We present a complete classification of all possible sets of classical reversible gates acting on bits, in terms of which reversible transformations they generate, assuming swaps and ancilla bits are available for free. Our classification can be seen as the reversible-computing analogue of Post's lattice, a central result in mathematical logic from the 1940s. It is a step toward the ambitious goal of classifying all possible quantum gate sets acting on qubits. Our theorem implies a linear-time algorithm (which we have implemented), that takes as input the truth tables of reversible gates G and H, and that decides whether G generates H. Previously, this problem was not even known to be decidable. The theorem also implies that any n-bit reversible circuit can be "compressed" to an equivalent circuit, over the same gates, that uses at most 2^n*poly(n) gates and O(1) ancilla bits; these are the first upper bounds on these quantities known, and are close to optimal. Finally, the theorem implies that every non-degenerate reversible gate can implement either every reversible transformation, or every affine transformation, when restricted to an "encoded subspace." Briefly, the theorem says that every set of reversible gates generates either all reversible transformations on n-bit strings (as the Toffoli gate does); no transformations; all transformations that preserve Hamming weight (as the Fredkin gate does); all transformations that preserve Hamming weight mod k for some k; all affine transformations (as the Controlled-NOT gate does); all affine transformations that preserve Hamming weight mod 2 or mod 4, inner products mod 2, or a combination thereof; or a previous class augmented by a NOT or NOTNOT gate. Ruling out the possibility of additional classes, not in the list, requires some arguments about polynomials, lattices, and Diophantine equations.
We present a complete classification of all possible sets of classical reversible gates acting on bits, in terms of which reversible transformations they generate, assuming swaps and ancilla bits are available for free. Our classification can be seen as the reversible-computing analogue of Post's lattice, a central result in mathematical logic from the 1940s. It is a step toward the ambitious goal of classifying all possible quantum gate sets acting on qubits. Our theorem implies a linear-time algorithm (which we have implemented), that takes as input the truth tables of reversible gates G and H, and that decides whether G generates H. Previously, this problem was not even known to be decidable. The theorem also implies that any n-bit reversible circuit can be "compressed" to an equivalent circuit, over the same gates, that uses at most 2^n*poly(n) gates and O(1) ancilla bits; these are the first upper bounds on these quantities known, and are close to optimal. Finally, the theorem implies that every non-degenerate reversible gate can implement either every reversible transformation, or every affine transformation, when restricted to an "encoded subspace." Briefly, the theorem says that every set of reversible gates generates either all reversible transformations on n-bit strings (as the Toffoli gate does); no transformations; all transformations that preserve Hamming weight (as the Fredkin gate does); all transformations that preserve Hamming weight mod k for some k; all affine transformations (as the Controlled-NOT gate does); all affine transformations that preserve Hamming weight mod 2 or mod 4, inner products mod 2, or a combination thereof; or a previous class augmented by a NOT or NOTNOT gate. Ruling out the possibility of additional classes, not in the list, requires some arguments about polynomials, lattices, and Diophantine equations.
We present a complete classification of quantum stabilizer gates in terms of the functions they generate assuming the ability to swap qubits and use ancillary workspace. Because we view these stabilizer circuits as subroutines of some general quantum computation, we insist that any ancilla qubits used during the computation must not change in an input-dependent manner. This is the first attempt at a quantum extension of the classification of reversible classical gates introduced by Aaronson et al., another part of an ambitious program to classify all quantum gate sets.
The classification uses, at its center, a reinterpretation of the tableau representation of stabilizer gates to give circuit decompositions, from which elementary generators can easily be extracted. There are a total of 57 different stabilizer classes generated in this way, 30 of which arise from the single-qubit subgroups of the Clifford group. At a high level, the remaining classes are arranged according to the bases they preserve. For instance, the CNOT gate preserves the X and Z bases because it maps X-basis elements to X-basis elements and Z-basis elements to Z-basis elements. The remaining classes are characterized by more subtle tableau invariants; for instance, the T_4 and phase gate generate a proper subclass of Z-preserving gates.
