Parallelizing Quantum Circuits

We present a novel automated technique for parallelizing quantum circuits via forward and backward translation to measurement-based quantum computing patterns and analyze the trade off in terms of depth and space complexity. As a result we distinguish a class of polynomial depth circuits that can be parallelized to logarithmic depth while adding only polynomial many auxiliary qubits. In particular, we provide for the first time a full characterization of patterns with flow of arbitrary depth, based on the notion of influencing paths and a simple rewriting system on the angles of the measurement. Our method leads to insightful knowledge for constructing parallel circuits and as applications, we demonstrate several constant and logarithmic depth circuits. Furthermore, we prove a logarithmic separation in terms of quantum depth between the quantum circuit model and the measurement-based model.Comment: 34 pages, 14 figures; depth complexity, measurement-based quantum computing and parallel computin

Is Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation Really Possible?

The so-called "threshold" theorem says that, once the error rate per qubit per gate is below a certain value, indefinitely long quantum computation becomes feasible, even if all of the qubits involved are subject to relaxation processes, and all the manipulations with qubits are not exact. The purpose of this article, intended for physicists, is to outline the ideas of quantum error correction and to take a look at the proposed technical instruction for fault-tolerant quantum computation. It seems that the mathematics behind the threshold theorem is somewhat detached from the physical reality, and that some ideal elements are always present in the construction. This raises serious doubts about the possibility of large scale quantum computations, even as a matter of principle.Comment: Based on a talk given at the Future Trends in Microelectronics workshop, Crete, June 2006. 8 pages, 1 figur

Some Remarks on Quantum Coherence

There are many striking phenomena which are attributed to ``quantum coherence''. It is natural to wonder if there are new quantum coherence effects waiting to be discovered which could lead to interesting results and perhaps even practical applications. A useful starting point for such discussions is a definition of ``quantum coherence''. In this article I give a definition of quantum coherence and use a number of illustrations to explore the implications of this definition. I point to topics of current interest in the fields of cosmology and quantum computation where questions of quantum coherence arise, and I emphasize the impact that interactions with the environment can have on quantum coherence.Comment: 25 pages plain LaTeX, no figures. More references have been added and typos have been corrected. Journal of Modern Optics, in press. Imperial/TP/93-94/1

A quantum computing primer for operator theorists

This is an exposition of some of the aspects of quantum computation and quantum information that have connections with operator theory. After a brief introduction, we discuss quantum algorithms. We outline basic properties of quantum channels, or equivalently, completely positive trace preserving maps. The main theorems for quantum error detection and correction are presented and we conclude with a description of a particular passive method of quantum error correction.Comment: 24 pages, to appear in Lin. Alg. App