In this paper, we study the close relationship between Reed-Muller codes and single-qubit phase gates from the perspective of T-count optimization. We prove that minimizing the number of T gates in an n-qubit quantum circuit over CNOT and T, together with the Clifford group powers of T, corresponds to finding a minimum distance decoding of a length 2n- 1 binary vector in the order n - 4 punctured Reed-Muller code. Moreover, we show that the problems are polynomially equivalent in the length of the code. As a consequence, we derive an algorithm for the optimization of T-count in quantum circuits based on Reed-Muller decoders, along with a new upper bound of O(n2) on the number of T gates required to implement an n-qubit unitary over CNOT and T gates. We further generalize this result to show that minimizing small angle rotations corresponds to decoding lower order binary Reed-Muller codes. In particular, we show that minimizing the number of RZ(2π/m) gates for any integer m is equivalent to minimum distance decoding in RM(n - k - 1, n)*, where k is the highest power of 2 dividing m.
In this paper, we study the close relationship between Reed-Muller codes and single-qubit phase gates from the perspective of T-count optimization. We prove that minimizing the number of T gates in an n-qubit quantum circuit over CNOT and T, together with the Clifford group powers of T, corresponds to finding a minimum distance decoding of a length 2n- 1 binary vector in the order n - 4 punctured Reed-Muller code. Moreover, we show that the problems are polynomially equivalent in the length of the code. As a consequence, we derive an algorithm for the optimization of T-count in quantum circuits based on Reed-Muller decoders, along with a new upper bound of O(n2) on the number of T gates required to implement an n-qubit unitary over CNOT and T gates. We further generalize this result to show that minimizing small angle rotations corresponds to decoding lower order binary Reed-Muller codes. In particular, we show that minimizing the number of RZ(2π/m) gates for any integer m is equivalent to minimum distance decoding in RM(n - k - 1, n)*, where k is the highest power of 2 dividing m.
Transversal gates are logical gate operations on encoded quantum information that are efficient in gate count and depth, and are designed to minimize error propagation. Efficient encoding circuits for quantum codes that admit transversal gates are thus crucial to reduce noise and realize useful quantum computers. The class of punctured Quantum Reed-Muller codes admit transversal gates. We construct resource efficient recursive encoders for the class of quantum codes constructed from Reed-Muller and punctured Reed-Muller codes. These encoders on n qubits have circuit depth of O(logn) and lower gate counts compared to previous works. The number of CNOT gates in the encoder across bi-partitions of the qubits is found to be equal to the entanglement entropy across these partitions, demonstrating that the encoder is optimal in terms of CNOT gates across these partitions. Finally, connecting these ideas, we explicitly show that entanglement can be extracted from QRM codewords.
Abstract An important part of reaping computational advantage from a quantum computer is to reduce the quantum resources needed to implement a desired quantum algorithm. Quantum algorithms that are too large to be practical on noisy intermediate scale quantum devices will require fault-tolerant error correction. This work focuses on reducing the physical cost of implementing quantum algorithms when using the state-of-the-art fault-tolerant quantum error correcting codes, in particular, those for which implementing the T gate consumes vastly more resources than the other gates in the gate set. More specifically, in this paper we consider the group of unitaries that can be exactly implemented by a quantum circuit consisting of the Clifford + T gate set. The Clifford + T gate set is a universal gate set and in this group, using state-of-the-art surface codes, the T gate is by far the most expensive component to implement fault-tolerantly. So it is important to minimize the number of T gates necessary for a fault-tolerant implementation. Our primary interest is to compute a circuit for a given n -qubit unitary U , using the minimum possible number of T gates (called the T-count of unitary U ). We consider the problem COUNT-T, the optimization version of which aims to find the T-count of U . In its decision version the goal is to decide if the T-count is at most some positive integer m . Given an oracle for COUNT-T, we can compute a T-count-optimal circuit in time polynomial in the T-count and dimension of U . We give a provable classical algorithm that solves COUNT-T (decision) in time O N 2 ( c − 1 ) ⌈ m c ⌉ p o l y ( m , N ) and space O N 2 ⌈ m c ⌉ p o l y ( m , N ) , where N = 2 n and c ⩾ 2. This gives a space-time trade-off for solving this problem with variants of meet-in-the-middle techniques. We also introduce an asymptotically faster multiplication method that shaves a factor of N 0.7457 off of the overall complexity. Lastly, beyond our improvements to the rigorous algorithm, we give a heuristic algorithm that outputs a T-count-optimal circuit and has space and time complexity poly( m , N ), under some assumptions. In our heuristic algorithm we developed a novel way of pruning the search space. While our heuristic method still scales exponentially with the number of qubits (though with a lower exponent), there is a large improvement by going from exponential to polynomial scaling with m . We implemented our heuristic algorithm with up to 4 qubit unitaries and obtained a significant improvement in time. For all benchmark and random unitaries we studied, the T-count returned by our algorithm is at most the T-count of their circuits shown in previous papers.
