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arXiv:quant-ph/0209120 · Physical Review A

Geometric theory of nonlocal two-qubit operations

Jun Zhang, Jiří Vala, Shankar Sastry, K. Birgitta Whaley

Published Apr 18, 2003• 415 citations
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Abstract

We study nonlocal two-qubit operations from a geometric perspective. By applying a Cartan decomposition to su(4), we find that the geometric structure of nonlocal gates is a 3-torus. We derive the invariants for local transformations, and connect these local invariants to the coordinates of the 3-torus. Since different points on the 3-torus may correspond to the same local equivalence class, we use the Weyl group theory to reduce the symmetry. We show that the local equivalence classes of two-qubit gates are in one-to-one correspondence with the points in a tetrahedron except on the base. We then study the properties of perfect entanglers, that is, the two-qubit operations that can generate maximally entangled states from some initially separable states. We provide criteria to determine whether a given two-qubit gate is a perfect entangler and establish a geometric description of perfect entanglers by making use of the tetrahedral representation of nonlocal gates. We find that exactly half the nonlocal gates are perfect entanglers. We also investigate the nonlocal operations generated by a given Hamiltonian. We first study the gates that can be directly generated by a Hamiltonian. Then we explicitly construct a quantum circuit that contains at most three nonlocal gates generated by a two-body interaction Hamiltonian, together with at most four local gates generated by single-qubit terms. We prove that such a quantum circuit can simulate any arbitrary two-qubit gate exactly, and hence it provides an efficient implementation of universal quantum computation and simulation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.67.042313

