that it can be efficiently evaluated by a classical computer even when the explicit Heisenberg time evolution cannot. Because this quantity bounds the average error incurred by truncating the evolution to a spatially limited region, we demonstrate dynamical localization …
Fermionic linear optics corresponds to the dynamics of free fermions, and is known to be efficiently simulable classically. We define fermionic anyon models by deforming the fermionic algebra of creation and annihilation operators, and consider the dynamics of number-preserving, quadratic Hamiltonians on these operators. We show that any such deformation results in an anyonic linear optical model which allows for universal quantum computation.
Clifford quantum cellular automata (CQCAs) are a special kind of quantum cellular automata (QCAs) that incorporate Clifford group operations for the time evolution. Despite being classically simulable, they can be used as basic building blocks for universal quantum computation. This is due to the connection to translation-invariant stabilizer states and their entanglement properties. We will give a self-contained introduction to CQCAs and investigate the generation of entanglement under CQCA action. Furthermore, we will discuss finite configurations and applications of CQCAs.
Inspired by the possibility that generative models based on quantum circuits can provide a useful inductive bias for sequence modeling tasks, we propose an efficient training algorithm for a subset of classically simulable quantum circuit models. The gradient-free algorithm, presented as a sequence of exactly solvable effective models, is a modification of the density matrix renormalization group procedure adapted for learning a probability distribution. The conclusion that circuit-based models offer a useful inductive bias for classical datasets is supported by experimental results on the par…
Shortened abstract: In this thesis, I study two restricted models of quantum computing related to free identical particles. Free fermions correspond to a set of two-qubit gates known as matchgates. Matchgates are classically simulable when acting on nearest neighbors on a path, but universal for quantum computing when acting on distant qubits or when SWAP gates are available. I generalize these results in two ways. First, I show that SWAP is only one in a large family of gates that uplift matchgates to quantum universality. In fact, I show that the set of all matchgates plus any nonmatchgate p…
We study a reduced quantum circuit computation paradigm in which the only allowable gates either permute the computational basis states or else apply a "global Hadamard operation", i.e. apply a Hadamard operation to every qubit simultaneously. In this model, we discuss complexity bounds (lower-bounding the number of global Hadamard operations) for common quantum algorithms : we illustrate upper bounds for Shor's Algorithm, and prove lower bounds for Grover's Algorithm. We also use our formalism to display a gate that is neither quantum-universal nor classically simulable, on the assumption tha…
We consider recent works on the simulation of quantum circuits using the formalism of matrix product states and the formalism of contracting tensor networks. We provide simplified direct proofs of many of these results, extending an explicit class of efficiently simulable circuits (log depth circuits with 2-qubit gates of limited range) to the following: let C be any poly sized quantum circuit (generally of poly depth too) on n qubits comprising 1- and 2- qubit gates and 1-qubit measurements (with 2-qubit gates acting on arbitrary pairs of qubit lines). For each qubit line j let D_j be the num…
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…
The far-from-equilibrium dynamics of generic interacting quantum systems is characterized by a handful of universal guiding principles, among them the ballistic spreading of initially local operators. Here, we show that in certain constrained many-body systems the structure of conservation laws can cause a drastic modification of this universal behavior. As an example, we study operator growth characterized by out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs) in a dipole-conserving fracton chain. We identify a critical point with sub-ballistically moving OTOC front, that separates a ballistic from a dyna…
We classify phases of a bosonic lattice model based on the computational complexity of classically simulating the system. We show that the system transitions from being classically simulable to classically hard to simulate as it evolves in time, extending previous results to include on-site number-conserving interactions and long-range hopping. Specifically, we construct a "complexity phase diagram" with "easy" and "hard" phases, and derive analytic bounds on the location of the phase boundary with respect to the evolution time and the degree of locality. We find that the location of the phase…
Limitations of Noisy Geometrically Local Quantum Circuits
University of Maryland（马里兰大学）；Joint Center for Quantum Information & Computer Science, University of Maryland and NIST（马里兰大学与美国国家标准与技术研究院联合量子信息与计算中心）；IBM T. J. Watson Research Center（IBM托马斯·J·沃森研究中心）
We prove that a classical computer can efficiently sample from the photon-number probability distribution of a Gaussian state prepared by using an optical circuit that is shallow and local. Our work generalizes previous known results for qubits to the continuous-variable domain. The key to our proof is the observation that the adjacency matrices characterizing the Gaussian states generated by shallow and local circuits have small bandwidth. To exploit this structure, we devise fast algorithms to calculate loop hafnians of banded matrices. Since sampling from deep optical circuits with exponent…
The dynamical generation of complex correlations in quantum many-body systems is of renewed interest in the context of quantum chaos, where the out-of-time-ordered (OTO) correlation function appears as a convenient measure of scrambling. To detect the the transition from scrambling to many-body localization, the latter of which has limited dynamical complexity and is often classically simulatable, we develop both exact and approximate methods to compute OTO correlators for arbitrary universal quantum circuits. We take advantage of the mapping of quantum circuits to the dynamics of interacting …
Environmental records unlock universal quantum computation from thermal decoherence
HK Institute of Quantum Science & Technology, The University of Hong Kong（香港量子科学研究所，香港大学）；QICI Quantum Information and Computation Initiative, School of Computing and Data Science, The University of Hong Kong（QICI量子信息与计算倡议，计算与数据科学学院，香港大学）
