Efficient classical simulation of cluster state quantum circuits with alternative inputs

TL;DR

This paper identifies specific initial states in cluster state quantum circuits that can be efficiently simulated classically, expanding understanding of the boundary between quantum advantage and classical simulability.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of initial states close to diagonal states that allow efficient classical simulation of certain cluster state quantum circuits.

Findings

Classical simulation is efficient for states within a certain trace distance of diagonal states.

The classically simulatable region size increases with a coarse grained approach.

Results extend to qudit systems with diagonal interactions and specific measurements.

Abstract

We provide new examples of pure entangled systems related to cluster state quantum computation that can be efficiently simulated classically. In cluster state quantum computation input qubits are initialised in the `equator' of the Bloch sphere, $CZ$ gates are applied, and finally the qubits are measured adaptively using $Z$ measurements or measurements of $\cos(\theta)X + \sin(\theta)Y$ operators. We consider what happens when the initialisation step is modified, and show that for lattices of finite degree $D$, there is a constant $\lambda \approx 2.06$ such that if the qubits are prepared in a state that is within $\lambda^{-D}$ in trace distance of a state that is diagonal in the computational basis, then the system can be efficiently simulated classically in the sense of sampling from the output distribution within a desired total variation distance. In the square lattice with $D=4$ for instance, $\lambda^{-D} \approx 0.056$. We develop a coarse grained version of the argument which increases the size of the classically efficient region. In the case of the square lattice of qubits, the size of the classically simulatable region increases in size to at least around $\approx 0.070$, and in fact probably increases to around $\approx 0.1$. The results generalise to a broader family of systems, including qudit systems where the interaction is diagonal in the computational basis and the measurements are either in the computational basis or unbiased to it. Potential readers who only want the short version can get much of the intuition from figures 1 to 3.