Reversible logic has attracted much research interest over the last few decades, especially due to its application in quantum computing. In the construction of reversible gates from basic gates, ancilla bits are commonly used to remove restrictions on the type of gates that a certain set of basic gates generates. With unlimited ancilla bits, many gates (such as Toffoli and Fredkin) become universal reversible gates. However, ancilla bits can be expensive to implement, thus making the problem of minimizing necessary ancilla bits a practical topic. This thesis explores the problem of reversible logic synthesis using a single base gate and a few ancilla bits. Two base gates are discussed: a variation of the 3-bit Toffoli gate and the original 3-bit Fredkin gate. There are three main results associated with these two gates: i) the variated Toffoli gate can generate all n-bit reversible gates using 1 ancilla bit, ii) the variated Toffoli can generate all n-bit reversible gates that are even permutations using no ancilla bit, iii) the Fredkin gate can generate all n-bit conservative reversible gates using 1 ancilla bit. Prior to this paper, the best known result for general universality requires three basic gates, and the best known result for conservative universality needs 5 ancilla bits. The second result is trivially optimal. For the first and the third result, we explicitly prove their optimality: the variated Toffoli cannot generate all n-bit reversible gates without using any extra input lines, and the Fredkin gate cannot generate all n-bit conservative reversible gates without using extra input lines. We also explore a stronger version of the second converse by introducing a new concept called borrowed bits, and prove that the Fredkin gate cannot generate all n-bit conservative reversible gates without ancilla bits, even with an unlimited number of borrowed bits.
We examine the following problem: given a collection of Clifford gates, describe the set of unitaries generated by circuits composed of those gates. Specifically, we allow the standard circuit operations of composition and tensor product, as well as ancillary workspace qubits as long as they start and end in states uncorrelated with the input, which rule out common "magic state injection" techniques that make Clifford circuits universal. We show that there are exactly 57 classes of Clifford unitaries and present a full classification characterizing the gate sets which generate them. This is the first attempt at a quantum extension of the classification of reversible classical gates introduced by Aaronson et al., another part of an ambitious program to classify all quantum gate sets. The classification uses, at its center, a reinterpretation of the tableau representation of Clifford gates to give circuit decompositions, from which elementary generators can easily be extracted. The 57 different classes are generated in this way, 30 of which arise from the single-qubit subgroups of the Clifford group. At a high level, the remaining classes are arranged according to the bases they preserve. For instance, the CNOT gate preserves the X and Z bases because it maps X-basis elements to X-basis elements and Z-basis elements to Z-basis elements. The remaining classes are characterized by more subtle tableau invariants; for instance, the T_4 and phase gate generate a proper subclass of Z-preserving gates.
It is well-known that deciding equivalence of logic circuits is a coNP-complete problem. As a corollary, the problem of deciding weak equivalence of reversible circuits, \emph{i.e.} allowing initialized ancilla bits in the input and ignoring ``garbage'' ancilla bits in the output, is also coNP-complete. The complexity of deciding strong equivalence, including the ancilla bits, is less obvious and may depend on gate set. Here we use Barrington's theorem to show that deciding strong equivalence of reversible circuits built from the Fredkin gate is coNP-complete. This implies coNP-completeness of deciding strong equivalence for other commonly used universal reversible gate sets, including any gate set that includes the Toffoli or Fredkin gate.
In this thesis, two models of reversible computing are classified, and the relation of reversible computing to quantum computing is explored. First, a finite, complete set of identities is given for the symmetric monoidal category generated by the computational ancillary bits along with the controlled-not gate. In doing so, it is proven that this category is equivalent to the category of partial isomorphisms between non-empty finitely-generated commutative torsors of characteristic 2. Next, a finite, complete set of identities is given for the symmetric monoidal category generated by the computational ancillary bits along with the Toffoli gate. In doing so, it is proven that this category is equivalent to the category of partial isomorphisms between finite powers of the two element set. The relation between reversible and quantum computing is also explored. In particular, the category with the controlled-not gate as a generator is extended to be complete for the real stabilizer fragment of quantum mechanics. This is performed by translating the identities to and from the angle-free fragment of the ZX-calculus, and showing that these translations are inverse to each other.
This chapter represents our first step into quantum information theory (QIT). The key to operating such a transition is to become familiar with the concept of the quantum bit, or qubit , which is a probabilistic superposition of the classical 0 and 1 bits. In the quantum world, the classical 0 and 1 bits become the pure states |0〉 and |1〉, respectively. It is as if a coin can be classically in either heads or tails states, but is now allowed to exist in a superposition of both! Then I show that qubits can be physically transformed by the action of unitary matrices , which are also called operators . I show that such qubit transformations, resulting from any qubit manipulation, can be described by rotations on a 2D surface, which is referred to as the Bloch sphere . The Pauli matrices are shown to generate all such unitary transformations. These transformations are reversible , because they are characterized by unitary matrices ; this property always makes it possible to trace the input information carried by qubits. I will then describe different types of elementary quantum computations performed by elementary quantum gates, forming a veritable “zoo” of unitary operators, called I , X , Y , Z , H , CNOT, CCNOT, CROSSOVER or SWAP, controlled- U , and controlled-controlled- U . These gates can be used to form quantum circuits , involving any number of qubits, and of which several examples and tools for analysis are provided. Finally, the concept of tensor product , as progressively introduced through the above description, is eventually formalized.