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The quantum programming language Quipper supports circuit operations such as reversing and control, which allows programmers to control and reverse certain quantum circuits. In addition to these two operations, Quipper provides a function called with-computed, which can be used to program circuits of the form $g; f; g^{\dagger}$. The latter is a common pattern in quantum circuit design. One benefit of using with-computed, as opposed to constructing the circuit $g ; f; g^{\dagger}$ directly from $g$, $f$, and $g^{\dagger}$, is that it facilitates an important optimization. Namely, if the resulting circuit is later controlled, only the circuit $f$ in the middle needs to be controlled; the circuits $g$ and $g^{\dagger}$ need not even be controllable. In this paper, we formalize a semantics for reversible and controllable circuits, using a dagger symmetric monoidal category $\mathbf{R}$ to interpret reversible circuits, and a new notion we call a controllable category $\mathbf{N}$ to interpret controllable circuits. The controllable category $\mathbf{N}$ encompasses the control and with-computed operations in Quipper. We extend the language Proto-Quipper with reversing, control and the with-computed operation. Since not all circuits are reversible and/or controllable, we use a type system with modalities to track reversibility and controllability. This generalizes the modality of Fu-Kishida-Ross-Selinger 2023. We give an abstract categorical semantics for reversing, control and with-computed, and show that the type system and operational semantics are sound with respect to this semantics. Lastly, we construct a concrete model using a generalization of biset enrichment from Fu-Kishida-Ross-Selinger 2022.

We give a sound and complete equational theory for 3-qubit quantum circuits over the Toffoli-Hadamard gate set { X, CX, CCX, H }. That is, we introduce a collection of true equations among Toffoli-Hadamard circuits on three qubits that is sufficient to derive any other true equation between such circuits. To obtain this equational theory, we first consider circuits over the Toffoli-K gate set { X, CX, CCX, K }, where K = HxH. The Toffoli-Hadamard and Toffoli-K gate sets appear similar, but they are crucially different on exactly three qubits. Indeed, in this case, the former generates an infinite group of operators, while the latter generates the finite group of automorphisms of the well-known E8 lattice. We take advantage of this fact, and of the theory of automorphism groups of lattices, to obtain a sound and complete collection of equations for Toffoli-K circuits. We then extend this equational theory to one for Toffoli-Hadamard circuits by leveraging prior work of Li et al. on Toffoli-Hadamard operators., Comment: In Proceedings QPL 2024, arXiv:2408.05113

It is known that the matrices that can be exactly represented by a multiqubit circuit over the Toffoli+Hadamard, Clifford+$T$, or, more generally, Clifford-cyclotomic gate set are precisely the unitary matrices with entries in the ring $\mathbb{Z}[1/2,\zeta_k]$, where $k$ is a positive integer that depends on the gate set and $\zeta_k$ is a primitive $2^k$-th root of unity. In the present paper, we establish an analogous correspondence for qutrits. We define the multiqutrit Clifford-cyclotomic gate set of degree $3^k$ by extending the classical qutrit gates $X$, $CX$, and $CCX$ with the Hadamard gate $H$ and the $T_k$ gate $T_k=\mathrm{diag}(1,\omega_k, \omega_k^2)$, where $\omega_k$ is a primitive $3^k$-th root of unity. This gate set is equivalent to the qutrit Toffoli+Hadamard gate set when $k=1$, and to the qutrit Clifford+$T_k$ gate set when $k>1$. We then prove that a $3^n\times 3^n$ unitary matrix $U$ can be represented by an $n$-qutrit circuit over the Clifford-cyclotomic gate set of degree $3^k$ if and only if the entries of $U$ lie in the ring $\mathbb{Z}[1/3,\omega_k]$., Comment: In Proceedings QPL 2024, arXiv:2408.05113

A catalysis state is a quantum state that is used to make some desired operation possible or more efficient, while not being consumed in the process. Recent years have seen catalysis used in state-of-the-art protocols for implementing magic state distillation or small angle phase rotations. In this paper we will see that we can also use catalysis to prove that certain gate sets are computationally universal, and to extend completeness results of graphical languages to larger fragments. In particular, we give a simple proof of the computational universality of the CS+Hadamard gate set using the catalysis of a $T$ gate using a CS gate, which sidesteps the more complicated analytic arguments of the original proof by Kitaev. This then also gives us a simple self-contained proof of the computational universality of Toffoli+Hadamard. Additionally, we show that the phase-free ZH-calculus can be extended to a larger complete fragment, just by using a single catalysis rule (and one scalar rule)., Comment: 12+5 pages

