Abstract We study two-qubit circuits over the Clifford+CS gate set, which consists of the Clifford gates together with the controlled-phase gate CS = diag(1, 1, 1, i). The Clifford+CS gate set is universal for quantum computation and its elements can be implemented fault-tolerantly in most error-correcting schemes through magic state distillation. Since non-Clifford gates are typically more expensive to perform in a fault-tolerant manner, it is often desirable to construct circuits that use few CS gates. In the present paper, we introduce an efficient and optimal synthesis algorithm for two-qubit Clifford+CS operators. Our algorithm inputs a Clifford+CS operator U and outputs a Clifford+CS circuit for U, which uses the least possible number of CS gates. Because the algorithm is deterministic, the circuit it associates to a Clifford+CS operator can be viewed as a normal form for that operator. We give an explicit description of these normal forms and use this description to derive a worst-case lower bound of $$5{{\rm{log}}}_{2}(\frac{1}{\epsilon })+O(1)$$ 5 log 2 ( 1 ϵ ) + O ( 1 ) on the number of CS gates required to ϵ-approximate elements of SU(4). Our work leverages a wide variety of mathematical tools that may find further applications in the study of fault-tolerant quantum circuits.
Abstract We study two-qubit circuits over the Clifford+CS gate set, which consists of the Clifford gates together with the controlled-phase gate CS = diag(1, 1, 1, i). The Clifford+CS gate set is universal for quantum computation and its elements can be implemented fault-tolerantly in most error-correcting schemes through magic state distillation. Since non-Clifford gates are typically more expensive to perform in a fault-tolerant manner, it is often desirable to construct circuits that use few CS gates. In the present paper, we introduce an efficient and optimal synthesis algorithm for two-qubit Clifford+CS operators. Our algorithm inputs a Clifford+CS operator U and outputs a Clifford+CS circuit for U, which uses the least possible number of CS gates. Because the algorithm is deterministic, the circuit it associates to a Clifford+CS operator can be viewed as a normal form for that operator. We give an explicit description of these normal forms and use this description to derive a worst-case lower bound of 5log2(ϵ1)+O(1) 5 log 2 ( 1 ϵ ) + O ( 1 ) on the number of CS gates required to ϵ-approximate elements of SU(4). Our work leverages a wide variety of mathematical tools that may find further applications in the study of fault-tolerant quantum circuits.
Fault-tolerant gate sets whose generators belong to the Clifford hierarchy form the basis of many protocols for scalable quantum computing architectures. At the beginning of the decade, number-theoretic techniques were employed to analyze circuits over these gate sets on single qubits, providing the basis for a number of state-of-the-art quantum compiling algorithms. In this dissertation, I further this program by employing number-theoretic techniques for higher-dimensional gate sets on both qudit and multi-qubit circuits. First, I introduce canonical forms for single qutrit Clifford+T circuits and prove that every single-qutrit Clifford+T operator admits a unique such canonical form. I show that these canonical forms are T-optimal and describe an algorithm which takes as input a Clifford+T circuit and outputs the canonical form for that operator. The algorithm runs in time linear in the number of gates of the circuit. Our results provide a higher-dimensional generalization of prior work by Matsumoto and Amano who introduced similar canonical forms for single-qubit Clifford+T circuits. Finally, we show that a similar extension of these normal forms to higher dimensions exists, but do not establish uniqueness. Moving to multi-qubit circuits, I provide number-theoretic characterizations for certain restricted Clifford+T circuits by considering unitary matrices over subrings of Z[1/√2, i]. We focus on the subrings Z[1/2], Z[1/√2], Z[1/√−2], and Z[1/2, i], and we prove that unitary matrices with entries in these rings correspond to circuits over well-known universal gate sets. In each case, the desired gate set is obtained by extending the set of classical reversible gates {X, CX, CCX} with an analogue of the Hadamard gate and an optional phase gate. I then establish the existence and uniqueness of a normal form for one of these gate sets, the two-qubit gate set of Clifford+Controlled Phase gate CS. This normal form is optimal in the number of CS gates, making it the first normal form that is non-Clifford optimal for a fault tolerant universal multi-qubit gate set. We provide a synthesis algorithm that runs in a time linear in the gate count and outputs the equivalent normal form. In proving the existence and uniqueness of the normal form, we likewise establish the generators and relations for the two-qubit Clifford+CS group. Finally, we demonstrate that a lower bound of 5 log2 (1/ε) + O(1) CS gates are required to ε-approximate any 4 × 4 unitary matrix. Lastly, using the characterization of circuits over the Clifford+CS gate set and the existence of an optimal normal form, I provide an ancilla-free inexact synthesis algorithm for two-qubit unitaries using the Clifford+SC gate set for Pauli-rotations. These operators require 6 log2 (1/ε) + O(1) CS gates to synthesize in the typical case and 8 log2 (1/ε) + O(1) in the worst case.
