From both intuitive and physical perspectives, it is generally recognized that within a resource theory framework, free operations cannot broadcast a resource state due to their inability to generate resource from free states. In the stabilizer formalism of fault-tolerant quantum computation, the basic ingredients of the corresponding resource theory consist of stabilizer states as free states and stabilizer operations as free operations. The celebrated Gottesman-Knill theorem shows that quantum advantages over classical computation come from the magic (nonstabilizer) resource, such as magic states or non-Clifford gates. In this work, we prove that broadcasting of any magic state via stabilizer operations is impossible, which is reminiscent of the no-broadcasting theorems for noncommuting states or quantum correlations. We further derive a trade-off relation between the magic resource consumed in the initial system and that gained in the target system. These results characterize magic states in the stabilizer formalism from the broadcasting angle, and may have implications for distributed quantum computation and quantum secret sharing.
From both intuitive and physical perspectives, it is generally recognized that within a resource theory framework, free operations cannot broadcast a resource state due to their inability to generate resource from free states. In the stabilizer formalism of fault-tolerant quantum computation, the basic ingredients of the corresponding resource theory consist of stabilizer states as free states and stabilizer operations as free operations. The celebrated Gottesman-Knill theorem shows that quantum advantages over classical computation come from the magic (nonstabilizer) resource, such as magic states or non-Clifford gates. In this work, we prove that broadcasting of any magic state via stabilizer operations is impossible, which is reminiscent of the no-broadcasting theorems for noncommuting states or quantum correlations. We further derive a trade-off relation between the magic resource consumed in the initial system and that gained in the target system. These results characterize magic states in the stabilizer formalism from the broadcasting angle, and may have implications for distributed quantum computation and quantum secret sharing.
Stabilizer operations (SO) occupy a prominent role in fault-tolerant quantum computing. They are defined operationally by the use of Clifford gates, Pauli measurements, and classical control. These operations can be efficiently simulated on a classical computer, a result which is known as the Gottesman–Knill theorem. However, an additional supply of magic states is enough to promote them to a universal, fault-tolerant model for quantum computing. To quantify the needed resources in terms of magic states, a resource theory of magic has been developed. SO are considered free within this theory; however, they are not the most general class of free operations. From an axiomatic point of view, these are the completely stabilizer-preserving (CSP) channels, defined as those that preserve the convex hull of stabilizer states. It has been an open problem to decide whether these two definitions lead to the same class of operations. In this work, we answer this question in the negative, by constructing an explicit counter-example. This indicates that recently proposed stabilizer-based simulation techniques of CSP maps are strictly more powerful than Gottesman–Knill-like methods. The result is analogous to a well-known fact in entanglement theory, namely, that there is a gap between the operationally defined class of local operations and classical communication and the axiomatically defined class of separable channels.
Stabilizer operations describe a fragment of quantum theory that is known to be efficiently classically simulable, thanks to the Gottesman-Knill theorem. For this reason, nonstabilizer resources such as magic states are necessary for universal quantum computation. Interestingly, the operational and axiomatic approaches to the resource theory of magic differ: the set of free operations in the former, namely, stabilizer operations (SO), is strictly smaller than that in the latter, namely, completely stabilizer preserving operations (CSPO). A simple example showing the separation is given by a three-qubit stabilizer product basis whose states cannot be perfectly discriminated using SO, but which do admit perfect discrimination using CSPO. Such an ensemble of states is said to exhibit nonstabilizerness without magic (NSWM). Here we obtain a principled understanding of this phenomenon, proving necessary and sufficient conditions for its existence. We first derive a simple criterion to decide whether, given a stabilizer basis, its states can be perfectly discriminated using stabilizer operations alone. We then consider the case where the stabilizer basis contains only product states and use its link with process functions---classical models of paradox-free causal loops---to prove the following: the states in a stabilizer product basis require nonstabilizerness for perfect discrimination if and only if the corresponding process function violates a causal inequality. This provides a new operational meaning to causal inequality violations as witnesses of nonstabilizerness, a form of computational nonclassicality.
