Monitored quantum circuits combine scrambling with measurement-conditioned state updates, while non-Clifford perturbations inject magic into otherwise stabilizer-compatible dynamics. Rigorous results on stationary magic and its weak-injection asymptotics remain limited even for finite-dimensional Clifford-based monitored models.
We study an \(N\)-qudit process of prime local dimension \(d\). Each cycle draws a fresh uniform global Clifford unitary, applies a local weak non-Clifford rotation and a projective measurement on one qudit, and then returns to the inverse Clifford frame. For every fixed injection strength, we prove that the induced pure-state Markov chain has a unique invariant probability measure and attracts every initial law geometrically in Wasserstein distance. At zero injection, the invariant law is supported on the finite stabilizer layer. After rescaling transverse deviations from this layer, the resulting blown-up stationary laws converge weakly to the invariant law of an affine tangent recursion. Combining this tangent law with Poisson representations and the first nonzero local resource germs determines the sharp vanishing rates of stationary magic. For every fixed \(N\ge2\), odd-prime Gross--Wigner mana admits a linear expansion with a strictly positive coefficient, whereas qubit \(2\)-stabilizer Rényi entropy admits a quadratic expansion with a strictly positive coefficient. For \(N=1\), both stationary resource averages vanish identically for all injection strengths. The distinct orders arise from the different local resource geometries, together with quadratic-order zero-reference branch contributions in qubit case.
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170 pages in total (16-page main text; appendices extend from p. 17 through p. 168), 7 figures. Substantially revised and expanded version, with a more complete proof roadmap and an expanded discussion of transferable interfaces and natural extensions
Monitored quantum circuits combine scrambling with measurement-conditioned state updates, while non-Clifford perturbations inject magic into otherwise stabilizer-compatible dynamics. Rigorous results on stationary magic and its weak-injection asymptotics remain limited even for finite-dimensional Clifford-based monitored models.
We study an (N)-qudit process of prime local dimension (d). Each cycle draws a fresh uniform global Clifford unitary, applies a local weak non-Clifford rotation and a projective measurement on one qudit, and then returns to the inverse Clifford frame. For every fixed injection strength, we prove that the induced pure-state Markov chain has a unique invariant probability measure and attracts every initial law geometrically in Wasserstein distance. At zero injection, the invariant law is supported on the finite stabilizer layer. After rescaling transverse deviations from this layer, the resulting blown-up stationary laws converge weakly to the invariant law of an affine tangent recursion. Combining this tangent law with Poisson representations and the first nonzero local resource germs determines the sharp vanishing rates of stationary magic. For every fixed (N\ge2), odd-prime Gross--Wigner mana admits a linear expansion with a strictly positive coefficient, whereas qubit (2)-stabilizer Rényi entropy admits a quadratic expansion with a strictly positive coefficient. For (N=1), both stationary resource averages vanish identically for all injection strengths. The distinct orders arise from the different local resource geometries, together with quadratic-order zero-reference branch contributions in qubit case.
We investigate the dynamics of nonstabilizerness—also known as “magic”—in monitored quantum circuits composed of random Clifford unitaries and local measurements. For measurements in the computational basis, we derive an analytical model for dynamics of the stabilizer nullity, showing that it decays in quantized steps and requires exponentially many measurements to vanish, which reveals the strong protection through Clifford scrambling. On the other hand, for measurements performed in rotated non-Clifford bases, measurements can both create and destroy nonstabilizerness. Here, the dynamics leads to a steady state with nontrivial nonstabilizerness, independent of the initial state. We find that Haar-random states equilibrate in constant time, whereas stabilizer states exhibit linear-in-size relaxation time. While the stabilizer nullity is insensitive to the rotation angle, stabilizer Rényi entropies expose a richer structure in their dynamics. Our results uncover sharp distinctions between coarse and fine-grained nonstabilizerness diagnostics and demonstrate how measurements can both suppress and sustain quantum computational resources.
The quantum-trajectory description of a noisy quantum circuit is not unique: every Kraus representation of the noise channel defines a different unraveling, i.e., a different ensemble of pure states that averages to the same density matrix. While all unravelings share the same expectation values of observables, they generally differ in the amount of quantum resources carried by the individual trajectories. Here we study non-stabilizerness, or magic, quantified by the stabilizer Rényi entropy, in quantum-trajectory unravelings of Haar-random and T-doped random Clifford brickwork circuits subject to local dephasing noise of strength p. The canonical unraveling in terms of Pauli jumps is Clifford and leaves magic untouched, so that trajectories retain the Haar-random value of non-stabilizerness. Exploring the full two-parameter family of minimal unravelings, we find that the trajectory-averaged magic can be substantially reduced by a state-independent choice of Kraus operators, and that the optimal choice is not in general the projective-measurement unraveling, but a two-outcome generalized measurement in which the Kraus operators correspond to a weak measurement of the noisy qubit. The optimal unraveling reduces the extensive magic density of the trajectories by a p-dependent factor without altering its linear scaling with system size. At the same time, it produces a very broad distribution of magic over trajectories, with a sizable fraction of trajectories retaining Haar-random magic. Since the cost of stabilizer-based classical simulation grows exponentially with the magic of the state, these high-magic trajectories, rather than the average, control the simulation cost. Our results delineate the potential and the limitations of unraveling optimization as a route to the classical simulation of noisy quantum dynamics with stabilizer methods.
