Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2605.05518

Classical shadows over symmetric spaces

Rebecca Chang, Maureen Krumtünger, Martin Larocca, Maxwell West

quant-phSubmitted May 6, 2026• Announced May 8, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Oct 28, 2026 (v2)
v1 · May 6, 2026v2 · Oct 28, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Efficiently learning expectation values of unknown quantum states via classical shadows has become an important primitive in both theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum computation. Typically, classical shadow protocols involve randomised measurements induced by sampling uniformly randomly from a compact group, a situation which is now quite well understood. In this work we go beyond this standard assumption, studying the classical shadow protocols occasioned by sampling uniformly randomly from the so-called compact symmetric spaces. We uncover a unifying theory of such protocols, extending the extent to which the general theory of classical shadows is understood at a mathematical level. Interestingly, for the estimation of observables sampled from certain distributions we further find that some of these protocols allow for slight improvements in sample-complexity over existing shadow schemes. As part of our technical analysis we obtain $\varepsilon$-approximate relative-error $k$-designs over the $n$-qubit symplectic group in depth $\mathcal{O}(nk+\log(1/\varepsilon))$, which is optimal with respect to $n$, and may be of some independent interest.

Comments
v2 adds a proof that brickwork circuits can form relative-error approximate $k$-designs over the symplectic group in linear depth

Related papers

Classical shadows with arbitrary group representations

Maxwell West, Frederic Sauvage, Aniruddha Sen +6 more

Classical shadows (CS) has recently emerged as an important framework to efficiently predict properties of an unknown quantum state. A common strategy in CS protocols is to parametrize the basis in which one measures the state by a random group action; many examples of this have been proposed and studied on a case-by-case basis. In this work, we present a unified theory that allows us to simultaneously understand CS protocols based on sampling from general group representations, extending previous approaches that worked in simplified (multiplicity-free) settings. We identify a class of measurement bases which we call "centralizing bases" that allows us to analytically characterize and invert the measurement channel, minimizing classical post-processing costs. We complement this analysis by deriving general bounds on the sample-complexity necessary to obtain estimates of a given precision. Beyond its unification of previous CS protocols, our method allows us to readily generate new protocols based on other groups, or different representations of previously considered ones. For example, we characterize novel shadow protocols based on sampling from the spin and tensor representations of $\textsf{SU}(2)$, symmetric and orthogonal groups, and the exceptional Lie group $G_2$.

quant-pharXiv:2604.01429•Apr 3, 2026•0 citations

Real classical shadows

Maxwell T. West, Antonio Anna Mele, Martín Larocca +1 more

Abstract Efficiently learning expectation values of a quantum state using classical shadow tomography has become a fundamental task in quantum information theory. In a classical shadows protocol, one measures a state in a chosen basis W after it has evolved under a unitary transformation randomly sampled from a chosen distribution U . In this work we study the case where U corresponds to either local or global orthogonal Clifford gates, and W consists of real-valued vectors. Our results show that for various situations of interest, this ‘real’ classical shadow protocol improves the sample complexity over the standard scheme based on general Clifford unitaries. For example, when one is interested in estimating the expectation values of arbitrary real-valued observables, global orthogonal Cliffords typically decrease the required number of samples by a factor of two. More dramatically, for k -local observables composed only of real-valued Pauli operators, sampling local orthogonal Cliffords leads to a reduction by an exponential-in- k factor in the sample complexity over local unitary Cliffords. Finally, we show that by measuring in a basis containing complex-valued vectors, orthogonal shadows can, in the limit of large system size, exactly reproduce the original unitary shadows protocol.

Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Jun 2, 2025•9 citations

Real classical shadows

Maxwell West, Antonio Anna Mele, Martín Larocca +1 more

Efficiently learning expectation values of a quantum state using classical shadow tomography has become a fundamental task in quantum information theory. In a classical shadows protocol, one measures a state in a chosen basis W after it has evolved under a unitary transformation randomly sampled from a chosen distribution U. In this work we study the case where U corresponds to either local or global orthogonal Clifford gates, and W consists of real-valued vectors. Our results show that for various situations of interest, this ``real'' classical shadow protocol improves the sample complexity over the standard scheme based on general Clifford unitaries. For example, when one is interested in estimating the expectation values of arbitrary real-valued observables, global orthogonal Cliffords decrease the required number of samples by a factor of two. More dramatically, for k-local observables composed only of real-valued Pauli operators, sampling local orthogonal Cliffords leads to a reduction by an exponential-in-k factor in the sample complexity over local unitary Cliffords. Finally, we show that by measuring in a basis containing complex-valued vectors, orthogonal shadows can, in the limit of large system size, exactly reproduce the original unitary shadows protocol.

