We propose definitions of QAC^0, the quantum analog of the classical class AC^0 of constant-depth circuits with AND and OR gates of arbitrary fan-in, and QACC^0[q], where n-ary Mod-q gates are also allowed. We show that it is possible to make a `cat' state on n qubits in constant depth if and only if we can construct a parity or Mod-2 gate in constant depth; therefore, any circuit class that can fan out a qubit to n copies in constant depth also includes QACC^0[2]. In addition, we prove the somewhat surprising result that parity or fanout allows us to construct Mod-q gates in constant depth for any q, so QACC^0[2] = QACC^0. Since ACC^0[p] != ACC^0[q] whenever p and q are mutually prime, QACC^0[2] is strictly more powerful than its classical counterpart, as is QAC^0 when fanout is allowed.
The quantum query complexity of read-many formulas
The quantum query complexity of evaluating any read-once formula with n black-box input bits is Theta(sqrt(n)). However, the corresponding problem for read-many formulas (i.e., formulas in which the inputs have fanout) is not well understood. Although the optimal read-once formula evaluation algorithm can be applied to any formula, it can be suboptimal if the inputs have large fanout. We give an algorithm for evaluating any formula with n inputs, size S, and G gates using O(min{n, sqrt{S}, n^{1/2} G^{1/4}}) quantum queries. Furthermore, we show that this algorithm is optimal, since for any n,S…
