Symmetry-accelerated classical simulation of Clifford-dominated circuits

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Camillo, Giulio, Peres, Filipa C. R., Heinrich, Markus, Bermejo-Vega, Juani
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912663621074944
author Camillo, Giulio
Peres, Filipa C. R.
Heinrich, Markus
Bermejo-Vega, Juani
author_facet Camillo, Giulio
Peres, Filipa C. R.
Heinrich, Markus
Bermejo-Vega, Juani
contents Classical simulation of quantum circuits plays a crucial role in validating quantum hardware and delineating the boundaries of quantum advantage. Among the most effective simulation techniques are those based on the stabilizer extent, which quantifies the overhead of representing non-Clifford operations as linear combinations of Clifford unitaries. However, finding optimal decompositions rapidly becomes intractable as it constitutes a superexponentially large optimization problem. In this work, we exploit symmetries in the computation of the stabilizer extent, proving that for real, diagonal, and real-diagonal unitaries, the optimization can be restricted to the corresponding subgroups of the Clifford group without loss of optimality. This ``strong symmetry reduction'' drastically reduces computational cost, enabling optimal decompositions of unitaries on up to seven qubits using a standard laptop--far beyond previous two-qubit limits. Additionally, we employ a ``weak symmetry reduction'' method that leverages additional invariances to shrink the search space further. Applying these results, we demonstrate exponential runtime improvements in classical simulations of quantum Fourier transform circuits and measurement-based quantum computations on the Union Jack lattice, as well as new insights into the non-stabilizer properties of multi-controlled-phase gates and unitaries generating hypergraph states. Our findings establish symmetry exploitation as a powerful route to scale classical simulation techniques and deepen the resource-theoretic understanding of quantum advantage.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18977
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Symmetry-accelerated classical simulation of Clifford-dominated circuits
Camillo, Giulio
Peres, Filipa C. R.
Heinrich, Markus
Bermejo-Vega, Juani
Quantum Physics
Classical simulation of quantum circuits plays a crucial role in validating quantum hardware and delineating the boundaries of quantum advantage. Among the most effective simulation techniques are those based on the stabilizer extent, which quantifies the overhead of representing non-Clifford operations as linear combinations of Clifford unitaries. However, finding optimal decompositions rapidly becomes intractable as it constitutes a superexponentially large optimization problem. In this work, we exploit symmetries in the computation of the stabilizer extent, proving that for real, diagonal, and real-diagonal unitaries, the optimization can be restricted to the corresponding subgroups of the Clifford group without loss of optimality. This ``strong symmetry reduction'' drastically reduces computational cost, enabling optimal decompositions of unitaries on up to seven qubits using a standard laptop--far beyond previous two-qubit limits. Additionally, we employ a ``weak symmetry reduction'' method that leverages additional invariances to shrink the search space further. Applying these results, we demonstrate exponential runtime improvements in classical simulations of quantum Fourier transform circuits and measurement-based quantum computations on the Union Jack lattice, as well as new insights into the non-stabilizer properties of multi-controlled-phase gates and unitaries generating hypergraph states. Our findings establish symmetry exploitation as a powerful route to scale classical simulation techniques and deepen the resource-theoretic understanding of quantum advantage.
title Symmetry-accelerated classical simulation of Clifford-dominated circuits
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18977