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We study nonlocal two-qubit operations from a geometric perspective. By applying a Cartan decomposition to su(4), we find that the geometric structure of nonlocal gates is a 3-torus. We derive the invariants for local transformations, and connect these local invariants to the coordinates of the 3-torus. Since different points on the 3-torus may correspond to the same local equivalence class, we use the Weyl group theory to reduce the symmetry. We show that the local equivalence classes of two-qubit gates are in one-to-one correspondence with the points in a tetrahedron except on the base. We then study the properties of perfect entanglers, that is, the two-qubit operations that can generate maximally entangled states from some initially separable states. We provide criteria to determine whether a given two-qubit gate is a perfect entangler and establish a geometric description of perfect entanglers by making use of the tetrahedral representation of nonlocal gates. We find that exactly half the nonlocal gates are perfect entanglers. We also investigate the nonlocal operations generated by a given Hamiltonian. We first study the gates that can be directly generated by a Hamiltonian. Then we explicitly construct a quantum circuit that contains at most three nonlocal gates generated by a two-body interaction Hamiltonian, together with at most four local gates generated by single-qubit terms. We prove that such a quantum circuit can simulate any arbitrary two-qubit gate exactly, and hence it provides an efficient implementation of universal quantum computation and simulation.
Recent advances in the physical sciences and engineering have created great hopes for new computational paradigms and substrates. One such new approach is the quantum computer, which holds the promise of enhanced computational power. Analogous to the way a classical computer is built from electrical circuits containing wires and logic gates, a quantum computer is built from quantum circuits containing quantum wires and elementary quantum gates to transport and manipulate quantum information. Therefore, design of quantum gates and quantum circuits is a prerequisite for any real application of quantum computation. In this dissertation we apply geometric control methods from differential geometry and Lie group representation theory to analyze the properties of quantum gates and to design optimal quantum circuits. Using the Cartan decomposition and the Weyl group, we show that the geometric structure of nonlocal two-qubit gates is a 3-Torus. After further reducing the symmetry, the geometric representation of nonlocal gates is seen to be conveniently visualized as a tetrahedron. Each point in this tetrahedron except on the base corresponds to a different equivalent class of nonlocal gates. This geometric representation is one of the cornerstones for the discussion on quantum computation in this dissertation. We investigate the properties of those two-qubit operations that can generate maximal entanglement. It is an astonishing finding that if we randomly choose a two-qubit operation, the probability that we obtain a perfect entangler is exactly one half. We prove that given a two-body interaction Hamiltonian, it is always possible to explicitly construct a quantum circuit for exact simulation of any arbitrary nonlocal two-qubit gate by turning on the two-body interaction for at most three times, together with at most four local gates. We also provide an analytic approach to construct a universal quantum circuit from any entangling gate supplemented with local gates. Closed form solutions have been derived for each step in this explicit construction procedure. Moreover, the minimum upper bound is found to construct a universal quantum circuit from any Controlled-Unitary gate. A near optimal explicit construction of universal quantum circuits from a given Controlled-Unitary is provided. For the Controlled-NOT and Double-CNOT gate, we then develop simple analytic ways to construct universal quantum circuits with exactly three applications, which is the least possible for these gates. We further discover a new quantum gate (named B gate) that achieves the desired universality with minimal number of gates. Optimal implementation of single-qubit quantum gates is also investigated. Finally, as a real physical application, a constructive way to implement any arbitrary two-qubit operation on a spin electronics system is discussed.
The capacity of a quantum gate to produce entangled states on a bipartite system is quantified in terms of the entangling power. This quantity is defined as the average of the linear entropy of entanglement of the states produced after applying a quantum gate over the whole set of separable states. Here we focus on symmetric two-qubit quantum gates, acting on the symmetric two-qubit space, and calculate the entangling power in terms of the appropriate local invariant. A geometric description of the local equivalence classes of gates is given in terms of the su(3)\text{su}(3)su(3) Lie algebra root vectors. These vectors define a primitive cell with hexagonal symmetry on a plane, and through the Weyl group the minimum area on the plane containing the whole set of locally equivalent quantum gates is identified. We give conditions to determine when a given quantum gate produces maximally entangled states from separable ones (perfect entanglers). We find that these gates correspond to one-fourth of the whole set of locally distinct quantum gates. The formalism developed here is applicable to general three-level systems. Via the Majorana representation, qutrit transformations can be regarded as having entangling power and hence classified as perfect and nonperfect entanglers and be grouped into local-equivalence classes of the associated symmetric two-qubit space. The results are illustrated by an anisotropic Heisenberg model, the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, and two coupled quantized oscillators with cross-Kerr interaction, which we use to obtain three-level gates relevant in qutrit quantum computation.
Nonlocal two-qubit gates are geometrically represented by tetrahedron known as Weyl chamber within which perfect entanglers form a polyhedron. We identify that all edges of the Weyl chamber and polyhedron are formed by single parametric gates. Nonlocal attributes of these edges are characterized using entangling power and local invariants. In particular, ${\text{SWAP}}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ family of gates with $0\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\le}1$ constitutes one edge of the Weyl chamber with ${\text{SWAP}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ being the only perfect entangler. Finally, optimal constructions of controlled-NOT using ${\text{SWAP}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ gate and gates belong to three edges of the polyhedron are presented.
Two applications of gates from the B gate equivalence class can generate all two-qubit gates. This local equivalence class is invariant under the mirror (multiplication with the SWAP gate) operation, inverse (Hermitian conjugate) operation, and the combined inverse and mirror operations. The last two symmetries are associated with the ability of a two-qubit gate to generate the two-qubit local gates and the SWAP gate in two applications. No single local equivalence class of two-qubit gates, except the B gate equivalence class, has these two symmetries. Only the planar regions of the Weyl chamber, describing the mirror operation, contain the local equivalence classes with either one of the two symmetries. We show that there exist one-parameter families of local equivalence classes on these planes, with and without the B gate equivalence class, such that each of them can be used to construct a parameterized universal two-qubit quantum circuit that involves only two nonlocal two-qubit gates. We also discuss the implementation of the gates from a few families of local equivalence classes on superconducting quantum computers for optimal generation of all two-qubit gates. We provide upper bounds on the number of two-qubit gates required to generate an arbitrary nnn-qubit gate for two families, each of which is conjectured to generate all two-qubit gates in two applications. We show that there exists a positive correlation between the area of the convex hull of the squared eigenvalues of the nonlocal part of a parameterized two-qubit gate and the fractional volume of the Weyl chamber covered in two applications of the parameterized two-qubit gate for two families of local equivalence classes.
We present a framework based on the determinantal geometry of two-qubit gates. Combining the Weyl chamber representation with operator Schmidt theory, we interpret gate synthesis as a distance problem to determinantal varieties. This gives an operational geometry to the Weyl chamber, quantifying nonlocal complexity. We show that the square root iSWAP gate is the closest perfect entangler to the variety of local operations, and that no perfect entangler can be approximated by a local gate with average gate fidelity above 79.8%. The three different determinantal costs form a synthesis-adapted coordinate system that encodes nonlocal complexity and generally reconstructs the Weyl chamber.
Abstract We show that the geometrical features of the unimodular squared eigenvalues of the nonlocal part of a two-qubit gate in the complex plane can be used to study the nonlocal characteristics of the two-qubit gate. It has been shown that the entangling power of a two-qubit gate can be expressed in terms of the mean squared length of the chords connecting the squared eigenvalues of the nonlocal part with each other. In this paper, we provide similar expressions for the gate typicality and the linear entropy of two-qubit gates. The expression of gate typicality involves the squared lengths of three chords connecting a squared eigenvalue of the nonlocal part with the complex conjugate of the other three squared eigenvalues. The expression of linear entropy is obtained from the expressions of entangling power and gate typicality. We also express them in terms of the linear entropies of certain two-qubit states. In addition, we show that the normalized entangling power of a two-qubit gate can be provided exact description in the Argand diagram. Finally, we analyze the simplices enclosing the origin in the convex hull of the squared eigenvalues of the nonlocal part of the perfect entangling two-qubit gates to construct a pair of orthonormal product states that can be transformed into maximally entangled states, and divide the region of perfect entanglers in the Weyl chamber into different regions based on the uniqueness of the simplices enclosing the origin.