arXiv:2410.23481•Oct 30, 2024•0 citations

Shedding light on classical shadows: learning photonic quantum states

Hugo Thomas, Ulysse Chabaud, Pierre-Emmanuel Emeriau

Learning quantum state properties is both a fundamental and practical problem in quantum information theory. Classical shadows have emerged as an efficient method for estimating properties of unknown quantum states, with rigorous statistical guarantees, by performing randomized measurement on few copies of the state. With the advent of photonic technologies, formulating efficient learning algorithms for such platforms comes out as a natural problem. Here, we introduce a practical classical shadow protocol for learning photonic quantum states via randomized passive linear optical transformations and photon-number measurement. We provide rigorous theoretical guarantees showing that our scheme is sample- and time-efficient for measuring physical observables of interest. We experimentally demonstrate our photonic classical shadow protocol on both a twelve-mode and a twenty-four-mode integrated quantum processing unit, and showcase its versatility with five different applications, including Hamiltonian measurement and learning complex photonic states.

arXiv:2510.07240•Oct 8, 2025•0 citations

Classical shadows with symmetries

Sauvage, Frederic, Martín Larocca

Classical shadows (CS) have emerged as a powerful way to estimate many properties of quantum states based on random measurements and classical post-processing. In their original formulation, they come with optimal (or close to) sampling complexity guarantees for generic states and generic observables. Still, it is natural to expect to even further lower sampling requirements when equipped with a priori knowledge regarding either the underlying state or the observables. Here, we consider the case where such knowledge is provided in terms of symmetries of the unknown state or of the observables. Criterion and guidelines for symmetric shadows are provided. As a concrete example we focus on the case of permutation invariance (PI), and detail constructions of several families of PI-CSs. In particular, building on results obtained in the field of PI quantum tomography, we develop and study shallow PI-CS protocol. Benefits of these symmetric CS are demonstrated compared to established CS protocols showcasing vastly improved performances.

arXiv:2408.05279•Aug 9, 2024•4 citations

Principal eigenstate classical shadows

Daniel Grier, Hakop Pashayan, Luke Schaeffer

Given many copies of an unknown quantum state $ρ$, we consider the task of learning a classical description of its principal eigenstate. Namely, assuming that $ρ$ has an eigenstate $|ϕ\rangle$ with (unknown) eigenvalue $λ> 1/2$, the goal is to learn a (classical shadows style) classical description of $|ϕ\rangle$ which can later be used to estimate expectation values $\langle ϕ|O| ϕ\rangle$ for any $O$ in some class of observables. We consider the sample-complexity setting in which generating a copy of $ρ$ is expensive, but joint measurements on many copies of the state are possible. We present a protocol for this task scaling with the principal eigenvalue $λ$ and show that it is optimal within a space of natural approaches, e.g., applying quantum state purification followed by a single-copy classical shadows scheme. Furthermore, when $λ$ is sufficiently close to $1$, the performance of our algorithm is optimal--matching the sample complexity for pure state classical shadows.