Quantum systems are known to offer advantages over their classical counterpart in communication complexity protocols, where the aim is to minimize the amount of information exchange between distant parties to compute global functions of their distributed inputs. In this work, we establish that any one-way communication protocol implemented using a prime-dimensional quantum system -- restricted to stabilizer-state encodings and Clifford-operation decodings -- can be exactly simulated by transmitting a classical system of the same dimension, given access to shared randomness between the sender and receiver. In direct analogy with the Gottesman-Knill theorem, which attributes quantum computational speedup to non-stabilizer resources, commonly known as the magic resources, our result identifies the same non-stabilizer resources as the essential ingredient for the quantum advantage in one-way communication complexity. Furthermore, we present explicit tasks where even a 'minimal magic resource' suffices to achieve a provable quantum advantage, highlighting its efficient use in communication protocols.
In distributed fault-tolerant quantum computing, entanglement and magic are essential resources for quantum communication and universal fault-tolerant computation, respectively. Although they are usually treated as distinct resource currencies, whether they admit a unified resource-theoretic description remains an open question. Here, we introduce the distributed resource theory of entanglement and magic (DREAM). In this framework, the free states are convex mixtures of product local stabilizer states, and the free operations are local stabilizer circuits assisted by classical communication (LSCC). We show that DREAM contains nontrivial resource states that are neither entanglement nor magic, so it is strictly richer than treating the two resources independently. Surprisingly, such resources can enable the teleportation of magic states between distant parties without consuming entanglement, revealing a counterintuitive form of resource teleportation mediated entirely by separable states. We further generalize this result to quantum networks and investigate general quantum-state teleportation under LSCC. We show that the shared resource under DREAM is closely related to the teleportation capability, quantified by the magic of the teleported state. Our work establish a systematic framework for studying distributed quantum resources and uncover intrinsic relations among distinct resources within a unified resource theory.
The stabilizer formalism plays a central role in quantum information processing and quantum computing. Since stabilizer states and operations can be efficiently simulated classically and fault-tolerantly implemented in quantum error-correcting codes, quantum states and operations beyond the stabilizer framework, characterized by nonstabilizerness or magic, naturally emerge as resources for quantum computation. Here, we demonstrate that a quantum-information task involving only stabilizer states can reveal a fundamental limitation of stabilizer operations. Specifically, we construct a set of mutually orthogonal stabilizer states that cannot be perfectly distinguished using stabilizer operations and extend this construction to an arbitrary number of qubits. Our results provide an efficient test of nonstabilizerness without requiring the direct use of resourceful states or operations nor relying on computational-hardness assumptions. This nonstabilizerness test could serve as a resource-efficient benchmark for fault-tolerant quantum computers powered by magic-state injection, by providing quantitative bounds on the robustness of magic. More fundamentally, the resulting asymmetry between the preparation and discrimination of free states parallels "nonlocality without entanglement" in entanglement theory, revealing an unexpected connection between these two distinct quantum resource theories.
Quantum gate teleportation is a key technique in fault-tolerant quantum computation that uses resource states to implement logical gates. Here, we develop a theory of magic gate teleportation (MGT), a form of quantum gate teleportation that uses non-stabilizer resource states to implement non-Clifford unitary gates on arbitrary input states without revealing information about those states. This setting is motivated by the canonical approach to implementing logical non-Clifford gates in fault-tolerant quantum computation. We uncover a hidden structure within MGT---after backpropagating the Pauli measurements, MGT protocols can be viewed as encoding the input state into a stabilizer code heralded by the measurement outcomes, followed by a logical non-Clifford gate. Using this structure, we construct MGT protocols for any resource state obtained by applying commuting Pauli rotations to a stabilizer state, and provide an efficient algorithm for synthesizing their circuit implementations. Conversely, we prove that directly useful single-qubit resource states are necessarily Clifford-equivalent to diagonal states, and establish the same constraint for multi-qubit resource states used in a broad class of MGT protocols. In particular, the output state distilled from the [[5,1,3]] protocol is not directly useful for any MGT protocols, though it can be probabilistically converted into directly useful states. Finally, we identify conditions under which the feedforward operators can be implemented by Pauli operators, shedding light on the paradigm of algorithmic fault tolerance and simplifying the feedforward operations needed for quantum computing.