Complexity Classification of Conjugated Clifford Circuits

Clifford circuits - i.e. circuits composed of only CNOT, Hadamard, and pi/4 phase gates - play a central role in the study of quantum computation. However, their computational power is limited: a well-known result of Gottesman and Knill states that Clifford circuits are efficiently classically simulable. We show that in contrast, "conjugated Clifford circuits" (CCCs) - where one additionally conjugates every qubit by the same one-qubit gate U - can perform hard sampling tasks. In particular, we fully classify the computational power of CCCs by showing that essentially any non-Clifford conjugating unitary U can give rise to sampling tasks which cannot be efficiently classically simulated to constant multiplicative error, unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses. Furthermore, by standard techniques, this hardness result can be extended to allow for the more realistic model of constant additive error, under a plausible complexity-theoretic conjecture. This work can be seen as progress towards classifying the computational power of all restricted quantum gate sets

Entanglement Scaling in Quantum Advantage Benchmarks

A contemporary technological milestone is to build a quantum device performing a computational task beyond the capability of any classical computer, an achievement known as quantum adversarial advantage. In what ways can the entanglement realized in such a demonstration be quantified? Inspired by the area law of tensor networks, we derive an upper bound for the minimum random circuit depth needed to generate the maximal bipartite entanglement correlations between all problem variables (qubits). This bound is (i) lattice geometry dependent and (ii) makes explicit a nuance implicit in other proposals with physical consequence. The hardware itself should be able to support super-logarithmic ebits of entanglement across some poly($n$) number of qubit-bipartitions, otherwise the quantum state itself will not possess volumetric entanglement scaling and full-lattice-range correlations. Hence, as we present a connection between quantum advantage protocols and quantum entanglement, the entanglement implicitly generated by such protocols can be tested separately to further ascertain the validity of any quantum advantage claim.Comment: updates and improvements from the review process; 8 pages; 3 figure

Quantum Entropy and Central Limit Theorem

We introduce a framework to study discrete-variable (DV) quantum systems based on qudits. It relies on notions of a mean state (MS), a minimal stabilizer-projection state (MSPS), and a new convolution. Some interesting consequences are: The MS is the closest MSPS to a given state with respect to the relative entropy; the MS is extremal with respect to the von Neumann entropy, demonstrating a ''maximal entropy principle in DV systems.'' We obtain a series of inequalities for quantum entropies and for Fisher information based on convolution, giving a ''second law of thermodynamics for quantum convolutions.'' We show that the convolution of two stabilizer states is a stabilizer state. We establish a central limit theorem, based on iterating the convolution of a zero-mean quantum state, and show this converges to its MS. The rate of convergence is characterized by the ''magic gap,'' which we define in terms of the support of the characteristic function of the state. We elaborate on two examples: the DV beam splitter and the DV amplifier.Comment: 11 pages. See also the companion work arXiv:2302.0842

Magic from a Convolutional Approach

We introduce a convolutional framework to study stabilizer states and channels based on qudits. This includes the key concepts of a "magic gap," a mean state (MS), a minimal stabilizer-projection state (MSPS), and a new convolution. We find that the MS is the closest MSPS to the given state with respect to relative entropy, and the MS is extremal with respect to von Neumann entropy. This demonstrates a "maximal entropy principle for DV systems," and also indicates that the process of taking MS is a nontrivial, resource-destroying map for magic. We obtain a series of inequalities for quantum entropies and for Fisher information based on convolution, giving a "second law of thermodynamics for quantum convolution." The convolution of two stabilizer states is another stabilizer. We establish a central limit theorem, based on iterating the convolution of a zero-mean quantum state, and show this converges to an MS. The rate of convergence is characterized by the magic gap, which is defined in terms of the support of the characteristic function of the state. Based on the Choi-Jamiolkowski isomorphism, we introduce the notions of a mean channel, which is a stabilizer channel, and the convolution of quantum channels. We obtain results for quantum channels similar to those for states, and find that Clifford unitaries play an important role in the convolution of channels in analogous to the role stabilizers play in the convolution of states. We elaborate these methods with a discussion of three examples: the qudit DV beam splitter, the qudit DV amplifier and the qubit CNOT gate. All these results are compatible with the conjecture that stabilizers play the role in DV quantum systems analogous to Gaussians in continuous-variable quantum systems.Comment: 46 pages. See also the companion work arXiv:2302.0784