What is the minimal size quantum circuit required to exactly implement a specified n-qubit unitary operation, U, without the use of ancilla qubits? We show that a lower bound on the minimal size is provided by the length of the minimal geodesic between U and the identity, I, where length is defined by a suitable Finsler metric on the manifold SU(2^n). The geodesic curves on these manifolds have the striking property that once an initial position and velocity are set, the remainder of the geodesic is completely determined by a second order differential equation known as the geodesic equation. This is in contrast with the usual case in circuit design, either classical or quantum, where being given part of an optimal circuit does not obviously assist in the design of the rest of the circuit. Geodesic analysis thus offers a potentially powerful approach to the problem of proving quantum circuit lower bounds. In this paper we construct several Finsler metrics whose minimal length geodesics provide lower bounds on quantum circuit size. For each Finsler metric we give a procedure to compute the corresponding geodesic equation. We also construct a large class of solutions to the geodesic equation, which we call \emph{Pauli geodesics}, since they arise from isometries generated by the Pauli group. For any unitary U diagonal in the computational basis, we show that: (a) provided the minimal length geodesic is unique, it must be a Pauli geodesic; (b) finding the length of the minimal Pauli geodesic passing from I to U is equivalent to solving an exponential size instance of the closest vector in a lattice problem (CVP); and (c) all but a doubly exponentially small fraction of such unitaries have minimal Pauli geodesics of exponential length.
What is the minimal size quantum circuit required to exactly implement a specified n-qubit unitary operation, U, without the use of ancilla qubits? We show that a lower bound on the minimal size is provided by the length of the minimal geodesic between U and the identity, I, where length is defined by a suitable Finsler metric on the manifold SU(2^n). The geodesic curves on these manifolds have the striking property that once an initial position and velocity are set, the remainder of the geodesic is completely determined by a second order differential equation known as the geodesic equation. This is in contrast with the usual case in circuit design, either classical or quantum, where being given part of an optimal circuit does not obviously assist in the design of the rest of the circuit. Geodesic analysis thus offers a potentially powerful approach to the problem of proving quantum circuit lower bounds. In this paper we construct several Finsler metrics whose minimal length geodesics provide lower bounds on quantum circuit size. For each Finsler metric we give a procedure to compute the corresponding geodesic equation. We also construct a large class of solutions to the geodesic equation, which we call \emph{Pauli geodesics}, since they arise from isometries generated by the Pauli group. For any unitary U diagonal in the computational basis, we show that: (a) provided the minimal length geodesic is unique, it must be a Pauli geodesic; (b) finding the length of the minimal Pauli geodesic passing from I to U is equivalent to solving an exponential size instance of the closest vector in a lattice problem (CVP); and (c) all but a doubly exponentially small fraction of such unitaries have minimal Pauli geodesics of exponential length.
Nielsen \cite{Nielsen05} recently asked the following question: "What is the minimal size quantum circuit required to exactly implement a specified -qubit unitary operation U, without the use of ancilla qubits?" Nielsen was able to prove that a lower bound on the minimal size circuit is provided by the length of the geodesic between the identity I and U, where the length is defined by a suitable Finsler metric on SU(2n). We prove that the minimum circuit size that simulates U is in linear relation with the geodesic length and simulation parameters, for the given Finsler structure F. As a corollary we prove the highest lower bound of $O(\frac{% n^{4}}{p}d_{F_{p}}^{2}(I,U)L_{F_{p}}(I,\tilde{U})) $and the lowest upper bound of Ω(n4dFp3(I,U)), for the standard simulation technique. Therefore, our results show that by standard simulation one can not expect a better then n2 times improvement in the upper bound over the result from Nielsen, Dowling, Gu and Doherty \cite{Nielsen06}. Moreover, our equivalence result can be applied to the arbitrary path on the manifold including the one that is generated adiabatically.
Determining the quantum circuit complexity of a unitary operation is closely related to the problem of finding minimal length paths in a particular curved geometry [Nielsen et al, Science 311, 1133-1135 (2006)]. This paper investigates many of the basic geometric objects associated to this space, including the Levi-Civita connection, the geodesic equation, the curvature, and the Jacobi equation. We show that the optimal Hamiltonian evolution for synthesis of a desired unitary necessarily obeys a simple universal geodesic equation. As a consequence, once the initial value of the Hamiltonian is set, subsequent changes to the Hamiltonian are completely determined by the geodesic equation. We develop many analytic solutions to the geodesic equation, and a set of invariants that completely determine the geodesics. We investigate the problem of finding minimal geodesics through a desired unitary, U, and develop a procedure which allows us to deform the (known) geodesics of a simple and well understood metric to the geodesics of the metric of interest in quantum computation. This deformation procedure is illustrated using some three-qubit numerical examples. We study the computational complexity of evaluating distances on Riemmanian manifolds, and show that no efficient classical algorithm for this problem exists, subject to the assumption that good pseudorandom generators exist. Finally, we develop a canonical extension procedure for unitary operations which allows ancilla qubits to be incorporated into the geometric approach to quantum computing.
Determining the quantum circuit complexity of a unitary operation is closely related to the problem of finding minimal length paths in a particular curved geometry [Nielsen et al, Science 311, 1133-1135 (2006)]. This paper investigates many of the basic geometric objects associated to this space, including the Levi-Civita connection, the geodesic equation, the curvature, and the Jacobi equation. We show that the optimal Hamiltonian evolution for synthesis of a desired unitary necessarily obeys a simple universal geodesic equation. As a consequence, once the initial value of the Hamiltonian is set, subsequent changes to the Hamiltonian are completely determined by the geodesic equation. We develop many analytic solutions to the geodesic equation, and a set of invariants that completely determine the geodesics. We investigate the problem of finding minimal geodesics through a desired unitary, U, and develop a procedure which allows us to deform the (known) geodesics of a simple and well understood metric to the geodesics of the metric of interest in quantum computation. This deformation procedure is illustrated using some three-qubit numerical examples. We study the computational complexity of evaluating distances on Riemmanian manifolds, and show that no efficient classical algorithm for this problem exists, subject to the assumption that good pseudorandom generators exist. Finally, we develop a canonical extension procedure for unitary operations which allows ancilla qubits to be incorporated into the geometric approach to quantum computing.
Recently, Nielsen et al have proposed a geometric approach to quantum computation. They've shown that the size of the minimum quantum circuits implementing a unitary U, up to polynomial factors, equals to the length of minimal geodesic from identity I through U. They've investigated a large class of solutions to the geodesic equation, called Pauli geodesics. They've raised a natural question whether we can explicitly construct a family of unitaries U that have exponentially long minimal length Pauli geodesics? We give a positive answer to this question.
Nielsen et al. have introduced a Riemannian metric on the space of n-qubit unitary operators [M. A. Nielsen, M. R. Dowling, M. Gu and A. C. Doherty, Science 311 (2006), 1133]. The length of the shortest curve connecting the identity I and a desired unitary operator W defined by this metric is essentially equivalent to the quantum gate complexity of W. This metric, and thus, the Riemannian geodesic equation for this metric, has a parameter q called “penalty” that must be large enough. In this paper, we investigate the sub-Riemannian geodesic equation obtained by taking the limit of the Riemannian geodesic equation as q →∞, and show that the Riemannian geodesics for finite q can be explicitly constructed from the sub-Riemannian geodesics. We also present a numerical algorithm for finding the (sub-)Riemannian geodesics connecting I and W, which is based on the Krotov method in optimal control theory. As an example, we give an exact sub-Riemannian geodesic connecting I and the controlled-controlled-Z gate, which is obtained by guessing from the numerical results of the algorithm.