Let $n\geq 8$ be divisible by 4. The Clifford-cyclotomic gate set $\mathcal{G}_n$ is the universal gate set obtained by extending the Clifford gates with the $z$-rotation $T_n = \mathrm{diag}(1,\zeta_n)$, where $\zeta_n$ is a primitive $n$-th root of unity. In this note, we show that, when $n$ is a power of 2, a multiqubit unitary matrix $U$ can be exactly represented by a circuit over $\mathcal{G}_n$ if and only if the entries of $U$ belong to the ring $\mathbb{Z}[1/2,\zeta_n]$. We moreover show that $\log(n)-2$ ancillas are always sufficient to construct a circuit for $U$. Our results generalize prior work to an infinite family of gate sets and show that the limitations that apply to single-qubit unitaries, for which the correspondence between Clifford-cyclotomic operators and matrices over $\mathbb{Z}[1/2,\zeta_n]$ fails for all but finitely many values of $n$, can be overcome through the use of ancillas.

The matrices that can be exactly represented by a circuit over the Toffoli-Hadamard gate set are the orthogonal matrices of the form $M/ \sqrt{2}{}^k$, where $M$ is an integer matrix and $k$ is a nonnegative integer. The exact synthesis problem for this gate set is the problem of constructing a circuit for a given such matrix. Existing methods produce circuits consisting of $O(2^n \log(n)k)$ gates, where $n$ is the dimension of the matrix. In this paper, we provide two improved synthesis methods. First, we show that a technique introduced by Kliuchnikov in 2013 for Clifford+$T$ circuits can be straightforwardly adapted to Toffoli-Hadamard circuits, reducing the complexity of the synthesized circuit from $O(2^n \log(n)k)$ to $O(n^2 \log(n)k)$. Then, we present an alternative synthesis method of similarly improved cost, but whose application is restricted to circuits on no more than three qubits. Our results also apply to orthogonal matrices over the dyadic fractions, which correspond to circuits using the 2-qubit gate $H\otimes H$, rather than the usual single-qubit Hadamard gate $H$.

Grayscale lithography allows the creation of micrometer-scale features with spatially-controlled height in a process that is fully compatible with standard lithography. Here, solid immersion lenses are demonstrated in silicon carbide using a novel fabrication protocol combining grayscale lithography and hard-mask techniques to allow nearly hemispherical lenses of 5 $\mu$m radius to be etched into the substrate. The technique is highly scalable and compatible with CMOS technology, and device aspect ratios can be tuned after resist patterning by controlling the chemistry of the subsequent dry etch. These results provide a low-cost, high-throughput and industrially-relevant alternative to focused ion beam milling for the creation of high-aspect-ratio, rounded microstructures., Comment: 9 pages, 4 + 2 supplementary figures

It is well-known that the category of presheaf functors is complete and cocomplete, and that the Yoneda embedding into the presheaf category preserves products. However, the Yoneda embedding does not preserve coproducts. It is perhaps less well-known that if we restrict the codomain of the Yoneda embedding to the full subcategory of limit-preserving functors, then this embedding preserves colimits, while still enjoying most of the other useful properties of the Yoneda embedding. We call this modified embedding the Lambek embedding. The category of limit-preserving functors is known to be a reflective subcategory of the category of all functors, i.e., there is a left adjoint for the inclusion functor. In the literature, the existence of this left adjoint is often proved non-constructively, e.g., by an application of Freyd's adjoint functor theorem. In this paper, we provide an alternative, more constructive proof of this fact. We first explain the Lambek embedding and why it preserves coproducts. Then we review some concepts from multi-sorted algebras and observe that there is a one-to-one correspondence between product-preserving presheaves and certain multi-sorted term algebras. We provide a construction that freely turns any presheaf functor into a product-preserving one, hence giving an explicit definition of the left adjoint functor of the inclusion. Finally, we sketch how to extend our method to prove that the subcategory of limit-preserving functors is also reflective.

