Measurement based quantum computation is a quantum computing paradigm that employs single-qubit measurements performed on an entangled resource state in the form of a cluster state. A basic ingredient in the construction of the resource state is the type-II fusion procedure, which probabilistically merges two separate photonic cluster states by a quantum measurement. We generalize the type-II fusion procedure by generalizing the measurement setup, and classify the resulting final states, which also include cluster states up to single-qubit rotations. We prove that the probability for the success of the generalized type-II fusion is bounded by fifty percent, and classify all the possibilities to saturate the bound. We analyze the enhancement of the fusion success probability above the fifty percent bound, by the reduction of the entanglement entropy of the resulting state. We prove that the only states that can be obtained with a hundred percent probability of success, are product states.
Using numerical simulations, we explore generalized fusion measurements, extending them in three key ways. We incorporate ancilla-boosting and code-boosting to optimize fusion measurements, which may, but do not necessarily, correspond to Bell measurements. For ancilla-boosting beyond Bell measurements, we identify a hierarchy of fusion efficiencies involving up to four single-photon ancillas. From this numerical evidence, we conjecture the efficiencies for a larger number of single-photon ancillas. Interestingly, our findings suggest that achieving unit efficiency is impossible without utilizing entangled ancilla states. Additionally, in the context of code-boosting, we present an example of a global measurement that surpasses the best-known, via transversal Bell measurements achievable efficiency for a small instance of the quantum parity code.
We formalize a generalized type-II fusion operation for qudit cluster states within linear optics. Two designated qudits, one from each input cluster, interfere with optional ancilla qudits via a passive linear-optical network, followed by number-resolving detection; conditioned on measurement outcome, the remaining qudits form the post-selected fused state. We prove a general rank bound: for any such interferometer and outcome, the reduced density matrix across the two parent clusters has Schmidt rank at most
M, the total number of measured qudits including ancillae. Consequently, a correct qudit fusion which requires rank
d is impossible without ancillae and requires at least
d−2 ancilla qudits. Our analysis extends previous no-go results for Bell-type qubit fusion to the qudit setting and to generalized, non-Bell projections. We analyze the probabilities and entanglement of the relevant measurement outcomes, and discuss how our lower bound aligns with existing constructive schemes. These results set a clear resource threshold for high-dimensional, fusion-based photonic MBQC.