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ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)

Optimizing quantum circuit synthesis for permutations using recursion

Cynthia Chen, Bruno de O. Schmitt, Helena Zhang, Lev S. Bishop, Ali Javadi-Abhari

Published Jul 10, 2022• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe a family of recursive methods for the synthesis of qubit permutations on quantum computers with limited qubit connectivity. Two objectives are of importance: circuit size and depth. In each case we combine a scalable heuristic with a non-scalable, yet exact, synthesis.
DOI
10.1145/3489517.3530654

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ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)•Jul 9, 2023•36 citations
We describe a family of recursive methods for the synthesis of qubit permutations on quantum computers with limited qubit connectivity. Two objectives are of importance: circuit size and depth. In each case we combine a scalable heuristic with a non-scalable, yet exact, synthesis. Our algorithms are applicable to generic connectivity constraints, scale favorably, and achieve close-to-optimal performance in many cases. We demonstrate the utility of these algorithms by optimizing the compilation of Quantum Volume circuits, and to disprove an old conjecture on reversals being the hardest permutation on a path.
We propose a scalable, hierarchical qubit mapping and routing algorithm that harnesses the power of circuit synthesis. First, we decompose large circuits into subcircuits small enough to be directly resynthesized. For each block, we pre-synthesize them for all permutations of its input and output qubits. Following this offline step, we employ a permutation-aware, block-based generalization of the popular SABRE mapping algorithm. This mapping step stitches together blocks by choosing an input-output permutation that minimizes intrablock gate count and required inter-block communication (SWAP and bridge gates). Our approach has a twofold advantage: 1) circuit synthesis may eliminate more two-qubit gates than other optimizing compilers; 2) considering all permutations of input and output qubits eliminates communication operations transparently. In contrast, other mapping algorithms can only introduce communication operations. We show that we can produce better-quality circuits than commercial compilers: shorter by up to 68% (18% on average) fewer gates than Qiskit, up to 36% (9% on average) fewer gates than Tket. We outperform BQSkit, a permutation-unaware, synthesis-based compiler, by up to 67% (21% on average) fewer gates. We also exceed experimental optimal mappers such as OLSQ in quality (10.7% shorter circuits) and time to solution. Our scalable, heuristic approach can be seamlessly integrated into any quantum circuit compiler or optimization infrastructure, and it applies well to any qubit technology, such as superconducting and trapped ions.
CNOT optimization plays a significant role in noise reduction for Quantum Circuits. Several heuristic and exact approaches exist for CNOT optimization. In this paper, we investigate more complicated variations of optimal synthesis by allowing qubit permutations and handling layout restrictions. We encode such problems into Planning, SAT, and QBF. We provide optimization for both CNOT gate count and circuit depth. For experimental evaluation, we consider standard T-gate optimized benchmarks and optimize CNOT sub-circuits. We show that allowing qubit permutations can further reduce up to 56% in CNOT count and 46% in circuit depth. In the case of optimally mapped circuits under layout restrictions, we observe a reduction up to 17% CNOT count and 19% CNOT depth.
In recent years, the emergence of the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era has led to the development of a wide variety of quantum devices, marking a dynamic phase in the field of quantum computing. Despite these advancements, practical applications of quantum computers still face significant challenges, one of the most prominent being the limited connectivity between physical quantum bits (qubits). This limitation requires quantum circuits to be recompiled through layout synthesis before they can be executed on quantum devices. Layout synthesis determines the specific placement of quantum gates within the circuit on the physical hardware. When gates do not align with the connectivity constraints of the device, additional quantum gates must be inserted to remap the qubits, which can negatively affect the circuit’s efficiency and performance. To address this issue, the primary goal of this paper is to enhance the mapping process within layout synthesis, aiming to optimize both the layout and the circuit depth. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively reduces the quantum circuit depth, outperforming other existing approaches in terms of efficiency.
Optimal synthesis of reversible functions is a non-trivial problem. One of the major limiting factors in computing such circuits is the sheer number of reversible functions. Even restricting synthesis to 4-bit reversible functions results in a huge search space (16!~2^44 functions). The output of such a search alone, counting only the space required to list Toffoli gates for every function, would require over 100 terabytes of storage. In this paper, we present an algorithm that synthesizes an optimal circuit for any 4-bit reversible specification. We employ several techniques to make the problem tractable. We report results from several experiments, including synthesis of random 4-bit permutations, optimal synthesis of all 4-bit linear reversible circuits, synthesis of existing benchmark functions, and distribution of optimal circuits. Our results have important implications for the design and optimization of quantum circuits, testing circuit synthesis heuristics, and performing experiments in the area of quantum information processing.
Due to its effect on the success rate of a quantum circuit, quantum layout synthesis is a crucial step for circuit compilation. As such, having a layout synthesis tool that provides high solution quality is important to maximize circuit performance and fidelity for NISQ application. Previous heuristic approaches have been shown to be far from optimal when evaluated on known-optimal benchmarks. Alternatively, exact layout synthesis tools can generate optimal results with the aid of constraint solvers but generally suffer from scalability issues because of inefficient encodings and slow optimization methods. In this paper, we propose a scalable optimal layout synthesis tool that improves upon previous works, through a more succinct problem formulation as well as better encoding techniques. Additionally, we implement a depth and SWAP count optimization feature that performs iterative refinement under a fixed time budget. Experimental results show that for depth optimization, our tool can achieve a 692× speedup over the state-of-the-art optimal layout synthesis, and for SWAP optimization, we can obtain a 6,957× speedup on average. Compared to a leading heuristic-based synthesizer, for depth optimization, we can solve circuits consisting of 54 program qubits and 1726 gates within 11 hours with an 18× depth reduction and by 12× SWAP count reduction on average.