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

ACM Transactions on Quantum Computing

Optimal Hadamard Gate Count for Clifford+ T Synthesis of Pauli Rotations Sequences

Vivien Vandaele, Simon Martiel, Simon Perdrix, Christophe Vuillot

Published Dec 28, 2023• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Clifford+ T gate set is commonly used to perform universal quantum computation. In such setup the T gate is typically much more expensive to implement in a fault-tolerant way than Clifford gates. To improve the feasibility of fault-tolerant quantum computing it is then crucial to minimize the number of T gates. Many algorithms, yielding effective results, have been designed to address this problem. It has been demonstrated that performing a pre-processing step consisting of reducing the number of Hadamard gates in the circuit can help to exploit the full potential of these algorithms and thereby lead to a substantial T -count reduction. Moreover, minimizing the number of Hadamard gates also restrains the number of additional qubits and operations resulting from the gadgetization of Hadamard gates, a procedure used by some compilers to further reduce the number of T gates. In this work we tackle the Hadamard gate reduction problem, and propose an algorithm for synthesizing a sequence of π /4 Pauli rotations with a minimal number of Hadamard gates. Based on this result, we present an algorithm which optimally minimizes the number of Hadamard gates lying between the first and the last T gate of the circuit.

DOI
10.1145/3639062

Related papers

Optimal Hadamard gate count for Clifford$+T$ synthesis of Pauli rotations sequences

Vivien Vandaele, Simon Martiel, Simon Perdrix +1 more

The Clifford$+T$ gate set is commonly used to perform universal quantum computation. In such setup the $T$ gate is typically much more expensive to implement in a fault-tolerant way than Clifford gates. To improve the feasibility of fault-tolerant quantum computing it is then crucial to minimize the number of $T$ gates. Many algorithms, yielding effective results, have been designed to address this problem. It has been demonstrated that performing a pre-processing step consisting of reducing the number of Hadamard gates in the circuit can help to exploit the full potential of these algorithms and thereby lead to a substantial $T$-count reduction. Moreover, minimizing the number of Hadamard gates also restrains the number of additional qubits and operations resulting from the gadgetization of Hadamard gates, a procedure used by some compilers to further reduce the number of $T$ gates. In this work we tackle the Hadamard gate reduction problem, and propose an algorithm for synthesizing a sequence of $π/4$ Pauli rotations with a minimal number of Hadamard gates. Based on this result, we present an algorithm which optimally minimizes the number of Hadamard gates lying between the first and the last $T$ gate of the circuit.

arXiv:2302.07040•Feb 14, 2023•0 citations

Lower T-count with faster algorithms

Vivien Vandaele

Among the cost metrics characterizing a quantum circuit, the T -count stands out as one of the most crucial as its minimization is particularly important in various areas of quantum computation such as fault-tolerant quantum computing and quantum circuit simulation. In this work, we contribute to the T -count reduction problem by proposing efficient T -count optimizers with low execution times. In particular, we greatly improve the complexity of TODD, an algorithm currently providing the best T -count reduction on various quantum circuits. We also propose some modifications to the algorithm which are leading to a significantly lower number of T gates. In addition, we propose another algorithm which has an even lower complexity and that achieves a better or equal T -count than the state of the art on most quantum circuits evaluated. We also prove that the number of T gates in the circuit obtained after executing our algorithms on a Hadamard-free circuit composed of n qubits is upper bounded by n ( n + 1 ) / 2 + 1 , which improves on the worst-case T -count of existing optimization algorithms. From this we derive an upper bound of ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 h ) / 2 + 1 for the number of T gates in a Clifford + T circuit where h is the number of internal Hadamard gates in the circuit, i.e. the number of Hadamard gates lying between the first and the last T gate of the circuit.

arXiv:2407.08695•Quantum•Sep 16, 2025•4 citations

Qubit-count optimization using ZX-calculus

Vivien Vandaele

We propose several methods for optimizing the number of qubits in a quantum circuit while preserving the number of non-Clifford gates. One of our approaches consists in reversing, as much as possible, the gadgetization of Hadamard gates, which is a procedure used by some $T$-count optimizers to circumvent Hadamard gates at the expense of additional qubits. We prove the NP-hardness of this problem and we present an algorithm for solving it. We also propose a more general approach to optimize the number of qubits by showing how it relates to the problem of finding a minimal-width path-decomposition of the graph associated with a given ZX-diagram. This approach can be used to optimize the number of qubits for any computational model that can natively be depicted in ZX-calculus, such as the Pauli Fusion computational model which can represent lattice surgery operations. We also show how this method can be used to efficiently optimize the number of qubits in a quantum circuit by using the ZX-calculus as an intermediate representation.

