We introduce the interaction cost of a non-local gate as the minimal time of
interaction required to perform the gate when assisting the process with fast
local unitaries. This cost, of interest both in the areas of quantum control
and quantum information, depends on the specific interaction, and allows to
compare in an operationally meaningful manner any two non-local gates. In the
case of a two-qubit system, an analytical expression for the interaction cost
of any unitary operation given any coupling Hamiltonian is obtained. One gate
may be more time-consuming than another for any possible interaction. This
defines a partial order structure in the set of non-local gates, that compares
their degree of non-locality. We analytically characterize this partial order
in a region of the set of two-qubit gates.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, no pictures, typos corrected, small changes in
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