arXiv:2405.13939•May 22, 2024•3 citations
Efficiently learning expectation values of unknown quantum states via classical shadows has become an important primitive in both theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum computation. Typically, classical shadow protocols involve randomised measurements induced by sampling uniformly randomly from a compact group, a situation which is now quite well understood. In this work we go beyond this standard assumption, studying the classical shadow protocols occasioned by sampling uniformly randomly from the so-called compact symmetric spaces. We uncover a unifying theory of such protocols, extending the extent to which the general theory of classical shadows is understood at a mathematical level. Interestingly, for the estimation of observables sampled from certain distributions we further find that some of these protocols allow for slight improvements in sample-complexity over existing shadow schemes. As part of our technical analysis we obtain ε\varepsilonε-approximate relative-error kkk-designs over the nnn-qubit symplectic group in depth O(nk+log⁡(1/ε))\mathcal{O}(nk+\log(1/\varepsilon))O(nk+log(1/ε)), which is optimal with respect to nnn, and may be of some independent interest.
Classical shadows (CS) has recently emerged as an important framework to efficiently predict properties of an unknown quantum state. A common strategy in CS protocols is to parametrize the basis in which one measures the state by a random group action; many examples of this have been proposed and studied on a case-by-case basis. In this work, we present a unified theory that allows us to simultaneously understand CS protocols based on sampling from general group representations, extending previous approaches that worked in simplified (multiplicity-free) settings. We identify a class of measurement bases which we call "centralizing bases" that allows us to analytically characterize and invert the measurement channel, minimizing classical post-processing costs. We complement this analysis by deriving general bounds on the sample-complexity necessary to obtain estimates of a given precision. Beyond its unification of previous CS protocols, our method allows us to readily generate new protocols based on other groups, or different representations of previously considered ones. For example, we characterize novel shadow protocols based on sampling from the spin and tensor representations of SU(2)\textsf{SU}(2)SU(2), symmetric and orthogonal groups, and the exceptional Lie group G2G_2G2​.
Abstract Efficiently learning expectation values of a quantum state using classical shadow tomography has become a fundamental task in quantum information theory. In a classical shadows protocol, one measures a state in a chosen basis W after it has evolved under a unitary transformation randomly sampled from a chosen distribution U . In this work we study the case where U corresponds to either local or global orthogonal Clifford gates, and W consists of real-valued vectors. Our results show that for various situations of interest, this ‘real’ classical shadow protocol improves the sample complexity over the standard scheme based on general Clifford unitaries. For example, when one is interested in estimating the expectation values of arbitrary real-valued observables, global orthogonal Cliffords typically decrease the required number of samples by a factor of two. More dramatically, for k -local observables composed only of real-valued Pauli operators, sampling local orthogonal Cliffords leads to a reduction by an exponential-in- k factor in the sample complexity over local unitary Cliffords. Finally, we show that by measuring in a basis containing complex-valued vectors, orthogonal shadows can, in the limit of large system size, exactly reproduce the original unitary shadows protocol.
Efficiently learning expectation values of a quantum state using classical shadow tomography has become a fundamental task in quantum information theory. In a classical shadows protocol, one measures a state in a chosen basis W after it has evolved under a unitary transformation randomly sampled from a chosen distribution U. In this work we study the case where U corresponds to either local or global orthogonal Clifford gates, and W consists of real-valued vectors. Our results show that for various situations of interest, this ``real'' classical shadow protocol improves the sample complexity over the standard scheme based on general Clifford unitaries. For example, when one is interested in estimating the expectation values of arbitrary real-valued observables, global orthogonal Cliffords decrease the required number of samples by a factor of two. More dramatically, for k-local observables composed only of real-valued Pauli operators, sampling local orthogonal Cliffords leads to a reduction by an exponential-in-k factor in the sample complexity over local unitary Cliffords. Finally, we show that by measuring in a basis containing complex-valued vectors, orthogonal shadows can, in the limit of large system size, exactly reproduce the original unitary shadows protocol.
Learning quantum state properties is both a fundamental and practical problem in quantum information theory. Classical shadows have emerged as an efficient method for estimating properties of unknown quantum states, with rigorous statistical guarantees, by performing randomized measurement on few copies of the state. With the advent of photonic technologies, formulating efficient learning algorithms for such platforms comes out as a natural problem. Here, we introduce a practical classical shadow protocol for learning photonic quantum states via randomized passive linear optical transformations and photon-number measurement. We provide rigorous theoretical guarantees showing that our scheme is sample- and time-efficient for measuring physical observables of interest. We experimentally demonstrate our photonic classical shadow protocol on both a twelve-mode and a twenty-four-mode integrated quantum processing unit, and showcase its versatility with five different applications, including Hamiltonian measurement and learning complex photonic states.
Classical shadows (CS) have emerged as a powerful way to estimate many properties of quantum states based on random measurements and classical post-processing. In their original formulation, they come with optimal (or close to) sampling complexity guarantees for generic states and generic observables. Still, it is natural to expect to even further lower sampling requirements when equipped with a priori knowledge regarding either the underlying state or the observables. Here, we consider the case where such knowledge is provided in terms of symmetries of the unknown state or of the observables. Criterion and guidelines for symmetric shadows are provided. As a concrete example we focus on the case of permutation invariance (PI), and detail constructions of several families of PI-CSs. In particular, building on results obtained in the field of PI quantum tomography, we develop and study shallow PI-CS protocol. Benefits of these symmetric CS are demonstrated compared to established CS protocols showcasing vastly improved performances.
Given many copies of an unknown quantum state ρρρ, we consider the task of learning a classical description of its principal eigenstate. Namely, assuming that ρρρ has an eigenstate ∣ϕ⟩|ϕ\rangle∣ϕ⟩ with (unknown) eigenvalue λ>1/2λ> 1/2λ>1/2, the goal is to learn a (classical shadows style) classical description of ∣ϕ⟩|ϕ\rangle∣ϕ⟩ which can later be used to estimate expectation values ⟨ϕ∣O∣ϕ⟩\langle ϕ|O| ϕ\rangle⟨ϕ∣O∣ϕ⟩ for any OOO in some class of observables. We consider the sample-complexity setting in which generating a copy of ρρρ is expensive, but joint measurements on many copies of the state are possible. We present a protocol for this task scaling with the principal eigenvalue λλλ and show that it is optimal within a space of natural approaches, e.g., applying quantum state purification followed by a single-copy classical shadows scheme. Furthermore, when λλλ is sufficiently close to 111, the performance of our algorithm is optimal--matching the sample complexity for pure state classical shadows.