arXiv:2407.10171•Jul 14, 2024•0 citations

A polynomial time and space heuristic algorithm for T-count

Michele Mosca, Priyanka Mukhopadhyay

Abstract An important part of reaping computational advantage from a quantum computer is to reduce the quantum resources needed to implement a desired quantum algorithm. Quantum algorithms that are too large to be practical on noisy intermediate scale quantum devices will require fault-tolerant error correction. This work focuses on reducing the physical cost of implementing quantum algorithms when using the state-of-the-art fault-tolerant quantum error correcting codes, in particular, those for which implementing the T gate consumes vastly more resources than the other gates in the gate set. More specifically, in this paper we consider the group of unitaries that can be exactly implemented by a quantum circuit consisting of the Clifford + T gate set. The Clifford + T gate set is a universal gate set and in this group, using state-of-the-art surface codes, the T gate is by far the most expensive component to implement fault-tolerantly. So it is important to minimize the number of T gates necessary for a fault-tolerant implementation. Our primary interest is to compute a circuit for a given n -qubit unitary U , using the minimum possible number of T gates (called the T-count of unitary U ). We consider the problem COUNT-T, the optimization version of which aims to find the T-count of U . In its decision version the goal is to decide if the T-count is at most some positive integer m . Given an oracle for COUNT-T, we can compute a T-count-optimal circuit in time polynomial in the T-count and dimension of U . We give a provable classical algorithm that solves COUNT-T (decision) in time O N 2 ( c − 1 ) ⌈ m c ⌉ p o l y ( m , N ) and space O N 2 ⌈ m c ⌉ p o l y ( m , N ) , where N = 2 n and c ⩾ 2. This gives a space-time trade-off for solving this problem with variants of meet-in-the-middle techniques. We also introduce an asymptotically faster multiplication method that shaves a factor of N 0.7457 off of the overall complexity. Lastly, beyond our improvements to the rigorous algorithm, we give a heuristic algorithm that outputs a T-count-optimal circuit and has space and time complexity poly( m , N ), under some assumptions. In our heuristic algorithm we developed a novel way of pruning the search space. While our heuristic method still scales exponentially with the number of qubits (though with a lower exponent), there is a large improvement by going from exponential to polynomial scaling with m . We implemented our heuristic algorithm with up to 4 qubit unitaries and obtained a significant improvement in time. For all benchmark and random unitaries we studied, the T-count returned by our algorithm is at most the T-count of their circuits shown in previous papers.

arXiv:2006.12440•Quantum Science and Technology•Oct 7, 2021•29 citations

Quantum Circuit Pre-Synthesis: Learning Local Edits to Reduce $T$-count

Daniele Lizzio Bosco, Lukasz Cincio, Giuseppe Serra +1 more

Compiling quantum circuits into Clifford+$T$ gates is a central task for fault-tolerant quantum computing using stabilizer codes. In the near term, $T$ gates will dominate the cost of fault tolerant implementations, and any reduction in the number of such expensive gates could mean the difference between being able to run a circuit or not. While exact synthesis is exponentially hard in the number of qubits, local synthesis approaches are commonly used to compile large circuits by decomposing them into substructures. However, composing local methods leads to suboptimal compilations in key metrics such as $T$-count or circuit depth, and their performance strongly depends on circuit representation. In this work, we address this challenge by proposing \textsc{Q-PreSyn}, a strategy that, given a set of local edits preserving circuit equivalence, uses a RL agent to identify effective sequences of such actions and thereby obtain circuit representations that yield a reduced $T$-count upon synthesis. Experimental results of our proposed strategy, applied on top of well-known synthesis algorithms, show up to a $20\%$ reduction in $T$-count on circuits with up to 25 qubits, without introducing any additional approximation error prior to synthesis.

quant-pharXiv:2601.19738•Jan 28, 2026•0 citations

Optimal number of parametrized rotations and Hadamard gates in parametrized Clifford circuits with non-repeated parameters

