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arXiv:2309.14850 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

On character table of Clifford groups

Chin-Yen Lee, Wei-Hsuan Yu, Yung-Ning Peng, Ching-Jui Lai

Published Feb 1, 2025• 1 citation
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Abstract

Based on a presentation of Cn and the help of [The GAP Group 2022, https://www.gap-system.org] we construct the character table of the Clifford group Cn for n = 1, 2, 3. As an application, we can efficiently decompose the (higher power of) tensor product of the matrix representation in those cases. Our results recover some known results in Helsen et al. [J. Math. Phys. 59, 072201 (2018)] and Wallman and Flammia [New J. Phys. 16(10), 103032 (2014)] and reveal some new phenomena. We prove that when n ≥ 3, (1) the trivial character is the only linear character for Cn and hence Cn equals to its commutator subgroup, (2) the n-qubit Pauli group Pn is the only proper non-trivial normal subgroup of Cn, (3) the matrix representation M2n is a faithful representation for Cn. As a byproduct, we give a presentation of the finite symplectic group Sp(2n, 2) in terms of generators and relations.

DOI
10.1063/5.0204167

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Based on a presentation of Cn and the help of [The GAP Group 2022, https://www.gap-system.org] we construct the character table of the Clifford group Cn for n = 1, 2, 3. As an application, we can efficiently decompose the (higher power of) tensor product of the matrix representation in those cases. Our results recover some known results in Helsen et al. [J. Math. Phys. 59, 072201 (2018)] and Wallman and Flammia [New J. Phys. 16(10), 103032 (2014)] and reveal some new phenomena. We prove that when n ≥ 3, (1) the trivial character is the only linear character for Cn and hence Cn equals to its commutator subgroup, (2) the n-qubit Pauli group Pn is the only proper non-trivial normal subgroup of Cn, (3) the matrix representation M2n is a faithful representation for Cn. As a byproduct, we give a presentation of the finite symplectic group Sp(2n, 2) in terms of generators and relations.
The q-qubit Clifford group, that is, the normalizer of the q-qubit Pauli group in U(2q), is a fundamental structure in quantum information with a wide variety of applications. We characterize all irreducible subrepresentations of the two-copy representation φ⊗2 of the Clifford group on the two-fold tensor product of the space of linear operators M2q⊗2. In the companion paper [Helsen et al., e-print arXiv:1701.04299 (2017)], we apply this result to improve the statistics of randomized benchmarking, a method for characterizing quantum systems.
The n-qubit Pauli group and its normalizer, the n-qubit Clifford group, have applications in quantum error correction and device characterization. Recent applications have used the representation theory of the Clifford group. We apply the tools of (the coincidentally named) Clifford theory to examine the representation theory of the Clifford group using the much simpler representation theory of the Pauli group. We find an unexpected correspondence between irreducible characters of the n-qubit Clifford group and those of the (n+1)-qubit Clifford group.
The representation theory of the Clifford group is playing an increasingly prominent role in quantum information theory, including in such diverse use cases as the construction of protocols for quantum system certification, quantum simulation, and quantum cryptography. In these applications, the tensor powers of the defining representation seem particularly important. The representation theory of these tensor powers is understood in two regimes. 1. For odd qudits in the case where the power t is not larger than the number of systems n: Here, a duality theory between the Clifford group and certain discrete orthogonal groups can be used to make fairly explicit statements about the occurring irreps (this theory is related to Howe duality and the η-correspondence). 2. For qubits: Tensor powers up to t = 4 have been analyzed on a case-by-case basis. In this paper, we provide a unified framework for the duality approach that also covers qubit systems. To this end, we translate the notion of rank of symplectic representations to representations of the qubit Clifford group, and generalize the η correspondence between symplectic and orthogonal groups to a correspondence between the Clifford and certain orthogonal-stochastic groups. As a sample application, we provide a protocol to efficiently implement the complex conjugate of a black-box Clifford unitary evolution.
In this paper the Clifford groups of general multipartite quantum systems with configuration space Zn1⊕⋯⊕Znk\mathbb{Z}_{n_1}\oplus\cdots\oplus\mathbb{Z}_{n_k}Zn1​​⊕⋯⊕Znk​​, k≥1k\geq 1k≥1 are studied. It is known that the Clifford group is a natural semidirect product provided the dimension N=n1⋯nkN=n_1\cdots n_kN=n1​⋯nk​ of the corresponding Hilbert space is an odd number. For even NNN special results on the Clifford groups are scattered in the mathematical literature, but they do not concern the semidirect product structure. Using the relation of generators of the associated symplectic group Sp[n1,…,nk]\mathrm{Sp}_{[n_1,\dots,n_k]}Sp[n1​,…,nk​]​ we prove that for even N=n1⋯nkN=n_1\cdots n_kN=n1​⋯nk​ both Clifford group and the projective Clifford group are natural semidirect products if and only if NNN is not divisible by four.
We give an explicit treatment of the third tensor power of the Clifford representation on nnn qutrits, for n≥2n\geq2n≥2. This representation has five pairwise inequivalent irreducible constituents, with multiplicities 1,1,1,1,21,1,1,1,21,1,1,1,2. The decomposition reduces the Clifford twirl of a tensor cube to four real parameters. Two of them are spectral moments of the input. The other two are cubic invariants expressed as sums of cubes of the Weyl characteristic function and the discrete Wigner function. On trace-one Hermitian matrices, the invariant polynomials of degree at most three are spanned by the constant function and four algebraically independent functions. These functions do not separate Clifford orbits. For pure inputs a single parameter suffices. We recover its range and the characterization of its maximum by stabilizer states. We bound the stabilizer fidelity, determine full separability across the three copies in the symmetric family, and recover the criterion for a complex projective 333-design. We classify the jointly invariant quantum Boolean functions. For stabilizer testing and for testing unknown observables we give explicit bounds on copies and queries. We also give character formulas for the finite projective Clifford groups and record the complete character table for two qutrits.