Universality in Quantum Computation

We show that in quantum computation almost every gate that operates on two or more bits is a universal gate. We discuss various physical considerations bearing on the proper definition of universality for computational components such as logic gates.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

Towards optimization of quantum circuits

Any unitary operation in quantum information processing can be implemented via a sequence of simpler steps - quantum gates. However, actual implementation of a quantum gate is always imperfect and takes a finite time. Therefore, seeking for a short sequence of gates - efficient quantum circuit for a given operation, is an important task. We contribute to this issue by proposing optimization of the well-known universal procedure proposed by Barenco et.al [1]. We also created a computer program which realizes both Barenco's decomposition and the proposed optimization. Furthermore, our optimization can be applied to any quantum circuit containing generalized Toffoli gates, including basic quantum gate circuits.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, minor changes+typo

Characterization of two-qubit perfect entanglers

Here we consider perfect entanglers from another perspective. It is shown that there are some {\em special} perfect entanglers which can maximally entangle a {\em full} product basis. We have explicitly constructed a one-parameter family of such entanglers together with the proper product basis that they maximally entangle. This special family of perfect entanglers contains some well-known operators such as {\textsc{cnot}} and {\textsc{dcnot}}, but {\em not} {\small{\sqrt{\rm{\textsc{swap}}}}}. In addition, it is shown that all perfect entanglers with entangling power equal to the maximal value, 2/9, are also special perfect entanglers. It is proved that the one-parameter family is the only possible set of special perfect entanglers. Also we provide an analytic way to implement any arbitrary two-qubit gate, given a proper special perfect entangler supplemented with single-qubit gates. Such these gates are shown to provide a minimum universal gate construction in that just two of them are necessary and sufficient in implementation of a generic two-qubit gate.Comment: 6 pages, 1 eps figur

Programmable quantum gate arrays

We show how to construct quantum gate arrays that can be programmed to perform different unitary operations on a data register, depending on the input to some program register. It is shown that a universal quantum gate array - a gate array which can be programmed to perform any unitary operation - exists only if one allows the gate array to operate in a probabilistic fashion. The universal quantum gate array we construct requires an exponentially smaller number of gates than a classical universal gate array.Comment: 3 pages, REVTEX. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Stabilisation of Quantum Computations by Symmetrisation

We propose a method for the stabilisation of quantum computations (including quantum state storage). The method is based on the operation of projection into $\cal SYM$, the symmetric subspace of the full state space of $R$ redundant copies of the computer. We describe an efficient algorithm and quantum network effecting $\cal SYM$--projection and discuss the stabilising effect of the proposed method in the context of unitary errors generated by hardware imprecision, and nonunitary errors arising from external environmental interaction. Finally, limitations of the method are discussed.Comment: 20 pages LaTeX, 2 postscript figure

A Note on Linear Optics Gates by Post-Selection

Recently it was realized that linear optics and photo-detectors with feedback can be used for theoretically efficient quantum information processing. The first of three steps toward efficient linear optics quantum computation (eLOQC) was to design a simple non-deterministic gate, which upon post-selection based on a measurement result implements a non-linear phase shift on one mode. Here a computational strategy is given for finding non-deterministic gates for bosonic qubits with helper photons. A more efficient conditional sign flip gate is obtained.Comment: 14 pages. Minor changes for clarit

Optimal dense coding with mixed state entanglement

I investigate dense coding with a general mixed state on the Hilbert space $C^{d}\otimes C^{d}$ shared between a sender and receiver. The following result is proved. When the sender prepares the signal states by mutually orthogonal unitary transformations with equal {\it a priori} probabilities, the capacity of dense coding is maximized. It is also proved that the optimal capacity of dense coding $\chi ^{*}$ satisfies $E_{R}(\rho)\leq \chi ^{*}\leq E_{R}(\rho )+\log_{2}d$, where $E_{R}(\rho)$ is the relative entropy of entanglement of the shared entangled state.Comment: Revised. To appear in J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. (Special Issue: Quantum Information and Computation). LaTeX2e (iopart.cls), 8 pages, no figure

Quantum networks for elementary arithmetic operations

Quantum computers require quantum arithmetic. We provide an explicit construction of quantum networks effecting basic arithmetic operations: from addition to modular exponentiation. Quantum modular exponentiation seems to be the most difficult (time and space consuming) part of Shor's quantum factorising algorithm. We show that the auxiliary memory required to perform this operation in a reversible way grows linearly with the size of the number to be factorised

Engineering Functional Quantum Algorithms

Suppose that a quantum circuit with K elementary gates is known for a unitary matrix U, and assume that U^m is a scalar matrix for some positive integer m. We show that a function of U can be realized on a quantum computer with at most O(mK+m^2log m) elementary gates. The functions of U are realized by a generic quantum circuit, which has a particularly simple structure. Among other results, we obtain efficient circuits for the fractional Fourier transform.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Effective Pure States for Bulk Quantum Computation

In bulk quantum computation one can manipulate a large number of indistinguishable quantum computers by parallel unitary operations and measure expectation values of certain observables with limited sensitivity. The initial state of each computer in the ensemble is known but not pure. Methods for obtaining effective pure input states by a series of manipulations have been described by Gershenfeld and Chuang (logical labeling) and Cory et al. (spatial averaging) for the case of quantum computation with nuclear magnetic resonance. We give a different technique called temporal averaging. This method is based on classical randomization, requires no ancilla qubits and can be implemented in nuclear magnetic resonance without using gradient fields. We introduce several temporal averaging algorithms suitable for both high temperature and low temperature bulk quantum computing and analyze the signal to noise behavior of each.Comment: 24 pages in LaTex, 14 figures, the paper is also avalaible at http://qso.lanl.gov/qc