Path sums are a convenient symbolic formalism for quantum operations with applications to the simulation, optimization, and verification of quantum protocols. Unlike quantum circuits, path sums are not limited to unitary operations, but can express arbitrary linear ones. Two problems, therefore, naturally arise in the study of path sums: the unitarity problem and the extraction problem. The former is the problem of deciding whether a given path sum represents a unitary operator. The latter is the problem of constructing a quantum circuit, given a path sum promised to represent a unitary operator. In this paper, we show that the unitarity problem is co-NP-hard in general, but that it is in P when restricted to Clifford path sums. We then provide an algorithm to synthesize a Clifford circuit from a unitary Clifford path sum. The circuits produced by our extraction algorithm are of the form C1-H-C2, where C1 and C2 are Hadamard-free circuits and H is a layer of Hadamard gates. We also provide a heuristic generalization of our extraction algorithm to arbitrary path sums. While this algorithm is not guaranteed to succeed, it often succeeds and typically produces natural looking circuits. Alongside applications to the optimization and decompilation of quantum circuits, we demonstrate the capability of our algorithm by synthesizing the standard quantum Fourier transform directly from a path sum., Comment: In Proceedings QPL 2022, arXiv:2311.08375

Quipper is a functional programming language for quantum computing. Proto-Quipper is a family of languages aiming to provide a formal foundation for Quipper. In this paper, we extend Proto-Quipper-M with a construct called dynamic lifting, which is present in Quipper. By virtue of being a circuit description language, Proto-Quipper has two separate runtimes: circuit generation time and circuit execution time. Values that are known at circuit generation time are called parameters, and values that are known at circuit execution time are called states. Dynamic lifting is an operation that enables a state, such as the result of a measurement, to be lifted to a parameter, where it can influence the generation of the next portion of the circuit. As a result, dynamic lifting enables Proto-Quipper programs to interleave classical and quantum computation. We describe the syntax of a language we call Proto-Quipper-Dyn. Its type system uses a system of modalities to keep track of the use of dynamic lifting. We also provide an operational semantics, as well as an abstract categorical semantics for dynamic lifting based on enriched category theory. We prove that both the type system and the operational semantics are sound with respect to our categorical semantics. Finally, we give some examples of Proto-Quipper-Dyn programs that make essential use of dynamic lifting.

Quipper and Proto-Quipper are a family of quantum programming languages that, by their nature as circuit description languages, involve two runtimes: one at which the program generates a circuit and one at which the circuit is executed, normally with probabilistic results due to measurements. Accordingly, the language distinguishes two kinds of data: parameters, which are known at circuit generation time, and states, which are known at circuit execution time. Sometimes, it is desirable for the results of measurements to control the generation of the next part of the circuit. Therefore, the language needs to turn states, such as measurement outcomes, into parameters, an operation we call dynamic lifting. The goal of this paper is to model this interaction between the runtimes by providing a general categorical structure enriched in what we call "bisets". We demonstrate that the biset-enriched structure achieves a proper semantics of the two runtimes and their interaction, by showing that it models a variant of Proto-Quipper with dynamic lifting. The present paper deals with the concrete categorical semantics of this language, whereas a companion paper deals with the syntax, type system, operational semantics, and abstract categorical semantics., Comment: In Proceedings QPL 2022, arXiv:2311.08375

A popular universal gate set for quantum computing with qubits is Clifford+T, as this can be readily implemented on many fault-tolerant architectures. For qutrits, there is an equivalent T gate, that, like its qubit analogue, makes Clifford+T approximately universal, is injectable by a magic state, and supports magic state distillation. However, it was claimed that a better gate set for qutrits might be Clifford+R, where R=diag(1,1,-1) is the metaplectic gate, as certain protocols and gates could more easily be implemented using the R gate than the T gate. In this paper we show that when we have at least two qutrits, the qutrit Clifford+R unitaries form a strict subset of the Clifford+T unitaries, by finding a direct decomposition of $R \otimes \mathbb{I}$ as a Clifford+T circuit and proving that the T gate cannot be exactly synthesized in Clifford+R. This shows that in fact the T gate is at least as powerful as the R gate, up to a constant factor. Moreover, we additionally show that it is impossible to find a single-qutrit Clifford+T decomposition of the R gate, making our result tight., Comment: 10 pages + 4 page appendix