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arXiv:2610.06737

Anti-symmetrization is cheap and useful

Adam Bene Watts, John Bostanci, Matthias C. Caro, Daniel Grier, Sihan Liu, Gaurav Mahajan

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

We consider the computational task of anti-symmetrization of an unknown mixed quantum state: Given iid copies of a rank-$r$ qudit state $ρ=\sum_{i=1}^r λ_i |\varphi_i\rangle\!\langle\varphi_i|$, prepare a copy of the state proportional to $Π_{\mathrm{anti}}^r (|\varphi_1\rangle\otimes \ldots\otimes|\varphi_r\rangle)$, with $Π_{\mathrm{anti}}^r$ the anti-symmetric subspace projector. We first give a simple algorithm for anti-symmetrization that uses $\widetilde{O}(r / λ_{\min})$ copies of $ρ$, where $λ_{\min}$ is the minimum non-zero eigenvalue of $ρ$. This algorithm works even in the streaming setting with small working memory, and it uses only simple quantum operations like controlled-SWAPs and constantly many layers of single-qubit gates. As an application of this streaming anti-symmetrization procedure, we give a reduction from gapped mixed-state one-way state generators to pure-state one-way state generators. Then, using tools from Schur-Weyl duality, we give and analyze a second (non-streaming) anti-symmetrization procedure that uses $O(r / λ_{\min})$ copies of $ρ$, which then serves as a building block in new algorithms for weak Schur sampling and unitary Schur sampling, outperforming existing approaches in some regimes of number of copies $n$ and local dimension $d$, as well as in an algorithm for optimal purity amplification for qudit states.