In fault-tolerant quantum computing systems, realising (approximately) universal quantum computation is usually described in terms of realising Clifford+T operations, which is to say a circuit of CNOT, Hadamard, and π/2-phase rotations, together with T operations (π/4-phase rotations). For many error correcting codes, fault-tolerant realisations of Clifford operations are significantly less resource-intensive than those of T gates, which motivates finding ways to realise the same transformation involving T-count (the number of T gates involved) which is as low as possible. Investigations into this problem [arXiv:1206.0758, 1303.2042, 1308.4134, 1601.07363, 1606.01904, 1701.00140] has led to observations that this problem is closely related to NP-hard tensor decomposition problems [arXiv:1712.01557] and is tantamount to the difficult problem of decoding exponentially long Reed-Muller codes [arXiv:1601.07363]. This problem then presents itself as one for which must be content in practise with approximate optimisation, in which one develops an array of tactics to be deployed through some pragmatic strategy. In this vein, we describe techniques to reduce the T-count, based on the effective application of spider nest identities: easily recognised products of parity-phase operations which are equivalent to the identity operation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of such techniques by obtaining improvements in the T-counts of a number of circuits, in run-times which are typically less than the time required to make a fresh cup of coffee.
In fault-tolerant quantum computing systems, realising (approximately) universal quantum computation is usually described in terms of realising Clifford+T operations, which is to say a circuit of CNOT, Hadamard, and π/2-phase rotations, together with T operations (π/4-phase rotations). For many error correcting codes, fault-tolerant realisations of Clifford operations are significantly less resource-intensive than those of T gates, which motivates finding ways to realise the same transformation involving T-count (the number of T gates involved) which is as low as possible. Investigations into this problem [arXiv:1206.0758, 1303.2042, 1308.4134, 1601.07363, 1606.01904, 1701.00140] has led to observations that this problem is closely related to NP-hard tensor decomposition problems [arXiv:1712.01557] and is tantamount to the difficult problem of decoding exponentially long Reed-Muller codes [arXiv:1601.07363]. This problem then presents itself as one for which must be content in practise with approximate optimisation, in which one develops an array of tactics to be deployed through some pragmatic strategy. In this vein, we describe techniques to reduce the T-count, based on the effective application of "spider nest identities": easily recognised products of parity-phase operations which are equivalent to the identity operation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of such techniques by obtaining improvements in the T-counts of a number of circuits, in run-times which are typically less than the time required to make a fresh cup of coffee.
The design and compilation of correct, efficient quantum circuits is integral to the future operation of quantum computers. This thesis makes contributions to the problems of optimizing and verifying quantum circuits, with an emphasis on the development of formal models for such purposes. We also present software implementations of these methods, which together form a full stack of tools for the design of optimized, formally verified quantum oracles. \n \nOn the optimization side, we study methods for the optimization of Rz and CNOT gates in Clifford+Rz circuits. We develop a general, efficient optimization algorithm called phase folding, which reduces the number of Rz gates without increasing any metrics by computing its phase polynomial. This algorithm can further be combined with synthesis techniques for CNOT-dihedral operators to optimize circuits with respect to particular costs. We then study the optimal synthesis problem for CNOT-dihedral operators from the perspectives of Rz and CNOT gate optimization. In the case of Rz gate optimization, we show that the optimal synthesis problem is polynomial-time equivalent to minimum-distance decoding in certain Reed-Muller codes. For the CNOT optimization problem, we show that the optimal synthesis problem is at least as hard as a combinatorial problem related to Gray codes. In both cases, we develop heuristics for the optimal synthesis problem, which together with phase folding reduces T counts by 42% and CNOT counts by 22% across a suite of real-world benchmarks. \n \nFrom the perspective of formal verification, we make two contributions. The first is the development of a formal model of quantum circuits with ancillary bits based on the Feynman path integral, along with a concrete verification algorithm. The path integral model, with some syntactic sugar, further doubles as a natural specification language for quantum computations. Our experiments show some practical circuits with up to hundreds of qubits can be efficiently verified. Our second contribution is a formally verified, optimizing compiler for reversible circuits. The compiler compiles a classical, irreversible language to reversible circuits, with a formal, machine-checked proof of correctness written in the proof assistant F*. The compiler is structured as a partial evaluator, allowing verification to be carried out significantly faster than previous results.
We consider quantum circuits composed of Clifford and T gates. In this context the T gate has a special status since it confers universal computation when added to the (classically simulable) Clifford gates. However it can be very expensive to implement fault-tolerantly. We therefore view this gate as a resource which should be used only when necessary. Given an n-qubit unitary U we are interested in computing a circuit that implements it using the minimum possible number of T gates (called the T-count of U). A related task is to decide if the T-count of U is less than or equal to m; we consider this problem as a function of N=2^n and m. We provide a classical algorithm which solves it using time and space both upper bounded as O(N^m poly(m,N)). We implemented our algorithm and used it to show that any Clifford+T circuit for the Toffoli or the Fredkin gate requires at least 7 T gates. This implies that the known 7 T gate circuits for these gates are T-optimal. We also provide a simple expression for the T-count of single-qubit unitaries.