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arXiv:2603.11812 · Scientific Reports

Uniqueness of imaginarity-assisted exact transformation from real orthogonal operations to arbitrary unitary operations

Yasuaki Nakayama, Yuki Takeuchi, Seiseki Akibue

quant-phSubmitted Mar 12, 2026• Announced Mar 13, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Oct 2, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Mar 12, 2026v2 · Oct 2, 2026
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Abstract

The computational universality with an elementary gate set $\{H,CCZ\}$ can be transformed to the strict universality by using a maximally imaginary state $|+i \rangle$ and some non-imaginary ancillary qubits. From the viewpoint of operational resource theory, it would be intriguing to elucidate a resource for the universality transformation. In this paper, we consider the exact universality transformation in which arbitrary real orthogonal matrices can be applied and a supplied resource state is used to simulate unitary operations exactly and deterministically. Within this operational model, we explore a necessary and sufficient condition for resource states to realize the universality transformation under free real operations. We show that $|+i \rangle$ is a unique resource state up to the free operations. Moreover, we obtain a stronger conclusion. If a given resource state cannot be used for the universality transformation, then realizable quantum gates are restricted to unitary matrices proportional to real orthogonal matrices. Therefore, we can tell that $|+i \rangle$ is unique (up to the free operations) not only as a state whose resource measure of imaginarity is maximal, but also as a state which empowers real operations with the ability to apply at least one non-real quantum gate (regardless of the magnitudes of its imaginary parts).

Journal reference
Sci. Rep. (2026)
DOI
10.1038/s41598-026-70782-1
Comments
8 pages, 1 figure. Revised and retitled in response to referee comments

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The computational universality with an elementary gate set {H,CCZ}\{H,CCZ\}{H,CCZ} can be transformed to the strict universality by using a maximally imaginary state ∣+i⟩|+i \rangle∣+i⟩ and some non-imaginary ancillary qubits. From the viewpoint of operational resource theory, it would be intriguing to elucidate a resource for the universality transformation. In this paper, we consider the exact universality transformation in which arbitrary real orthogonal matrices can be applied and a supplied resource state is used to simulate unitary operations exactly and deterministically. Within this operational model, we explore a necessary and sufficient condition for resource states to realize the universality transformation under free real operations. We show that ∣+i⟩|+i \rangle∣+i⟩ is a unique resource state up to the free operations. Moreover, we obtain a stronger conclusion. If a given resource state cannot be used for the universality transformation, then realizable quantum gates are restricted to unitary matrices proportional to real orthogonal matrices. Therefore, we can tell that ∣+i⟩|+i \rangle∣+i⟩ is unique (up to the free operations) not only as a state whose resource measure of imaginarity is maximal, but also as a state which empowers real operations with the ability to apply at least one non-real quantum gate (regardless of the magnitudes of its imaginary parts).
It is known that a computationally universal gate set {H,CCZ}\{H,CCZ\}{H,CCZ} can be transformed to a strictly universal one {H,Λ(S)}\{H, Λ(S)\}{H,Λ(S)} using one maximally imaginary state ∣+i⟩|+i \rangle∣+i⟩ and non-imaginary ancillary qubits. We succeed this transformation with a shorter circuit that eliminates non-imaginary ancillary qubits. We further extend this to the continuous gate-set setting, showing that any multi-qubit unitary can be exactly generated by real single-qubit unitary gates, CCZCCZCCZ gates and ∣0⟩∣+i⟩|0 \rangle |+i \rangle∣0⟩∣+i⟩.
Abstract The use of imaginary numbers in modelling quantum mechanical systems encompasses the wave-like nature of quantum states. Here we introduce a resource theoretic framework for imaginarity, where the free states are taken to be those with density matrices that are real with respect to a fixed basis. This theory is closely related to the resource theory of coherence, as it is basis dependent, and the imaginary numbers appear in the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix. Unlike coherence however, the set of physically realizable free operations is identical to both completely resource non-generating (RNG) operations, and stochastically RNG operations. Moreover, the resource theory of imaginarity does not have a self-adjoint resource destroying map. After introducing and characterizing the free operations, we provide several measures of imaginarity, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for pure state transformations via physically consistent free operations in the single shot regime.
Imaginarity, stemming from the complex structure of quantum mechanics, has recently emerged as a fundamental resource, yet its dynamical generation remains largely unexplored. In this work, we introduce the notion of imaginarity-generating power (IGP) of unitary dynamics, which quantifies the ability of unitary operations to produce imaginarity from initially real quantum states. To quantify imaginarity, we employ a measure based on the Hilbert--Schmidt norm, which we show to be monotone under real unital operations. Within the framework of dynamical resource theories, we derive an exact expression for the purity-constrained IGP in arbitrary dimensions and show that, for pure real input states, it depends solely on intrinsic and experimentally accessible properties of the unitary. We further analyze its average behavior over ensembles of states with varying purity under both uniform and Hilbert--Schmidt distributions. We prove that it satisfies the essential properties of a valid resource monotone within the dynamical resource theory of imaginarity. We also characterize the unitaries that maximize the IGP and determine the corresponding bounds. Moreover, for Haar-random unitaries, we show that the IGP concentrates near its maximal value in high dimensions with small fluctuations, indicating that typical high-dimensional quantum dynamics are highly effective at generating imaginarity.
Abstract Imaginarity has proven to be a valuable resource in various quantum information processing tasks. A natural question arises: can the imaginarity of quantum states be broadcast via real operations? In this work, we present explicit structures for nonreal states whose imaginarity can be broadcast and cloned. That is, for a nonreal state, its imaginarity can be cloned if and only if it is a direct sum of several maximally imaginary states under orthogonal transformation, and its imaginarity can be broadcast if and only if it is a direct sum of a real state and some nonreal qubit states which are mixtures of two orthogonal maximally imaginary states under orthogonal transformation. In particular, we show that for a nonreal pure state, its imaginarity cannot be broadcast unless it is a maximally imaginary state. Furthermore, we derive a trade-off relation on the imaginarity broadcasting of pure states in terms of the measure of irreversibility of quantum states concerning real operations and the geometric measure of imaginarity. In addition, we demonstrate that any faithful measure of imaginarity is not superadditive.
Abstract Resource theory of imaginarity provides a useful framework to understand the role of complex numbers, which are essential in the formulation of quantum mechanics, in a mathematically rigorous way. In the first part of this article, we study the properties of ‘real’ (quantum) operations both in single-party and bipartite settings. As a consequence, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for state transformations under real operations and show the existence of ‘real entanglement’ monotones. In the second part of this article, we focus on the problem of single copy state transformation via real quantum operations. When starting from pure initial states, we completely solve this problem by finding an analytical expression for the optimal fidelity of transformation, for a given probability of transformation and vice versa. Moreover, for state transformations involving arbitrary initial states and pure final states, we provide a semidefinite program to compute the optimal achievable fidelity, for a given probability of transformation.
Quantum resource theories usually begin with a prescribed free structure and ask what tasks become possible when a resource is supplied. We study the inverse problem of alchemical resource theories, which we define as resource theories admitting a resource that can both replicate itself exactly and universally simulate quantum instruments. Under natural consistency assumptions and branchwise complete freeness, we show that for multi-qubit systems only two nontrivial theories survive, up to a common local unitary change of basis: parity asymmetry and imaginarity. We further show that exact universality exhibits an all-or-nothing trade-off: any nonmaximal resource state can exactly simulate only free unitaries. These results demonstrate that prescribed operational capabilities can strongly constrain the underlying resource structure and reveal a fundamental trade-off between computational capability and the precision required for physical implementation.