In Valiant's matchgate theory, 2-input 2-output matchgates are $4\times 4$ matrices that satisfy ten so-called matchgate identities. We prove that the set of all such matchgates (including non-unitary and non-invertible ones) coincides with the topological closure of the set of all matrices obtained as exponentials of linear combinations of the 2-qubit Jordan-Wigner (JW) operators and their quadratic products, extending a previous result of Knill. In Valiant's theory, outputs of matchgate circuits can be classically computed in poly-time. Via the JW formalism, Terhal \& DiVincenzo and Knill established a relation of a unitary class of these circuits to the efficient simulation of non-interacting fermions. We describe how the JW formalism may be used to give an efficient simulation for all cases in Valiant's simulation theorem, which in particular includes the case of non-interacting fermions generalised to allow arbitrary 1-qubit gates on the first line at any stage in the circuit. Finally we give an exposition of how these simulation results can be alternatively understood from some basic Lie algebra theory, in terms of a formalism introduced by Somma et al.
In Valiant's matchgate theory, 2-input 2-output matchgates are 4×4 matrices that satisfy ten so-called matchgate identities. We prove that the set of all such matchgates (including non-unitary and non-invertible ones) coincides with the topological closure of the set of all matrices obtained as exponentials of linear combinations of the 2-qubit Jordan-Wigner (JW) operators and their quadratic products, extending a previous result of Knill. In Valiant's theory, outputs of matchgate circuits can be classically computed in poly-time. Via the JW formalism, Terhal & DiVincenzo and Knill established a relation of a unitary class of these circuits to the efficient simulation of non-interacting fermions. We describe how the JW formalism may be used to give an efficient simulation for all cases in Valiant's simulation theorem, which in particular includes the case of non-interacting fermions generalised to allow arbitrary 1-qubit gates on the first line at any stage in the circuit. Finally we give an exposition of how these simulation results can be alternatively understood from some basic Lie algebra theory, in terms of a formalism introduced by Somma et al.
The unitary matchgate circuits introduced by Valiant provide an interesting class of quantum circuits that are classically efficiently simulatable. They were shown by Terhal & DiVincenzo and Knill to be related to the physics of non-interacting fermions. The Jordan-Wigner (JW) formalism provides an efficient classical simulation of the latter, which turns out to be equivalent to the restricted case of circuits of binary (2-qubit) matchgates. Valiant's formalism allows further unitary gates: in particular we may include arbitrary 1-qubit gates on the first qubit line at any stage within a binary matchgate circuit. In this note we show how the JW formalism may be extended to provide an efficient classical simulation of such extended circuits, and we show how the simulability also follows from some elementary Lie algebra theory. The essential ingredients have been indicated previously by Knill in a condensed and abstract form, and our purpose is to make these results explicit and transparent.
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 only on n.n. and next-n.n. qubit lines, then the resulting circuits can efficiently perform universal quantum computation. From this point of view, the gap between efficient classical and quantum computational power is bridged by a very modest use of a seemingly innocuous resource (qubit swapping). We also extend the simulation result above in various ways. In particular, by exploiting properties of Clifford operations in conjunction with the Jordan-Wigner representation of a Clifford algebra, we show how one may generalise the simulation result above to provide further classes of classically efficiently simulatable quantum circuits, which we call Gaussian quantum circuits. 1
Matchgate unitaries are ubiquitous in quantum computation due to their relation to non-interacting fermions and because they can be used to benchmark quantum computers. Implementing such unitaries on fault-tolerant devices requires first compiling them into a discrete universal gate set, typically Clifford+T. Here, we propose a different approach for their synthesis: compile matchgate unitaries using only matchgate gates. To this end, we first show that the matchgate-Clifford group (the intersection of the matchgate and Clifford groups) plus the T gate (a T unitary up to a phase) is universal for the matchgate group. Our approach leverages the connection between n-qubit matchgate circuits and the standard representation of SO(2n), which reduces the compilation from 2n×2n unitaries to 2n×2n ones, thus reducing exponentially the size of the target matrix. Moreover, we rigorously show that this scheme is efficient, as an approximation error εSO(2n) incurred in this smaller-dimensional representation translates at most into an O(nεSO(2n)) error in the exponentially large unitary. In addition, we study the exact version of the matchgate synthesis problem, and we prove that all matchgate unitaries U such that U⊗U∗ has entries in the ring Z[1/2,i] can be exactly synthesized by a finite sequence of gates from the matchgate-Clifford+T set, without ancillas. We then use this insight to map optimal exact matchgate synthesis to Boolean satisfiability, and compile the circuits that diagonalize the free-fermionic XX Hamiltonian on n=4,8 qubits.
Let G ( A , B ) denote the two-qubit gate that acts as the one-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 allow the same gates to act only on n.n. and next n.n. qubit lines, then the resulting circuits can efficiently perform universal quantum computation. From this point of view, the gap between efficient classical and quantum computational power is bridged by a very modest use of a seemingly innocuous resource (qubit swapping). We also extend the simulation result above in various ways. In particular, by exploiting properties of Clifford operations in conjunction with the Jordan–Wigner representation of a Clifford algebra, we show how one may generalize the simulation result above to provide further classes of classically efficiently simulatable quantum circuits, which we call Gaussian quantum circuits.
Valiant has proposed a new theory of algorithmic computation based on perfect matchings and Pfaffians. We study the properties of matchgates—the basic building blocks in this new theory. We give a set of algebraic identities which completely characterizes these objects for arbitrary numbers of inputs and outputs. These identities are derived from Grassmann-Plücker identities. The 4 by 4 matchgate character matrices are of particular interest. These were used in Valiant's classical simulation of a fragment of quantum computations. For these 4 by 4 matchgates, we use Jacobi's theorem on compound matrices to prove that the invertible matchgate matrices form a multiplicative group. Our results can also be expressed in the theory of Holographic Algorithms in terms of realizable standard signatures. These results are useful in establishing limitations on the ultimate capabilities of Valiant's theory of matchgate computations and Holographic Algorithms.