Encoding quantum information with low circuit overhead is a fundamental challenge in fault-tolerant quantum computation. Random circuits provide a natural mechanism for rapidly spreading logical information through simple gates applied in parallel. Brown and Fawzi showed that random Clifford circuits on two-qubit Clifford gates provide such encoders that achieve the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov rate-distance tradeoff with depth O(log3n). We show that the same asymptotic tradeoff is attained in optimal O(logn) depth under a gate distribution with a more restricted support. For every fixed δ>0 and sufficiently large n, if nk<1−H(nd)−ndlog23−δ, we can construct random circuits of depth O(logn) which define, with high probability, an [n,k] stabilizer code of distance at least d+1, which matches the Ω(logn) light-cone lower bound for linear distance encoders. Our ensemble employs a random matching circuit architecture consisting of T independent permutation-invariant layers. In each layer, the qubits are paired up by a uniformly random perfect matching, and a random independent two-qubit Clifford gate is applied to each pair. The gate distribution need not be uniform over, or even have full support on, the two-qubit Clifford group; rather, we allow for very general distributions on Clifford gates satisfying three regularity conditions. In particular, the construction can be implemented using n/2 CNOT gates on randomly matched pairs in each layer, with parallel one-qubit Clifford twirls. These regularity conditions allow us to reduce the second-moment dynamics of our random circuits to a reversible Markov chain on binary support strings. We establish logarithmic hitting-time bounds for this Markov chain and comparisons of its stationary distribution to prove the coding properties of the circuits.
Abstract Magic, also known as nonstabilizerness, quantifies the distance of a quantum state to the set of stabilizer states, and it serves as a necessary resource for potential quantum advantage over classical computing. In this work, we study magic in a measurement-only quantum circuit with competing types of Clifford and non-Clifford measurements, where magic is injected through the non-Clifford measurements. This circuit can be mapped to a classical model that can be simulated efficiently, and the magic can be characterized using any magic measure that is additive to the tensor product of single-qubit states. Leveraging this observation, we study the magic transition in this circuit in both one- and two-dimensional lattices using large-scale numerical simulations. Our results demonstrate the presence of a magic transition between two different phases with extensive magic scaling, separated by a critical point in which the mutual magic exhibits scaling behavior analogous to entanglement. We further show that these two distinct phases can be distinguished by topological magic. In a different regime, with a vanishing rate of non-Clifford measurements, we find that the magic saturates in both phases. Our work sheds light on the behavior of magic and its linear combinations in quantum circuits, employing genuine magic measures.
Magic and entanglement are independent quantum resources, yet their exact relation in many-body dynamics has remained elusive. We uncover two structural principles. First, at any stabilizer state, the curvature of the second stabilizer Rényi entropy under an arbitrary Hermitian generator equals the quantum Fisher information up to a fixed normalization, creating a bidirectional bridge between computational and metrological resources. Second, for commuting Ising evolution on any forest graph, a Clifford pruning circuit yields the full stabilizer-Rényi family at arbitrary size and in any spatial embedding, thereby furnishing a graph-theoretic construction of families with finite magic density and vanishing entanglement density in the thermodynamic limit. We solve two paradigmatic one-dimensional realizations central to quantum simulation -- an Ising quench and a kicked Floquet chain -- exactly for arbitrary system size and directly in the thermodynamic limit, revealing finite magic density with vanishing entanglement density, distinct magic and entanglement revival periods, and Clifford points with zero magic but finite bipartite entanglement. The same tangent geometry fixes initial growth, perturbative revival lifting, and stability of thermodynamic magic minima. Large-scale Pauli-basis matrix-product-state calculations verify all predictions, and the tangent bridge yields a concrete protocol for detecting magic through established quantum-Fisher-information measurements.
Magic states enable universal, fault-tolerant quantum computation within the stabilizer framework. Their non-stabilizerness supplies the resource needed to bypass the Eastin-Knill theorem while allowing fault-tolerant distillation. Although many measures of magic exist, not every nonzero-magic state is known to be distillable, and many of currently known distillable states are special cases of Clifford-stabilizer states, defined as pure states uniquely stabilized by finite Clifford subgroups. We develop a general framework for group-covariant functionals on Hermitian operators, introducing the notions of G-stabilizer spaces, states, and codes for arbitrary finite subgroups G⊂U(H). We define analytic families of G-covariant functionals and prove that any G-invariant pure state is extremal for a broad class of derived functionals, including symmetric, max-type, and Rényi-type functionals, whenever the underlying family is G-covariant. This extremality holds for purity-preserving variations orthogonal to the stabilized subspace. Specializing to the Pauli and Clifford groups, we recover the extremality structure of canonical magic measures such as mana, stabilizer Rényi entropies, generalized Rényi entropies, and stabilizer fidelity, and show that Clifford-stabilizer states extremize them. We classify such states for qubits, qutrits, ququints, and two-qubit systems, identifying new candidates for magic distillation. We further propose an inefficient distillation protocol for a two-qubit magic state with stabilizer fidelity exceeding standard benchmarks, and conjecture that SIC-POVM fiducial states are Clifford-stabilizer states.