Quantum circuits for simulating linear interferometers

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Leone, Hudson, Turner, Peter S., Devitt, Simon
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916934109364224
author Leone, Hudson
Turner, Peter S.
Devitt, Simon
author_facet Leone, Hudson
Turner, Peter S.
Devitt, Simon
contents Motivated by recent proposals for quantum proof of work protocols, we investigate approaches for simulating linear optical interferometers using digital quantum circuits. We focus on a second quantisation approach, where the quantum computer's registers represent optical modes. We can then use standard quantum optical techniques to decompose the unitary matrix describing an interferometer into an array of 2 by 2 unitaries, which are subsequently synthesised into quantum circuits and stitched together to complete the circuit. For an $m$ mode interferometer with $n$ identical photons, this method requires approximately $\mathcal{O}(m \log(n))$ qubits and a circuit depth of $\mathcal{O}(m n^4 \log_2(n) \: \textrm{polylog}(n^4 / ε))$. We present a software package Aquinas (A quantum interferometer assembler) that uses this approach to generate such quantum circuits. For reference, an arbitrary five mode interferometer with two identical photons is compiled to a 10 qubit quantum circuit with a depth of 1972.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_16880
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantum circuits for simulating linear interferometers
Leone, Hudson
Turner, Peter S.
Devitt, Simon
Quantum Physics
Motivated by recent proposals for quantum proof of work protocols, we investigate approaches for simulating linear optical interferometers using digital quantum circuits. We focus on a second quantisation approach, where the quantum computer's registers represent optical modes. We can then use standard quantum optical techniques to decompose the unitary matrix describing an interferometer into an array of 2 by 2 unitaries, which are subsequently synthesised into quantum circuits and stitched together to complete the circuit. For an $m$ mode interferometer with $n$ identical photons, this method requires approximately $\mathcal{O}(m \log(n))$ qubits and a circuit depth of $\mathcal{O}(m n^4 \log_2(n) \: \textrm{polylog}(n^4 / ε))$. We present a software package Aquinas (A quantum interferometer assembler) that uses this approach to generate such quantum circuits. For reference, an arbitrary five mode interferometer with two identical photons is compiled to a 10 qubit quantum circuit with a depth of 1972.
title Quantum circuits for simulating linear interferometers
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16880