We study classical simulation of quantum computation, taking the
Gottesman-Knill theorem as a starting point. We show how each Clifford circuit
can be reduced to an equivalent, manifestly simulatable circuit (normal form).
This provides a simple proof of the Gottesman-Knill theorem without resorting
to stabilizer techniques. The normal form highlights why Clifford circuits have
such limited computational power in spite of their high entangling power. At
the same time, the normal form shows how the classical simulation of Clifford
circuits fits into the standard way of embedding classical computation into the
quantum circuit model. This leads to simple extensions of Clifford circuits
which are classically simulatable. These circuits can be efficiently simulated
by classical sampling ('weak simulation') even though the problem of exactly
computing the outcomes of measurements for these circuits ('strong simulation')
is proved to be #P-complete--thus showing that there is a separation between
weak and strong classical simulation of quantum computation.Comment: 14 pages, shortened version, one additional result. To appear in
Quant. Inf. Com
