Gaussianity and Simulability of Cliffords and Matchgates

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Projansky, Andrew M., Necaise, Jason, Whitfield, James D.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866909550698823680
author Projansky, Andrew M.
Necaise, Jason
Whitfield, James D.
author_facet Projansky, Andrew M.
Necaise, Jason
Whitfield, James D.
contents Though Cliffords and matchgates are both examples of classically simulable circuits, they are considered simulable for different reasons. The celebrated Gottesman-Knill explains the simulability Cliffords, and the efficient simulability of matchgates is understood via Pfaffians of antisymmetric matrices. We take the perspective that by studying Clifford-matchgate hybrid circuits, we expand the set of known simulable circuits and reach a better understanding of what unifies these two circuit families. While the simulability of Clifford conjugated matchgate circuits for single qubit outputs has been briefly considered, the simulability of Clifford and matchgate hybrid circuits has not been generalized up to this point. In this paper we extend that work, studying simulability of marginals as well as Pauli expectation values of Clifford and matchgate hybrid circuits. We describe a hierarchy of Clifford circuits, and find that as we consider more general Cliffords, we lose some amount of simulability of bitstring outputs. We then show that the known simulability of Pauli expectation values of Clifford circuits acting on product states can be generalized to Clifford circuits acting after any matchgate circuit. We conclude with general discussion about the relationship between Cliffords and matchgates, and show that both circuit families can be understood as being Gaussian.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_10068
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gaussianity and Simulability of Cliffords and Matchgates
Projansky, Andrew M.
Necaise, Jason
Whitfield, James D.
Quantum Physics
Though Cliffords and matchgates are both examples of classically simulable circuits, they are considered simulable for different reasons. The celebrated Gottesman-Knill explains the simulability Cliffords, and the efficient simulability of matchgates is understood via Pfaffians of antisymmetric matrices. We take the perspective that by studying Clifford-matchgate hybrid circuits, we expand the set of known simulable circuits and reach a better understanding of what unifies these two circuit families. While the simulability of Clifford conjugated matchgate circuits for single qubit outputs has been briefly considered, the simulability of Clifford and matchgate hybrid circuits has not been generalized up to this point. In this paper we extend that work, studying simulability of marginals as well as Pauli expectation values of Clifford and matchgate hybrid circuits. We describe a hierarchy of Clifford circuits, and find that as we consider more general Cliffords, we lose some amount of simulability of bitstring outputs. We then show that the known simulability of Pauli expectation values of Clifford circuits acting on product states can be generalized to Clifford circuits acting after any matchgate circuit. We conclude with general discussion about the relationship between Cliffords and matchgates, and show that both circuit families can be understood as being Gaussian.
title Gaussianity and Simulability of Cliffords and Matchgates
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10068