Vivien Vandaele, Simon Perdrix, Christophe Vuillot

We present an efficient algorithm to reduce the number of non-Clifford gates in quantum circuits and the number of parametrized rotations in parametrized quantum circuits. The method consists in finding rotations that can be merged into a single rotation gate. This approach has already been considered before and is used as a pre-processing procedure in many optimization algorithms, notably for optimizing the number of Hadamard gates or the number of $T$ gates in Clifford$+T$ circuits. Our algorithm has a better complexity than similar methods and is particularly efficient for circuits with a low number of internal Hadamard gates. Furthermore, we show that this approach is optimal for parametrized circuits composed of Clifford gates and parametrized rotations with non-repeated parameters. For the same type of parametrized quantum circuits, we also prove that a previous procedure optimizing the number of Hadamard gates and internal Hadamard gates is optimal. This procedure is notably used in our low-complexity algorithm for optimally reducing the number of parametrized rotations.

arXiv:2407.07846•Jul 10, 2024•0 citations
The Clifford+ T gate set is commonly used to perform universal quantum computation. In such setup the T gate is typically much more expensive to implement in a fault-tolerant way than Clifford gates. To improve the feasibility of fault-tolerant quantum computing it is then crucial to minimize the number of T gates. Many algorithms, yielding effective results, have been designed to address this problem. It has been demonstrated that performing a pre-processing step consisting of reducing the number of Hadamard gates in the circuit can help to exploit the full potential of these algorithms and thereby lead to a substantial T -count reduction. Moreover, minimizing the number of Hadamard gates also restrains the number of additional qubits and operations resulting from the gadgetization of Hadamard gates, a procedure used by some compilers to further reduce the number of T gates. In this work we tackle the Hadamard gate reduction problem, and propose an algorithm for synthesizing a sequence of π /4 Pauli rotations with a minimal number of Hadamard gates. Based on this result, we present an algorithm which optimally minimizes the number of Hadamard gates lying between the first and the last T gate of the circuit.
Optimal Hadamard gate count for Clifford+T+T+T synthesis of Pauli rotations sequences
The Clifford+T+T+T gate set is commonly used to perform universal quantum computation. In such setup the TTT gate is typically much more expensive to implement in a fault-tolerant way than Clifford gates. To improve the feasibility of fault-tolerant quantum computing it is then crucial to minimize the number of TTT gates. Many algorithms, yielding effective results, have been designed to address this problem. It has been demonstrated that performing a pre-processing step consisting of reducing the number of Hadamard gates in the circuit can help to exploit the full potential of these algorithms and thereby lead to a substantial TTT-count reduction. Moreover, minimizing the number of Hadamard gates also restrains the number of additional qubits and operations resulting from the gadgetization of Hadamard gates, a procedure used by some compilers to further reduce the number of TTT gates. In this work we tackle the Hadamard gate reduction problem, and propose an algorithm for synthesizing a sequence of π/4π/4π/4 Pauli rotations with a minimal number of Hadamard gates. Based on this result, we present an algorithm which optimally minimizes the number of Hadamard gates lying between the first and the last TTT gate of the circuit.
Among the cost metrics characterizing a quantum circuit, the T -count stands out as one of the most crucial as its minimization is particularly important in various areas of quantum computation such as fault-tolerant quantum computing and quantum circuit simulation. In this work, we contribute to the T -count reduction problem by proposing efficient T -count optimizers with low execution times. In particular, we greatly improve the complexity of TODD, an algorithm currently providing the best T -count reduction on various quantum circuits. We also propose some modifications to the algorithm which are leading to a significantly lower number of T gates. In addition, we propose another algorithm which has an even lower complexity and that achieves a better or equal T -count than the state of the art on most quantum circuits evaluated. We also prove that the number of T gates in the circuit obtained after executing our algorithms on a Hadamard-free circuit composed of n qubits is upper bounded by n ( n + 1 ) / 2 + 1 , which improves on the worst-case T -count of existing optimization algorithms. From this we derive an upper bound of ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 h ) / 2 + 1 for the number of T gates in a Clifford + T circuit where h is the number of internal Hadamard gates in the circuit, i.e. the number of Hadamard gates lying between the first and the last T gate of the circuit.