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35 pages

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We consider the computational task of anti-symmetrization of an unknown mixed quantum state: Given iid copies of a rank-rrr qudit state ρ=∑i=1rλi∣φi⟩ ⁣⟨φi∣ρ=\sum_{i=1}^r λ_i |\varphi_i\rangle\!\langle\varphi_i|ρ=∑i=1r​λi​∣φi​⟩⟨φi​∣, prepare a copy of the state proportional to Πantir(∣φ1⟩⊗…⊗∣φr⟩)Π_{\mathrm{anti}}^r (|\varphi_1\rangle\otimes \ldots\otimes|\varphi_r\rangle)Πantir​(∣φ1​⟩⊗…⊗∣φr​⟩), with ΠantirΠ_{\mathrm{anti}}^rΠantir​ the anti-symmetric subspace projector. We first give a simple algorithm for anti-symmetrization that uses O~(r/λmin⁡)\widetilde{O}(r / λ_{\min})O(r/λmin​) copies of ρρρ, where λmin⁡λ_{\min}λmin​ is the minimum non-zero eigenvalue of ρρρ. This algorithm works even in the streaming setting with small working memory, and it uses only simple quantum operations like controlled-SWAPs and constantly many layers of single-qubit gates. As an application of this streaming anti-symmetrization procedure, we give a reduction from gapped mixed-state one-way state generators to pure-state one-way state generators. Then, using tools from Schur-Weyl duality, we give and analyze a second (non-streaming) anti-symmetrization procedure that uses O(r/λmin⁡)O(r / λ_{\min})O(r/λmin​) copies of ρρρ, which then serves as a building block in new algorithms for weak Schur sampling and unitary Schur sampling, outperforming existing approaches in some regimes of number of copies nnn and local dimension ddd, as well as in an algorithm for optimal purity amplification for qudit states.
Schur sampling is a fundamental primitive for extracting permutation-invariant information from many-body quantum systems and has broad applications in quantum information science. Circuit-based implementations typically rely on coherent representation-theoretic operations such as Clebsch-Gordan transforms, generalized phase estimation, or quantum Fourier transforms over the symmetric group. We show that unitary Schur sampling of arbitrary permutation-invariant mixed states on nnn ddd-dimensional qudits can instead be implemented using only pairwise SWAP tests, namely, two-qudit projective measurements onto the symmetric and antisymmetric subspaces. Our protocol achieves error εεε in diamond distance using O(nmin⁡{n,d}3log⁡2(n/ε))O(n\min\{n,d\}^{3}\log^2(n/ε))O(nmin{n,d}3log2(n/ε)) random SWAP tests. The central idea is to repeatedly identify and extract the largest antisymmetric subsystem. This turns unitary Schur sampling into a search for antisymmetry and gives the algorithm a natural interpretation as a stochastic traversal of a Young diagram. The protocol preserves the SU(d)\mathrm{SU}(d)SU(d)-irrep state while preparing a canonical pure state in the multiplicity subsystem. As an application, we consider quantum purity amplification (QPA), in which multiple noisy copies of a pure quantum state are combined to produce a state of higher purity. We show that the optimal purified state can be obtained by retaining a single designated output qudit and discarding the rest.
We formalize the task of unitary Schur sampling -- an extension of weak Schur sampling -- which is the process of measuring the Young label and the unitary group register of an input mmm qudit state. Intuitively, this task is equivalent to applying the Schur transform, projecting onto the isotypic subspaces of the unitary and symmetric groups indexed by the Young labels, and discarding of the permutation register. As such unitary Schur sampling is the natural task in processes such as quantum state tomography or spectrum estimation. We generalize this task to unitary mixed Schur sampling to account for the recently introduced mixed Schur-Weyl transform. We provide a streaming algorithm which achieves an exponential reduction in the memory complexity and a polynomial reduction in the gate complexity over naïve algorithms for the task of unitary (mixed) Schur sampling. Further, we show that if the input state has limited rank, the gate and memory complexities of our streaming algorithm as well as the algorithms for the full Schur and mixed Schur transforms are further reduced. Our work generalizes and improves on the results in arXiv2309.11947.
