Most quantum computing architectures to date natively support multi-valued logic, albeit being typically operated in a binary fashion. Multi-valued, or qudit, quantum processors have access to much richer forms of quantum entanglement, which promise to significantly boost the performance and usefulness of quantum devices. However, much of the theory as well as corresponding design methods required for exploiting such hardware remain insufficient and generalizations from qubits are not straightforward. A particular challenge is the compilation of quantum circuits into sets of native qudit gates supported by state-of-the-art quantum hardware. In this work, we address this challenge by introducing a complete workflow for compiling any two-qudit unitary into an arbitrary native gate set. Case studies demonstrate the feasibility of both, the proposed approach as well as the corresponding implementation (which is freely available at github.com/cda-tum/qudit-entanglement-compilation).
Most quantum computing architectures to date natively support multi-valued logic, albeit being typically operated in a binary fashion. Multi-valued, or qudit, quantum processors have access to much richer forms of quantum entanglement, which promise to significantly boost the performance and usefulness of quantum devices. However, much of the theory as well as corresponding design methods required for exploiting such hardware remain insufficient and generalizations from qubits are not straightforward. A particular challenge is the compilation of quantum circuits into sets of native qudit gates supported by state-of-the-art quantum hardware. In this work, we address this challenge by introducing a complete workflow for compiling any two-qudit unitary into an arbitrary native gate set. Case studies demonstrate the feasibility of both, the proposed approach as well as the corresponding implementation (which is freely available at github.com/cda-tum/qudit-entanglement-compilation).
Quantum computers have the potential to solve some important industrial and scientific problems with greater efficiency than classical computers. While most current realizations focus on two-level qubits, the underlying physics used in most hardware is capable of extending the concepts to a multi-level logic—enabling the use of qudits, which promise higher computational power and lower error rates. Based on a strong theoretical backing and motivated by recent physical accomplishments, this also calls for methods and tools for compiling quantum circuits to those devices. To enable efficient qudit compilation, we introduce the concept of an energy coupling graph for single-qudit systems and provide an adaptive algorithm that leverages this representation for compiling arbitrary unitaries. This leads to significant improvements over the state-of-the-art compilation scheme and, additionally, provides an option to trade-off worst-case costs and run-time. The developed compiler is available via github.com/cda-tum/qudit-compilation under an open-source license.
Quantum computers are becoming a reality thanks to the accomplishments made in recent years. The quantum computers available today offer hundreds of qubits but are still limited in the number of operations they can perform before errors accumulate and the quantum state decays. In regard to the error accumulation, non-local operations such as CX or CZ are main contributors. One promising solution to reduce the number of required non-local operations is to make a more efficient use of the quantum hardware by exploiting the inherent high-dimensional capabilities of quantum systems. In a process called circuit compression, non-local operations between qubits are mapped to local operations in qudits, i.e., higher-dimensional systems. In this work, we present a strategy for enabling quantum circuit compression with the aim of mapping clusters of qubits in a given circuit to the mixed-dimensional qudits of the target hardware. Further, we discuss the principles of circuit compression as well as the physical structure of qubits and qudits, before introducing a new representation that captures the essence of quantum operations, affecting the different logical levels in the quantum states in nodes and edges of a graph. Based on this, we propose an automated approach for mapping qubit circuits of arbitrary gate sets to mixed-dimensional quantum systems, lowering the number of non-local operations. Empirical evaluations confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach reducing the number of non-local operations by up to 50% for almost half of the cases. Finally, the corresponding source code is available freely at github.com/cda-tdum/qudit-compression.
Quantum computers have the potential to solve important problems which are fundamentally intractable on a classical computer. The underlying physics of quantum computing platforms supports using multi-valued logic, which promises a boost in performance over the prevailing two-level logic. One key element to exploiting this potential is the capability to efficiently prepare quantum states for multi-valued, or qudit, systems. Due to the time sensitivity of quantum computers, the circuits to prepare the required states have to be as short as possible. In this paper, we investigate quantum state preparation with a focus on mixed-dimensional systems, where the individual qudits may have different dimensionalities. The proposed approach automatically realizes quantum circuits constructing a corresponding mixed-dimensional quantum state. To this end, decision diagrams are used as a compact representation of the quantum state to be realized. We further incorporate the ability to approximate the quantum state to enable a finely controlled trade-off between accuracy, memory complexity, and number of operations in the circuit. Empirical evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in facilitating fast and scalable quantum state preparation, with performance directly linked to the size of the decision diagram. The implementation is freely available as part of Munich Quantum Toolkit (MQT) at github.com/cda-tum/mqt-qudits.
