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arXiv:2602.05425

Matchgate synthesis via Clifford matchgates and TTT gates

Berta Casas, Paolo Braccia, Élie Gouzien, M. Cerezo, Diego García-Martín

quant-phSubmitted Feb 5, 2026• Announced Feb 6, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Matchgate unitaries are ubiquitous in quantum computation due to their relation to non-interacting fermions and because they can be used to benchmark quantum computers. Implementing such unitaries on fault-tolerant devices requires first compiling them into a discrete universal gate set, typically Clifford$+T$. Here, we propose a different approach for their synthesis: compile matchgate unitaries using only matchgate gates. To this end, we first show that the matchgate-Clifford group (the intersection of the matchgate and Clifford groups) plus the $\overline{T}$ gate (a $T$ unitary up to a phase) is universal for the matchgate group. Our approach leverages the connection between $n$-qubit matchgate circuits and the standard representation of $\mathbb{SO}(2n)$, which reduces the compilation from $2^n\times 2^n$ unitaries to $2n\times2n$ ones, thus reducing exponentially the size of the target matrix. Moreover, we rigorously show that this scheme is efficient, as an approximation error $\varepsilon_{\mathbb{SO}(2n)}$ incurred in this smaller-dimensional representation translates at most into an $O(n \,\varepsilon_{\mathbb{SO}(2n)})$ error in the exponentially large unitary. In addition, we study the exact version of the matchgate synthesis problem, and we prove that all matchgate unitaries $U$ such that $U\otimes U^*$ has entries in the ring $\mathbb{Z}\big[1/\sqrt 2,i\big]$ can be exactly synthesized by a finite sequence of gates from the matchgate-Clifford$+\overline{T}$ set, without ancillas. We then use this insight to map optimal exact matchgate synthesis to Boolean satisfiability, and compile the circuits that diagonalize the free-fermionic $XX$ Hamiltonian on $n=4,\,8$ qubits.

Comments
18+19 pages, 7 +1 figures

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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 $${\mathcal {J}}_n^{CS}\subset {\mathcal {J}}_n^T$$ J n CS ⊂ J n T , where $${\mathcal {J}}_n^{CS}$$ J n CS and $${\mathcal {J}}_n^T$$ 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 $${\mathcal {J}}_n^{Tof}={\mathcal {J}}_n^{CS}$$ J n Tof = J n CS , where $${\mathcal {J}}_n^{Tof}$$ 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.

