The applications of geometric control theory methods on Lie groups and homogeneous spaces to the theory of quantum computations are investigated. These methods are shown to be very useful for the problem of constructing an universal set of gates for quantum computations: the well-known result that the set of all one-bit gates together with almost any one two-bit gate is universal is considered from the control theory viewpoint.
The applications of geometric control theory methods on Lie groups and homogeneous spaces to the theory of quantum computations are investigated. These methods are shown to be very useful for the problem of constructing an universal set of gates for quantum computations: the well-known result that the set of all one-bit gates together with almost any one two-bit gate is universal is considered from the control theory viewpoint.
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.
In this paper we survey some results in Control Theory that have had a significant impact on quantum mechanics and its applications. We shall consider three specific examples: 1) The concept of controllability, in its various forms, has provided a practical test to verify the feasibility of a number of putative experiments in quantum physics. The verification of controllability involves the study of the Lie algebra structure underlying the system. This study itself has proved a valuable tool to design experiments. 2) Results on the uniform generation of compact Lie groups have been applied to show that almost every set of quantum gates is universal for quantum computation. This result can be further refined by showing that the number of gates necessary to implement quantum logic operations is uniformly bounded by a value which only depends on the number of quantum bits processed. 3) Techniques of Optimal Control Theory have been employed to show that the pulses used to drive particles with spin 1/2 in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance are the optimal pulses which minimize the time of state transfer (subject to an energy constraint) and the energy (subject to a time constraint).
A quantum computer is similar to an ordinary computer, except that instead of bits it uses two-level quantum systems (qubits), and the usual logical operations on bits are replaced with noiseless quantum dynamics in the form of unitary gates or Hamiltonian interactions. Many sets of resources that are universal for quantum computation (that is, capable of implementing any quantum computation) have been found, but general conditions for universality are still only partially understood. Improving our understanding of these conditions contributes to two broad goals. On the one hand, understanding what class of physical systems is suitable for quantum computation allows us choose the systems that are most easily controlled or built in the laboratory. On the other hand, identifying the unifying characteristics of such a class provides insight into the fundamental physics responsible for the much greater computational power of quantum computers. The original results presented in this thesis are a contribution to our understanding of the physical requirements for universal quantum computation. These results lead to the identification of a new, large class of universal dynamics. More specifically, the main problem that is addressed is the following: consider a physical system that is made up of a finite number of qubits that are subject to a natural, fixed interaction described by a two-body Hamiltonian. Suppose we have the ability to control the system only by applying fast one-qubit operations. Under what conditions is this system capable of universal quantum computation? The first original result of the thesis is to prove that universal quantum computation is possible under these conditions given the single extra constraint that the Hamiltonian must entangle, or connect, all of the qubits. In other words, since a two-body Hamiltonian is expressible as a sum of coupling terms each of which acts nontrivially on a pair of qubits, consider the graph whose vertices correspond to qubits and whose edges connect qubits that are coupled by a term in the Hamiltonian. Then this Hamiltonian, together with fast one-qubit unitaries, is universal for quantum computation precisely when the corresponding graph is connected. This result suggests many potential generalizations, three of which are explored in this thesis. The first generalization is to show that the same result holds for a two-body Hamiltonian that acts on D-dimensional quantum systems (qudits), given fast one-qudit unitaries. A second extension is to the case of a many-body Hamiltonian, that is, a Hamiltonian that has coupling terms that act on more than two qubits. Again, we find that under mild restrictions, such Hamiltonians are universal provided they are connected and that arbitrary one-qubit unitaries are available. We also discover and explore some surprising structure in many-body Hamiltonians that is associated with the parity of the couplings. A third related problem that is addressed is the question of what two-qubit unitaries are universal for quantum computation. This problem was originally solved by J.-L. and R. Brylinski [BB02], who gave a technical proof of the universality of any two-qudit gate that is not the swap gate or a product of one-qudit unitaries, given one-qudit unitaries as a free resource. We develop an elementary and constructive proof for the case of qubits, and prove that our construction is very close to optimal in the number of uses of the two-qubit gate. Given a qualitative understanding of what dynamical resources are universal for quantum computation, it is natural to consider developing a quantitative measure of the usefulness of quantum dynamics for quantum information processing. This is done in the final chapter of the thesis, in which the beginnings of a quantitative theory of quantum dynamics are developed.
Alternative mathematical explorations in quantum computing can be of great scientific interest, especially if they come with penetrating physical insights. In this paper, we present a critical revisitation of our application of geometric (Clifford) algebras (GAs) in quantum computing as originally presented in [C. Cafaro and S. Mancini, Adv. Appl. Clifford Algebras 21, 493 (2011)]. Our focus is on testing the usefulness of geometric algebras (GAs) techniques in two quantum computing applications. First, making use of the geometric algebra of a relativistic configuration space (namely multiparticle spacetime algebra or MSTA), we offer an explicit algebraic characterization of one- and two-qubit quantum states together with a MSTA description of one- and two-qubit quantum computational gates. In this first application, we devote special attention to the concept of entanglement, focusing on entangled quantum states and two-qubit entangling quantum gates. Second, exploiting the previously mentioned MSTA characterization together with the GA depiction of the Lie algebras SO3;R and SU2;C depending on the rotor group Spin+3,0 formalism, we focus our attention to the concept of universality in quantum computing by reevaluating Boykin’s proof on the identification of a suitable set of universal quantum gates. At the end of our mathematical exploration, we arrive at two main conclusions. Firstly, the MSTA perspective leads to a powerful conceptual unification between quantum states and quantum operators. More specifically, the complex qubit space and the complex space of unitary operators acting on them merge in a single multivectorial real space. Secondly, the GA viewpoint on rotations based on the rotor group Spin+3,0 carries both conceptual and computational advantages compared to conventional vectorial and matricial methods.
Abstract The application of machine learning techniques to solve problems in quantum control together with established geometric methods for solving optimisation problems leads naturally to an exploration of how machine learning approaches can be used to enhance geometric approaches for solving problems in quantum information processing. In this work, we review and extend the application of deep learning to quantum geometric control problems. Specifically, we demonstrate enhancements in time-optimal control in the context of quantum circuit synthesis problems by applying novel deep learning algorithms in order to approximate geodesics (and thus minimal circuits) along Lie group manifolds relevant to low-dimensional multi-qubit systems, such as SU(2), SU(4) and SU(8). We demonstrate the superior performance of greybox models, which combine traditional blackbox algorithms with whitebox models (which encode prior domain knowledge of quantum mechanics), as means of learning underlying quantum circuit distributions of interest. Our results demonstrate how geometric control techniques can be used to both (a) verify the extent to which geometrically synthesised quantum circuits lie along geodesic, and thus time-optimal, routes and (b) synthesise those circuits. Our results are of interest to researchers in quantum control and quantum information theory seeking to combine machine learning and geometric techniques for time-optimal control problems.