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arXiv:2605.18966

Clifford symmetries in quantum many-body systems

Charlie Nation, Rick P. A. Simon, Shreya Banerjee, Francesco Martini, Alessandro Ricottone, Federico Cerisola, Luca Dellantonio

quant-phSubmitted May 18, 2026• Announced May 20, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Obtaining the symmetries of a model is a critical step towards developing an understanding and ultimately analytically or numerically solving the model. However, finding symmetries is generally extremely complicated, often being the result of insightful thinking. In this work, we complement human ingenuity with an algorithm. We leverage the classically efficient Clifford group to find symmetries for arbitrary many-body Hamiltonians via a graph representation. We demonstrate our method on random and physical Hamiltonians, with instances of up to one thousand qubits and demonstrate how our approach can provide deeper understanding of the model.

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Obtaining the symmetries of a model is a critical step towards developing an understanding and ultimately analytically or numerically solving the model. However, finding symmetries is generally extremely complicated, often being the result of insightful thinking. In this work, we complement human ingenuity with an algorithm. We leverage the classically efficient Clifford group to find symmetries for arbitrary many-body Hamiltonians via a graph representation. We demonstrate our method on random and physical Hamiltonians, with instances of up to one thousand qubits and demonstrate how our approach can provide deeper understanding of the model.
Abstract We develop a method to deduce the symmetry properties of many-body Hamiltonians when they are prepared in Jordan–Wigner form in which they can act on multi-qubit states. Symmetries, such as point-group symmetries in molecules, are apparent in the standard second quantized form of the Hamiltonian. They are, however, masked when the Hamiltonian is translated into a Pauli matrix representation required for its operation on qubits. To reveal these symmetries we prove a general theorem that provides a straightforward method to calculate the transformation of Pauli tensor strings under symmetry operations. They are a subgroup of the Clifford group transformations and induce a corresponding group representation inside the symplectic matrices. We finally give a simplified derivation of an affine qubit encoding scheme which allows for the removal of qubits due to Boolean symmetries and thus reduces effort in quantum computations for many-body systems.
In the recent article [arXiv:2605.18966], we demonstrated that finding Clifford symmetries can be mapped to a Graph Automorphism (GA) problem. Here, we provide an algorithm to obtain such symmetries on general qudit systems, that works on the principle of encoding Clifford invariants of a Hamiltonian onto properties of a graph. Labelling Hamiltonian terms as vertices, a permutation of such vertices that respects the Clifford invariants (a GA) is both a valid Clifford, and a symmetry up to phase correction checks. We test this on multiple physical models and discuss the scaling with respect to the number of qudits and Pauli strings, as well as various strategies for optimisation in different regimes. We further show that the graph automorphism representation of Clifford symmetries can be expanded to open quantum systems.
Understanding the dynamical properties of quantum systems is an essential task in quantum computing, quantum control, and many-body physics. Tools such as representation theory and Lie theory provide crucial information on reachability and computational power. However, this information can be difficult to access exactly or compute efficiently for arbitrary generating sets. Here we focus on the setting of Pauli strings, which satisfy numerous exceptional properties that simplify the problem. We find deep connections between Pauli Lie algebras and certain subgroups of the Clifford group generated by transvections, through the symplectic properties of the Pauli strings. This allows us to give an invariant-based perspective on these objects and their reachability, in the language of Pauli orbits, symmetries, and invariant subspaces. The invariant-based approach provides efficient algorithms for identifying Lie algebras and orbits, as well as a simple framework for analyzing structured Pauli generating sets. We also show in an elementary way that Clifford subgroups generated by transvections provide 3-designs for the corresponding Pauli Lie groups. We illustrate the framework through structured examples from variational quantum algorithms, restricted quantum computation, many-body systems, and random circuits.
We have generalized the well-known statement that the Clifford group is a unitary 3-design into symmetric cases by extending the notion of unitary design.Concretely, we have proven that a symmetric Clifford group is a symmetric unitary 3-design if and only if the symmetry constraint is described by some Pauli subgroup.We have also found a complete and unique construction method of symmetric Clifford groups with simple quantum gates for Pauli symmetries.For the overall understanding, we have also considered physically relevant U(1) and SU(2) symmetry constraints, which cannot be described by a Pauli subgroup, and have proven that the symmetric Clifford group is a symmetric unitary 1-design but not a 2-design under those symmetries.Our findings are numerically verified by computing the frame potentials, which measure the difference in randomness between the uniform ensemble on the symmetric group of interest and the symmetric unitary group.This work will open a new perspective into quantum information processing, such as randomized benchmarking, and give a deep understanding to many-body systems, such as monitored random circuits.
Symmetry is fundamental in the description and simulation of quantum systems. Leveraging symmetries in classical simulations of many-body quantum systems can result in significant overhead due to the exponentially growing size of some symmetry groups as the number of particles increases. Quantum computers hold the promise of achieving exponential speedup in simulating quantum many-body systems; however, a general method for utilizing symmetries in quantum simulations has not yet been established. In this work, we present a unified framework for incorporating symmetry group transforms on quantum computers to simulate many-body systems. The core of our approach lies in the development of efficient quantum circuits for symmetry-adapted projection onto irreducible representations of a group or pairs of commuting groups. We provide resource estimations for common groups, including the cyclic and permutation groups. Our algorithms demonstrate the capability to prepare coherent superpositions of symmetry-adapted states and to perform quantum evolution across a wide range of models in condensed-matter physics and ab initio electronic structure in quantum chemistry. Specifically, we execute a symmetry-adapted quantum subroutine for small molecules in first-quantization on noisy hardware and demonstrate the emulation of symmetry-adapted quantum phase estimation for preparing coherent superpositions of quantum states in various irreducible representations of a symmetry group. In addition, we present a discussion of open problems regarding treating symmetries in digital quantum simulations of many-body systems, paving the way for future systematic investigations into leveraging symmetries quantumly for practical quantum advantage. The broad applicability and rigorous resource estimation for symmetry transformations make our framework appealing for achieving provable quantum advantage on fault-tolerant quantum computers, especially for symmetry-related properties.
The computational cost of simulating quantum many-body systems can often be reduced by taking advantage of physical symmetries. While methods exist for specific symmetry classes, a general algorithm to find the full permutation symmetry group of an arbitrary Pauli Hamiltonian is notably lacking. This paper introduces a new method that identifies this symmetry group by establishing an isomorphism between the Hamiltonian's permutation symmetry group and the automorphism group of a coloured bipartite graph constructed from the Hamiltonian. We formally prove this isomorphism and show that for physical Hamiltonians with bounded locality and interaction degree, the resulting graph has a bounded degree, reducing the computational problem of finding the automorphism group to polynomial time. The algorithm's validity is empirically confirmed on various physical models with known symmetries. We further show that the problem of deciding whether two Hamiltonians are permutation-equivalent is polynomial-time reducible to the graph isomorphism problem using our graph representation. This work provides a general, structurally exact tool for algorithmic symmetry finding, enabling the scalable application of these symmetries to Hamiltonian simulation problems.