Gate-based universal quantum computation is formulated in terms of two types of operations: local single-qubit gates, which are typically easily implementable, and two-qubit entangling gates, whose faithful implementation remains one of the major experimental challenges since it requires controlled interactions between individual systems. To make the most of quantum hardware it is crucial to process information in the most efficient way. One promising avenue is to use higher-dimensional systems, qudits, as the fundamental units of quantum information, in order to replace a fraction of the qubit-entangling gates with qudit-local gates. Here, we show how the complexity of multi-qubit circuits can be lowered significantly by employing qudit encodings, which we quantify by considering exemplary circuits with exactly known (multi-qubit) gate complexity. We discuss general principles for circuit compression, derive upper and lower bounds on the achievable advantage, and highlight the key role played by entanglement and the available gate set. Explicit experimental schemes for photonic as well as for trapped-ion implementations are provided and demonstrate a significant expected gain in circuit performance for both platforms.
Gate-based quantum computers typically encode and process information in two-dimensional units called qubits.Using d-dimensional qudits instead may offer intrinsic advantages, including more efficient circuit synthesis, problem-tailored encodings and embedded error correction.In this work, we design a superconducting qudit-based quantum processor wherein the logical space of transmon qubits is extended to higher-excited levels.We propose a universal gate set featuring a two-qudit cross-resonance entangling gate, for which we predict fidelities beyond 99% in the d = 4 case of ququarts with realistic experimental parameters.Furthermore, we present a decomposition routine that compiles general qudit unitaries into these elementary gates, requiring fewer entangling gates than qubit alternatives.As proof-of-concept applications, we numerically demonstrate the synthesis of SU(16) gates for noisy quantum hardware and an embedded error-correction sequence that encodes a qubit memory in a transmon ququart to protect against pure dephasing noise.We conclude that universal qudit control-a valuable extension to the operational toolbox of superconducting quantum information processing-is within reach of current transmon-based architectures and has applications to near-term and long-term hardware.
Advanced simulations and calculations on quantum computers require high-fidelity implementations of quantum operations. The universal gateset approach builds complex unitaries from a small set of primitive gates, often resulting in a long gate sequence, which is typically a leading factor in the total accumulated error. Compiling a complex unitary for processors with higher-dimensional logical elements, such as qutrits, exacerbates the accumulated error per unitary, since an even longer gate sequence is required. Optimal control methods promise time- and resource-efficient compact gate sequences and, therefore, higher fidelity. These methods generate pulses that can directly implement any complex unitary on a quantum device. In this work, we demonstrate that any arbitrary qubit and qutrit gate can be realized with high fidelity, which can significantly reduce the length of a gate sequence. We generate and test pulses for a large set of randomly selected arbitrary unitaries on several quantum processing units (QPUs): the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Quantum Device and Integration Testbed's (QuDIT's) standard QPU and three of Rigetti's QPUs: Ankaa-2, Ankaa-9Q-1, and Aspen-M-3. On the QuDIT platform's standard QPU, the average fidelity of random qutrit gates is $97.9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5\mathrm{%}$ measured with conventional QPT and $98.8\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.6\mathrm{%}$ from QPT with gate folding. Rigetti's Ankaa-2 achieves random qubit gates with an average fidelity of $98.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5\mathrm{%}$ (conventional QPT) and $99.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1\mathrm{%}$ (QPT with gate folding). On Ankaa-9Q-1 and Aspen-M-3, the average fidelities with conventional qubit QPT measurements were higher than 99% (see Appendix). We show that optimal control gates are robust to drift for at least 3 h and that the same calibration parameters can be used for all implemented gates. Our work promises that the calibration overheads for optimal control gates can be made small enough to enable efficient quantum circuits based on this technique.