Maarten Van den Nest

Universal resources for measurement-based quantum computation.

We investigate which entanglement resources allow universal measurement-based quantum computation via single-qubit operations. We find that any entanglement feature exhibited by the 2D cluster state must also be present in any other universal resource. We obtain a powerful criterion to assess the universality of graph states by introducing an entanglement measure which necessarily grows unboundedly with the system size for all universal resource states. Furthermore, we prove that graph states associated with 2D lattices such as the hexagonal and triangular lattice are universal, and obtain the first example of a universal nongraph state.

Simulating quantum computers with probabilistic methods

We investigate the boundary between classical and quantum computational power. This work consists of two parts. First we develop new classical simulation algorithms that are centered on sampling methods. Using these techniques we generate new classes of classically simulatable quantum circuits where standard techniques relying on the exact computation of measurement probabilities fail to provide efficient simulations. For example, we show how various concatenations of matchgate, Toffoli, Clifford, bounded-depth, Fourier transform and other circuits are classically simulatable. We also prove that sparse quantum circuits as well as circuits composed of CNOT and exp[itheta;X] gates can be simulated classically. In a second part, we apply our results to the simulation of quantum algorithms. It is shown that a recent quantum algorithm, concerned with the estimation of Potts model partition functions, can be simulated efficiently classically. Finally, we show that the exponential speed-ups of Simons and Shors algorithms crucially depend on the very last stage in these algorithms, dealing with the classical postprocessing of the measurement outcomes. Specifically, we prove that both algorithms would be classically simulatable if the function classically computed in this step had a sufficiently peaked Fourier spectrum.

Universal quantum computation with little entanglement.

We show that universal quantum computation can be achieved in the standard pure-state circuit model while the entanglement entropy of every bipartition is small in each step of the computation. The entanglement entropy required for large-scale quantum computation even tends to zero. Moreover we show that the same conclusion applies to many entanglement measures commonly used in the literature. This includes e.g., the geometric measure, localizable entanglement, multipartite concurrence, squashed entanglement, witness-based measures, and more generally any entanglement measure which is continuous in a certain natural sense. These results demonstrate that many entanglement measures are unsuitable tools to assess the power of quantum computers.

Quantum algorithms for spin models and simulable gate sets for quantum computation

We present simple mappings between classical lattice models and quantum circuits, which provide a systematic formalism to obtain quantum algorithms to approximate partition functions of lattice models in certain complex-parameter regimes. We, e.g., present an efficient quantum algorithm for the six-vertex model as well as a two-dimensional Ising-type model. We show that classically simulating these (complex-parameter) spin models is as hard as simulating universal quantum computation, i.e., BQP complete (BQP denotes bounded-error quantum polynomial time). Furthermore, our mappings provide a framework to obtain efficiently simulable quantum gate sets from exactly solvable classical models. We, e.g., show that the simulability of Valiants match gates can be recovered by using the solvability of the free-fermion eight-vertex model.

A monomial matrix formalism to describe quantum many-body states

We propose a framework to describe and simulate a class of many-body quantum states. We do so by considering joint eigenspaces of sets of monomial unitary matrices, called here ‘M-spaces’; a unitary matrix is monomial if precisely one entry per row and column is nonzero. We show that M-spaces encompass various important state families, such as all Pauli stabilizer states and codes, the Affleck–Kennedy–Lieb–Tasaki (AKLT) model, Kitaevs (Abelian and non-Abelian) anyon models, group coset states, W states and the locally maximally entanglable states. We furthermore show how basic properties of M-spaces can be understood transparently by manipulating their monomial stabilizer groups. In particular, we derive a unified procedure to construct an eigenbasis of any M-space, yielding an explicit formula for each of the eigenstates. We also discuss the computational complexity of M-spaces and show that basic problems, such as estimating local expectation values, are NP-hard. Finally, we prove that a large subclass of M-spaces—containing, in particular, most of the aforementioned examples—can be simulated efficiently classically with a unified method.

Certifiability criterion for large-scale quantum systems

Can one certify the preparation of a coherent, many-body quantum state by measurements with bounded accuracy in the presence of noise and decoherence? Here, we introduce a criterion to assess the fragility of large-scale quantum states, which is based on the distinguishability of orthogonal states after the action of very small amounts of noise. States which do not pass this criterion are called asymptotically incertifiable. We show that if a coherent quantum state is asymptotically incertifiable, there exists an incoherent mixture (with entropy at least log2) which is experimentally indistinguishable from the initial state. The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states are examples of such asymptotically incertifiable states. More generally, we prove that any so-called macroscopic superposition state is asymptotically incertifiable. We also provide examples of quantum states that are experimentally indistinguishable from highly incoherent mixtures, i.e. with an almost-linear entropy in the number of qubits. Finally, we show that all unique ground states of local gapped Hamiltonians (in any dimension) are certifiable.