Abstract In quantum computing there are quite a few universal gate sets, each having their own characteristics. In this paper we study the Clifford+CS universal fault-tolerant gate set. The CS gate is used is many applications and this gate set is an important alternative to Clifford+T. We introduce a generating set in order to represent any unitary implementable by this gate set and with this we derive a bound on the CS-count of arbitrary multi-qubit unitaries. Analysing the channel representation of the generating set elements, we infer JnCS⊂JnT J n CS ⊂ J n T , where JnCS J n CS and JnT J n T are the set of unitaries exactly implementable by the Clifford+CS and Clifford+T gate sets, respectively. We develop CS-count optimal synthesis algorithms for both approximately and exactly implementable multi-qubit unitaries. With the help of these we derive a CS-count-optimal circuit for Toffoli, implying JnTof=JnCS J n Tof = J n CS , where JnTof J n Tof is the set of unitaries exactly implementable by the Clifford+Toffoli gate set. Such conclusions can have an important impact on resource estimates of quantum algorithms.
In this paper we study the universal V-basis gate sets, which have also been shown to be fault tolerant. Our methods and results can be applied to arbitrary dimensional basis gates, but we explicitly state results for basis gates for SU(2) and SU(4). We also include Cliffords, as done in earlier works. We introduce generating sets in order to represent any unitary implementable by these gate sets and with these we derive a bound on the V count of arbitrary multiqubit unitaries. We analyze the channel representation of the generating set elements, with the help of which we infer that none of these basis gates can be implemented exactly with the other universal fault-tolerant gate sets like Clifford+T, Clifford+CS, Clifford+Toffoli. Also T, CS, and Toffoli cannot be exactly implemented in the V basis. In fact, basis unitaries in dimension four cannot be implemented exactly with those in dimension two. We develop V-count-optimal synthesis algorithms for both approximately and exactly implementable multiqubit unitaries. With the help of these we show that two basis unitaries in dimension four are required to implement each basis unitary in dimension two. The space and time complexities of our provable algorithms are exponential in V count. But for the special case of one-qubit unitaries we achieve a complexity that is linear in V count. Both space and time complexities of our heuristic algorithms are polynomial in V count.
For universal quantum computation, a major challenge to overcome for practical implementation is the large amount of resources required for fault-tolerant quantum information processing. An important aspect is implementing arbitrary unitary operators built from logical gates within the quantum error correction code. A synthesis algorithm can be used to approximate any unitary gate up to arbitrary precision by assembling sequences of logical gates chosen from a small set of universal gates that are fault-tolerantly performable while encoded in a quantum error-correction code. However, current procedures do not yet support individual assignment of base gate costs and many do not support extended sets of universal base gates. We analysed cost-optimal sequences using an exhaustive search based on Dijkstra’s pathfinding algorithm for the canonical Clifford+ T set of base gates and compared them to when additionally including Z -rotations from higher orders of the Clifford hierarchy. Two approaches of assigning base gate costs were used. First, costs were reduced to T -counts by recursively applying a Z -rotation catalyst circuit. Second, costs were assigned as the average numbers of raw (i.e. physical level) magic states required to directly distil and implement the gates fault-tolerantly. We found that the average sequence cost decreases by up to 54±3% when using the Z -rotation catalyst circuit approach and by up to 33±2% when using the magic state distillation approach. In addition, we investigated observed limitations of certain assignments of base gate costs by developing an analytic model to estimate the proportion of sets of Z -rotation gates from higher orders of the Clifford hierarchy that are found within sequences approximating random target gates.
In this note we present explicit canonical forms for all the elements in the two-qubit CNOT-Dihedral group, with minimal numbers of controlled- S ( CS ) and controlled- X ( CX ) gates, using the generating set of quantum gates [X,T,CX,CS] . We provide an algorithm to successively construct the n -qubit CNOT-Dihedral group, asserting an optimal number of controlled- X ( CX ) gates. These results are needed to estimate gate errors via non-Clifford randomized benchmarking and may have further applications to circuit optimization over fault-tolerant gate sets.
Although with some yet severe limitations, Physical working Quantum Computers are becoming available for end users. Such devices are based on the rules of Quantum Mechanics, which state that physical systems evolve through unitary transformations. However, as in the classical case, in order to have a model of computation, such unitary evolutions are expressed/approximated inside Quantum Computers in terms of a finite set of one/two qubit operations (i.e., through a universal set of gates). Single qubit gates are fault-tolerant, while the same cannot be said for two qubit gates. Hence, unitary matrices adopted in Quantum Algorithms must be synthesized in terms of this universal set of operations to obtain a quantum circuit. In such synthesis procedure we prefer circuits with minimum number of qubits and with minimum circuit depth. Clifford+T universal set is one of the most adopted in the literature for synthesis. In such set we have 3 single qubit gates and the CNOT, which is a two qubit gate. Many efforts have been directed to devise algorithms that synthesize general unitary matrices into Clifford+T circuits. These algorithms usually tend to optimize circuit depth or eventually the number of T gates. Since two qubit gates are not fault tolerant, in this work we propose an ASP based technique to minimize the number of CNOT gates inside a Clifford+T circuit. Moreover, in real world quantum computers, qubit are usually connected to each other according to some particular topology, thus providing further constraints. Two qubit gates —hence, CNOT gate— can be directly applied only to pair of gates that are connected. Such constraint has to be taken into account during the synthesis of CNOT minimal circuits. We propose an ASP model to solve the problem of synthesizing CNOT minimal circuits under topological constraints. We provide experimental evidence of the scalability of our proposal.