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arXiv:quant-ph/0312193 · Physical Review Letters

Minimum Construction of Two-Qubit Quantum Operations

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

Published Jul 7, 2004• 69 citations
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Abstract

Optimal construction of quantum operations is a fundamental problem in the realization of quantum computation. We here introduce a newly discovered quantum gate, B, that can implement any arbitrary two-qubit quantum operation with minimal number of both two- and single-qubit gates. We show this by giving an analytic circuit that implements a generic nonlocal two-qubit operation from just two applications of the B gate. Realization of the B gate is illustrated with an example of charge-coupled superconducting qubits for which the B gate is seen to be generated in shorter time than the CNOT gate.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.93.020502

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Optimal construction of quantum operations is a fundamental problem in the realization of quantum computation. We here introduce a newly discovered quantum gate, B, that can implement any arbitrary two-qubit quantum operation with minimal number of both two- and single-qubit gates. We show this by giving an analytic circuit that implements a generic nonlocal two-qubit operation from just two applications of the B gate. Realization of the B gate is illustrated with an example of charge-coupled superconducting qubits for which the B gate is seen to be generated in shorter time than the CNOT gate.
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We address the problem of constructing quantum circuits to implement an arbitrary two-qubit quantum computation. We pursue circuits without ancilla qubits and as small a number of elementary quantum gates as possible. Our lower bound for worst-case optimal two-qubit circuits calls for at least 171717 gates: 151515 one-qubit rotations and 222 controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates. We also constructively prove a worst-case upper bound of 232323 elementary gates, of which at most four (CNOT gates) entail multiqubit interactions. Our analysis shows that synthesis algorithms suggested in previous work, although more general, entail larger quantum circuits than ours in the special case of two qubits. One such algorithm has a worst case of 616161 gates, of which 181818 may be CNOT gates.
We provide an analytic way to implement any arbitrary two-qubit unitary operation, given an entangling two-qubit gate together with local gates. This is shown to provide explicit construction of a universal quantum circuit that exactly simulates arbitrary two-qubit operations in SU(4). Each block in this circuit is given in a closed form solution. We also provide a uniform upper bound of the applications of the given entangling gates, and find that exactly half of all the controlled-unitary gates satisfy the same upper bound as the CNOT gate. These results allow for the efficient implementation of operations in SU(4) required for both quantum computation and quantum simulation.
Optimal implementation of quantum gates is crucial for designing a quantum computer. The necessary condition for optimal construction of a two-qubit unitary operation is obtained. It can be proved that the BBB gate is the unique gate that can construct a two-qubit universal circuit with only two applications, i.e., this condition is also sufficient in the case of two applications of the elementary two-qubit gate. It is also shown that many perfect entanglers cannot simulate an arbitrary two-qubit gate with only three applications. We show how a two-qubit gate's construction power is related to the construction power of its mirror gate, and introduce a specific kind of two-qubit entangling gate, i.e., a super controlled gate, which can construct an arbitrary two-qubit gate by three applications.