We propose several methods for optimizing the number of qubits in a quantum circuit while preserving the number of non-Clifford gates. One of our approaches consists in reversing, as much as possible, the gadgetization of Hadamard gates, which is a procedure used by some TTT-count optimizers to circumvent Hadamard gates at the expense of additional qubits. We prove the NP-hardness of this problem and we present an algorithm for solving it. We also propose a more general approach to optimize the number of qubits by showing how it relates to the problem of finding a minimal-width path-decomposition of the graph associated with a given ZX-diagram. This approach can be used to optimize the number of qubits for any computational model that can natively be depicted in ZX-calculus, such as the Pauli Fusion computational model which can represent lattice surgery operations. We also show how this method can be used to efficiently optimize the number of qubits in a quantum circuit by using the ZX-calculus as an intermediate representation.
Abstract An important part of reaping computational advantage from a quantum computer is to reduce the quantum resources needed to implement a desired quantum algorithm. Quantum algorithms that are too large to be practical on noisy intermediate scale quantum devices will require fault-tolerant error correction. This work focuses on reducing the physical cost of implementing quantum algorithms when using the state-of-the-art fault-tolerant quantum error correcting codes, in particular, those for which implementing the T gate consumes vastly more resources than the other gates in the gate set. More specifically, in this paper we consider the group of unitaries that can be exactly implemented by a quantum circuit consisting of the Clifford + T gate set. The Clifford + T gate set is a universal gate set and in this group, using state-of-the-art surface codes, the T gate is by far the most expensive component to implement fault-tolerantly. So it is important to minimize the number of T gates necessary for a fault-tolerant implementation. Our primary interest is to compute a circuit for a given n -qubit unitary U , using the minimum possible number of T gates (called the T-count of unitary U ). We consider the problem COUNT-T, the optimization version of which aims to find the T-count of U . In its decision version the goal is to decide if the T-count is at most some positive integer m . Given an oracle for COUNT-T, we can compute a T-count-optimal circuit in time polynomial in the T-count and dimension of U . We give a provable classical algorithm that solves COUNT-T (decision) in time O N 2 ( c − 1 ) ⌈ m c ⌉ p o l y ( m , N ) and space O N 2 ⌈ m c ⌉ p o l y ( m , N ) , where N = 2 n and c ⩾ 2. This gives a space-time trade-off for solving this problem with variants of meet-in-the-middle techniques. We also introduce an asymptotically faster multiplication method that shaves a factor of N 0.7457 off of the overall complexity. Lastly, beyond our improvements to the rigorous algorithm, we give a heuristic algorithm that outputs a T-count-optimal circuit and has space and time complexity poly( m , N ), under some assumptions. In our heuristic algorithm we developed a novel way of pruning the search space. While our heuristic method still scales exponentially with the number of qubits (though with a lower exponent), there is a large improvement by going from exponential to polynomial scaling with m . We implemented our heuristic algorithm with up to 4 qubit unitaries and obtained a significant improvement in time. For all benchmark and random unitaries we studied, the T-count returned by our algorithm is at most the T-count of their circuits shown in previous papers.
Quantum Circuit Pre-Synthesis: Learning Local Edits to Reduce TTT-count
Compiling quantum circuits into Clifford+TTT gates is a central task for fault-tolerant quantum computing using stabilizer codes. In the near term, TTT gates will dominate the cost of fault tolerant implementations, and any reduction in the number of such expensive gates could mean the difference between being able to run a circuit or not. While exact synthesis is exponentially hard in the number of qubits, local synthesis approaches are commonly used to compile large circuits by decomposing them into substructures. However, composing local methods leads to suboptimal compilations in key metrics such as TTT-count or circuit depth, and their performance strongly depends on circuit representation. In this work, we address this challenge by proposing \textsc{Q-PreSyn}, a strategy that, given a set of local edits preserving circuit equivalence, uses a RL agent to identify effective sequences of such actions and thereby obtain circuit representations that yield a reduced TTT-count upon synthesis. Experimental results of our proposed strategy, applied on top of well-known synthesis algorithms, show up to a 20%20\%20% reduction in TTT-count on circuits with up to 25 qubits, without introducing any additional approximation error prior to synthesis.
We present an efficient algorithm to reduce the number of non-Clifford gates in quantum circuits and the number of parametrized rotations in parametrized quantum circuits. The method consists in finding rotations that can be merged into a single rotation gate. This approach has already been considered before and is used as a pre-processing procedure in many optimization algorithms, notably for optimizing the number of Hadamard gates or the number of TTT gates in Clifford+T+T+T circuits. Our algorithm has a better complexity than similar methods and is particularly efficient for circuits with a low number of internal Hadamard gates. Furthermore, we show that this approach is optimal for parametrized circuits composed of Clifford gates and parametrized rotations with non-repeated parameters. For the same type of parametrized quantum circuits, we also prove that a previous procedure optimizing the number of Hadamard gates and internal Hadamard gates is optimal. This procedure is notably used in our low-complexity algorithm for optimally reducing the number of parametrized rotations.