We consider the problem of approximate cloning of quantum states: given nnn copies of an unknown state ρ∈Cd×dρ\in \mathbb{C}^{d \times d}ρ∈Cd×d, prepare an (n+k)(n+k)(n+k)-copy state with high fidelity to ρ⊗(n+k)ρ^{\otimes (n+k)}ρ⊗(n+k). Werner's pure state cloner is the optimal channel for the pure state case, and shows that n=Θ(kd/ε)n = Θ(kd/\varepsilon)n=Θ(kd/ε) copies are necessary and sufficient to clone kkk additional copies of an unknown pure state to fidelity 1−ε1-\varepsilon1−ε. The random purification channel gives a straightforward extension of Werner's cloner to mixed state inputs: given nnn copies of a mixed state, randomly purify your input, apply Werner's channel in the larger Hilbert space, and then trace out the auxiliary registers. This gives a mixed state cloner using n=O(krd/ε)n = O(krd/\varepsilon)n=O(krd/ε) copies to clone rank-rrr states. Can one do any better? We show that the answer is no: one must use n=Ω(krd/ε)n = Ω(krd/\varepsilon)n=Ω(krd/ε) copies. We prove our lower bound by studying the special case of projector cloning, in which the input state ρρρ is promised to be of the form P/rP/rP/r, where PPP is a rank-rrr orthogonal projector. As a further application of our techniques, we consider the closely related problem of approximate transposition of quantum states, where one seeks to convert ρ⊗nρ^{\otimes n}ρ⊗n to a kkk-copy state with high fidelity to (ρT)⊗k(ρ^T)^{\otimes k}(ρT)⊗k. Here, we again show n=Θ(krd/ε)n = Θ(krd/\varepsilon)n=Θ(krd/ε) copies are necessary and sufficient for this task.
Many quantum information tasks use inputs of the form ρ⊗mρ^{\otimes m}ρ⊗m, which naturally induce permutation and unitary symmetries. We classify all quantum channels that respect both symmetries - i.e. unitary-equivariant and permutation-invariant quantum channels from (Cd)⊗m(\mathbb{C}^{d})^{\otimes m}(Cd)⊗m to (Cd)⊗n(\mathbb{C}^{d})^{\otimes n}(Cd)⊗n - via their extremal points. Operationally, each extremal quantum channel factors as unitary Schur sampling →\rightarrow→ an irrep-level unitary-equivariant quantum channel →\rightarrow→ the adjoint unitary Schur sampling. We give a streaming implementation ansatz that uses an efficient streaming implementation of unitary Schur sampling together with a resource-state primitive, and we apply it to state symmetrization, symmetric cloning, and purity amplification. In these applications we obtain polynomial-time algorithms with exponential memory improvements in m,nm,nm,n. Further, for symmetric cloning we present, to our knowledge, the first efficient (polynomial-time) algorithm with explicit memory and gate bounds.
The quantum Schur transform maps the computational basis of a system of nnn qudits onto a \textit{Schur basis}, which spans the minimal invariant subspaces of the representations of the unitary and the symmetric groups acting on the state space of nnn ddd-level systems. We introduce a new algorithm for the task of weak Schur sampling. Our algorithm efficiently determines both the Young label which indexes the irreducible representations and the multiplicity label of the symmetric group. There are two major advantages of our algorithm for weak Schur sampling when compared to existing approaches which proceed via quantum Schur transform algorithm or Generalized Phase Estimation algorithm. First, our algorihtm is suitable for streaming applications and second it is exponentially more efficient in its memory usage. We show that an instance of our weak Schur sampling algorithm on nnn qubits to accuracy εεε requires only O(log⁡2n)O(\log_2n)O(log2​n) qubits of memory and O(n3log⁡2(nε))O(n^3\log_2(\frac{n}ε))O(n3log2​(εn​)) gates from the Clifford+T set. Further, we show that our weak Schur sampling algorithm on nnn qudits decomposes into O(dn2dlog⁡2p(n2dε))O\big(dn^{2d}\log_2^p\big(\frac{n^{2d}}ε\big)\big)O(dn2dlog2p​(εn2d​)) gates from an arbitrary fault-tolerant qudit universal set, for p≈4p\approx 4p≈4, and requires a memory of O(log⁡dn)O(\log_dn)O(logd​n) qudits to implement.
We determine asymptotic global fidelities of cloning generic mixed states with simple (non-degenerate) full-rank spectra. In fixed dimension ddd, let nnn inputs and mnm_nmn​ outputs satisfy mn/n→γ>1m_n/n\toγ>1mn​/n→γ>1. For a known simple full-rank spectrum p1>⋯>pd>0p_1>\cdots>p_d>0p1​>⋯>pd​>0, we prove that the optimal root fidelity between the entire output and the product target state is $$ F_\rm{orb}(γ,p) =\prod_{i<j} \frac{\sqrtγ+\sqrt{q_{ij}(γ-1+q_{ij})}} {γ+q_{ij}}, \qquad q_{ij}=\frac{p_j}{p_i}. $$ When the spectrum is unknown, one spectrum-independent cloner attains $$ F_\rm{univ}(γ,p) =\left(\frac{2\sqrtγ}{1+γ}\right)^{(d-1)/2} F_\rm{orb}(γ,p), $$ uniformly on compact subsets of the simple full-rank chamber and is minimax optimal. The two factors quantify spectral and eigenbasis uncertainty. Our channels combine classical processing of Schur--Weyl labels with a covariant Cartan-sector channel. Local asymptotic normality and a Gaussian fidelity bound against arbitrary channels yield the converses. For flat projector states ρ=P/rρ=P/rρ=P/r, with PPP a rank-rrr orthogonal projector, we separately prove the optimum γ−r(d−r)/2γ^{-r(d-r)/2}γ−r(d−r)/2. Furthermore, we estimate the exact asymptotic fidelity of purify--clone--trace (PCT), and show that our cloners strictly outperform PCT at every fixed gain for simple full-rank spectra and rank-rrr projector states with 1<r<d1<r<d1<r<d.