Scientific Reports•Jun 17, 2024•2 citations
Matchgate unitaries are ubiquitous in quantum computation due to their relation to non-interacting fermions and because they can be used to benchmark quantum computers. Implementing such unitaries on fault-tolerant devices requires first compiling them into a discrete universal gate set, typically Clifford+T+T+T. Here, we propose a different approach for their synthesis: compile matchgate unitaries using only matchgate gates. To this end, we first show that the matchgate-Clifford group (the intersection of the matchgate and Clifford groups) plus the T‾\overline{T}T gate (a TTT unitary up to a phase) is universal for the matchgate group. Our approach leverages the connection between nnn-qubit matchgate circuits and the standard representation of SO(2n)\mathbb{SO}(2n)SO(2n), which reduces the compilation from 2n×2n2^n\times 2^n2n×2n unitaries to 2n×2n2n\times2n2n×2n ones, thus reducing exponentially the size of the target matrix. Moreover, we rigorously show that this scheme is efficient, as an approximation error εSO(2n)\varepsilon_{\mathbb{SO}(2n)}εSO(2n)​ incurred in this smaller-dimensional representation translates at most into an O(n εSO(2n))O(n \,\varepsilon_{\mathbb{SO}(2n)})O(nεSO(2n)​) error in the exponentially large unitary. In addition, we study the exact version of the matchgate synthesis problem, and we prove that all matchgate unitaries UUU such that U⊗U∗U\otimes U^*U⊗U∗ has entries in the ring Z[1/2,i]\mathbb{Z}\big[1/\sqrt 2,i\big]Z[1/2​,i] can be exactly synthesized by a finite sequence of gates from the matchgate-Clifford+T‾+\overline{T}+T set, without ancillas. We then use this insight to map optimal exact matchgate synthesis to Boolean satisfiability, and compile the circuits that diagonalize the free-fermionic XXXXXX Hamiltonian on n=4, 8n=4,\,8n=4,8 qubits.
Clifford and matchgate circuits are canonical families of classically simulable quantum circuits. Their intersection, the matchgate-Clifford group, plays an important role in randomized fermionic protocols and in matchgate synthesis. Its adjoint action is isomorphic to the group of unit-determinant signed permutations of 2n2n2n Majorana modes, and we study optimal exact synthesis in this group. That is, given a target unitary and a gate set, output an nnn-qubit circuit implementing the target using the fewest operations. We show that the complexity of this problem strongly depends on the gate set. In particular, we study gate sets consisting of Majorana braids with different connectivity graphs. For path and complete graphs, we prove that the problem is classically solvable in O(n2)\mathcal{O}\left(n^2\right)O(n2) time, and we provide explicit gate-optimal compilers. In addition, we prove that when the connectivity graph is a tree, the decision version of the optimal synthesis problem becomes NP-complete. Finally, we benchmark our optimal compiler on chains of up to n=80n=80n=80 qubits against those of \texttt{Qiskit} and \texttt{Tket}, obtaining circuits with constant factor improvements ×2.57\times2.57×2.57 and ×2.28\times2.28×2.28 in the total number of gates, respectively.
We developed a general framework for synthesizing target gates by using a finite set of basic gates, which is a crucial step in quantum compilation. When approximating a gate in SU(nnn), a naive brute-force search requires a computational complexity of O(1/ε(n2−1))O(1/\varepsilon^{(n^2 - 1)})O(1/ε(n2−1)) to achieve an approximation with error ε\varepsilonε. In contrast, by using our method, the complexity can be reduced to O(−n2log⁡ε/ε((n2−1)/2))O(-n^2 \log\varepsilon/\varepsilon^{((n^2 - 1)/2)})O(−n2logε/ε((n2−1)/2)). This method requires almost no assumptions and can be applied to a variety of gate sets, including Clifford+TTT and Clifford+VVV. Further, we introduce a suboptimal but short run-time algorithm for synthesizing multi-qubit controlled gates. This approach highlights the role of subgroup structures in reducing synthesis complexity and opens a new direction of study on the compilation of multi-qubit gates. The framework is broadly applicable to different universal gate sets, and our analysis suggests that it can serve as a foundation for resource-efficient quantum compilation in near-term architectures.
Resource-efficient and high-precision approximate synthesis of quantum circuits expressed in the Clifford+T gate set is vital for Fault-Tolerant quantum computing.Efficient optimal methods are known for single-qubit R Z unitaries, otherwise the problem is generally intractable.Search-based methods, like simulated annealing, empirically generate low resource cost approximate implementations of general multi-qubit unitaries so long as low precision (Hilbert-Schmidt distances of ε ≥ 10 -2 ) can be tolerated.These algorithms build up circuits that directly invert target unitaries.We instead leverage search-based methods to first approximately diagonalize a unitary, then perform the inversion analytically.This lets difficult continuous rotations be bypassed and handled in a postprocessing step.Our approach improves both the implementation precision and run time of synthesis algorithms by orders of magnitude when evaluated on unitaries from real quantum algorithms.On benchmarks previously synthesizable only with analytical techniques like the Quantum Shannon Decomposition, diagonalization uses an average of 95% fewer non-Clifford gates.
The Clifford hierarchy, introduced by Gottesman and Chuang in 1999, is an increasing sequence of sets of quantum gates crucial to the gate teleportation model for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Gates in the hierarchy can be deterministically implemented, with increasing complexity, via gate teleportation using (adaptive) Clifford circuits with access to magic states. We propose an analogous gate teleportation protocol and a related hierarchy in the context of matchgate circuits, another restricted class of quantum circuits that can be efficiently classically simulated but are promoted to quantum universality via access to `matchgate-magic' states. The protocol deterministically implements any nnn-qubit gate in the hierarchy using adaptive matchgate circuits with magic states, with the level in the hierarchy indicating the required depth of adaptivity and thus number of magic states consumed. It also provides a whole family of novel deterministic matchgate-magic states. We completely characterise the gates in the matchgate hierarchy for two qubits, with the consequence that, in this case, the required number of resource states grows linearly with the target gate's level in the hierarchy. For an arbitrary number of qubits, we propose a characterisation of the matchgate hierarchy by leveraging the fermionic Stone$\unicode{x2013}$von Neumann theorem. It places a polynomial upper bound on the space requirements for representing gates at each level.
Approximate synthesis of general single-qubit unitaries over the Clifford+T\sqrt{T}T​ gate set
For the standard Clifford+TTT gate set, deterministic, ancilla-free synthesis now attains the minimal TTT-count for general single-qubit unitaries (Morisaki et al., arXiv:2510.05816). The T\sqrt{T}T​ gate rotates by half the angle of TTT, generating a finer lattice of implementable operations. Access to this magic state is expected to lower the cost of deterministic and ancilla-free synthesis of general single-qubit unitaries (Kliuchnikov et al., arXiv:2203.10064), but no direct Clifford+T\sqrt{T}T​ algorithm existed for this case. We provide one by extending the integer lattice-point enumeration method of Morisaki et al. We adopt a resource state cost model based on the magic-state catalysis approach of Gidney and Fowler (arXiv:1812.01238). On Haar-random targets synthesized to precisions ranging from ε=10−3\varepsilon=10^{-3}ε=10−3 to 10−810^{-8}10−8, the cost of Clifford+T\sqrt{T}T​ circuits scales as 2.4log⁡2(1/ε)2.4\log_2(1/\varepsilon)2.4log2​(1/ε) compared to 3.0log⁡2(1/ε)3.0\log_2(1/\varepsilon)3.0log2​(1/ε) for TTT-count-optimal Clifford+TTT circuits. Once a one-time catalyst state is amortized, the Clifford+T\sqrt{T}T​ circuits are never costlier than their Clifford+TTT counterparts.
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{\mathcal {J}}_n^{CS}\subset {\mathcal {J}}_n^TJnCS​⊂JnT​ J n CS ⊂ J n T , where JnCS{\mathcal {J}}_n^{CS}JnCS​ J n CS and JnT{\mathcal {J}}_n^TJnT​ 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{\mathcal {J}}_n^{Tof}={\mathcal {J}}_n^{CS}JnTof​=JnCS​ J n Tof = J n CS , where JnTof{\mathcal {J}}_n^{Tof}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.