Quantum matchgate computations and linear threshold gates

The theory of matchgates is of interest in various areas in physics and computer science. Matchgates occur, for example, in the study of fermions and spin chains, in the theory of holographic algorithms and in several recent works in quantum computation. In this paper, we completely characterize the class of Boolean functions computable by unitary two-qubit matchgate circuits with some probability of success. We show that this class precisely coincides with that of the linear threshold gates. The latter is a fundamental family that appears in several fields, such as the study of neural networks. Using the above characterization, we further show that the power of matchgate circuits is surprisingly trivial in those cases where the computation is to succeed with high probability. In particular, the only functions that are matchgate-computable with success probability greater than 3/4 are functions depending on only a single bit of the input.The theory of matchgates is of interest in various areas in physics and computer science. Matchgates occur, for example, in the study of fermions and spin chains, in the theory of holographic algorithms and in several recent works in quantum computation. In this paper, we completely characterize the class of Boolean functions computable by unitary two-qubit matchgate circuits with some probability of success. We show that this class precisely coincides with that of the linear threshold gates. The latter is a fundamental family that appears in several fields, such as the study of neural networks. Using the above characterization, we further show that the power of matchgate circuits is surprisingly trivial in those cases where the computation is to succeed with high probability. In particular, the only functions that are matchgate-computable with success probability greater than 3/4 are functions depending on only a single bit of the input.

Measurement-Based Quantum Computation and Undecidable Logic

We establish a connection between measurement-based quantum computation and the field of mathematical logic. We show that the computational power of an important class of quantum states called graph states, representing resources for measurement-based quantum computation, is reflected in the expressive power of (classical) formal logic languages defined on the underlying mathematical graphs. In particular, we show that for all graph state resources which can yield a computational speed-up with respect to classical computation, the underlying graphs—describing the quantum correlations of the states—are associated with undecidable logic theories. Here undecidability is to be interpreted in a sense similar to Gödel’s incompleteness results, meaning that there exist propositions, expressible in the above classical formal logic, which cannot be proven or disproven.

A non-commuting stabilizer formalism

We propose a non-commutative extension of the Pauli stabilizer formalism. The aim is to describe a class of many-body quantum states which is richer than the standard Pauli stabilizer states. In our framework, stabilizer operators are tensor products of single-qubit operators drawn from the group 〈αI, X, S〉, where α = eiπ/4 and S = diag(1, i). We provide techniques to efficiently compute various properties related to bipartite entanglement, expectation values of local observables, preparation by means of quantum circuits, parent Hamiltonians, etc. We also highlight significant differences compared to the Pauli stabilizer formalism. In particular, we give examples of states in our formalism which cannot arise in the Pauli stabilizer formalism, such as topological models that support non-Abelian anyons.

Geometric entanglement in topologically ordered states

Here we investigate the connection between topological order and the geometric entanglement, as measured by the logarithm of the overlap between a given state and its closest product state of blocks. We do this for a variety of topologically ordered systems such as the toric code, double semion, colour code and quantum double models. As happens for the entanglement entropy, we find that for sufficiently large block sizes the geometric entanglement is, up to possible sub-leading corrections, the sum of two contributions: a bulk contribution obeying a boundary law times the number of blocks and a contribution quantifying the underlying pattern of long-range entanglement of the topologically ordered state. This topological contribution is also present in the case of single-spin blocks in most cases, and constitutes an alternative characterization of topological order for these quantum states based on a multipartite entanglement measure. In particular, we see that the topological term for the two-dimensional colour code is twice as much as the one for the toric code, in accordance with recent renormalization group arguments (Bombin et al 2012 New J. Phys. 14 073048). Motivated by these results, we also derive a general formalism to obtain upper- and lower-bounds to the geometric entanglement of states with a non-Abelian group symmetry, and which we explicitly use to analyse quantum double models. Furthermore, we also provide an analysis of the robustness of the topological contribution in terms of renormalization and perturbation theory arguments, as well as a numerical estimation for small systems. Some of the results in this paper rely on the ability to disentangle single sites from the quantum state, which is always possible for the systems that we consider. Additionally we relate our results to the behaviour of the relative entropy of entanglement in topologically ordered systems, and discuss a number of numerical approaches based on tensor networks that could be employed to extract this topological contribution for large systems beyond exactly solvable models.