Vishnu Iyer

Sabee Grewal, Vishnu Iyer, William Kretschmer et al.

We show that quantum states with "low stabilizer complexity" can be efficiently distinguished from Haar-random. Specifically, given an $n$-qubit pure state $|ψ\rangle$, we give an efficient algorithm that distinguishes whether $|ψ\rangle$ is (i) Haar-random or (ii) a state with stabilizer fidelity at least $\frac{1}{k}$ (i.e., has fidelity at least $\frac{1}{k}$ with some stabilizer state), promised that one of these is the case. With black-box access to $|ψ\rangle$, our algorithm uses $O\!\left( k^{12} \log(1/δ)\right)$ copies of $|ψ\rangle$ and $O\!\left(n k^{12} \log(1/δ)\right)$ time to succeed with probability at least $1-δ$, and, with access to a state preparation unitary for $|ψ\rangle$ (and its inverse), $O\!\left( k^{3} \log(1/δ)\right)$ queries and $O\!\left(n k^{3} \log(1/δ)\right)$ time suffice. As a corollary, we prove that $ω(\log(n))$ $T$-gates are necessary for any Clifford+$T$ circuit to prepare computationally pseudorandom quantum states, a first-of-its-kind lower bound.

Sabee Grewal, Vishnu Iyer, William Kretschmer et al.

We show that any pseudoentangled state ensemble with a gap of $t$ bits of entropy requires $Ω(t)$ non-Clifford gates to prepare. This bound is tight up to polylogarithmic factors if linear-time quantum-secure pseudorandom functions exist. Our result follows from a polynomial-time algorithm to estimate the entanglement entropy of a quantum state across any cut of qubits. When run on an $n$-qubit state that is stabilized by at least $2^{n-t}$ Pauli operators, our algorithm produces an estimate that is within an additive factor of $\frac{t}{2}$ bits of the true entanglement entropy.

Sabee Grewal, Vishnu Iyer, William Kretschmer et al.

Recent work has shown that $n$-qubit quantum states output by circuits with at most $t$ single-qubit non-Clifford gates can be learned to trace distance $ε$ using $\mathsf{poly}(n,2^t,1/ε)$ time and samples. All prior algorithms achieving this runtime use entangled measurements across two copies of the input state. In this work, we give a similarly efficient algorithm that learns the same class of states using only single-copy measurements.

Sabee Grewal, Vishnu Iyer, William Kretschmer et al.

We define a quantum learning task called agnostic tomography, where given copies of an arbitrary state $ρ$ and a class of quantum states $\mathcal{C}$, the goal is to output a succinct description of a state that approximates $ρ$ at least as well as any state in $\mathcal{C}$ (up to some small error $\varepsilon$). This task generalizes ordinary quantum tomography of states in $\mathcal{C}$ and is more challenging because the learning algorithm must be robust to perturbations of $ρ$. We give an efficient agnostic tomography algorithm for the class $\mathcal{C}$ of $n$-qubit stabilizer product states. Assuming $ρ$ has fidelity at least $τ$ with a stabilizer product state, the algorithm runs in time $n^{O(1 + \log(1/τ))} / \varepsilon^2$. This runtime is quasipolynomial in all parameters, and polynomial if $τ$ is a constant.

Vishnu Iyer

Recent work has shown that one can efficiently learn fermionic Gaussian unitaries, also commonly known as nearest-neighbor matchcircuits or non-interacting fermionic unitaries. However, one could ask a similar question about unitaries that are near Gaussian: for example, unitaries prepared with a small number of non-Gaussian circuit elements. These operators find significance in quantum chemistry and many-body physics, yet no algorithm exists to learn them. We give the first such result by devising an algorithm which makes queries to an $n$-mode fermionic unitary $U$ prepared by at most $O(t)$ non-Gaussian gates and returns a circuit approximating $U$ to diamond distance $\varepsilon$ in time $\textrm{poly}(n,2^t,1/\varepsilon)$. This resolves a central open question of Mele and Herasymenko under the strongest distance metric. In fact, our algorithm is much more general: we define a property of unitary Gaussianity known as unitary Gaussian dimension and show that our algorithm can learn $n$-mode unitaries of Gaussian dimension at least $2n - O(t)$ in time $\textrm{poly}(n,2^t,1/\varepsilon)$. Indeed, this class subsumes unitaries prepared by at most $O(t)$ non-Gaussian gates but also includes several unitaries that require up to $2^{O(t)}$ non-Gaussian gates to construct. In addition, we give a $\textrm{poly}(n,1/\varepsilon)$-time algorithm to distinguish whether an $n$-mode unitary is of Gaussian dimension at least $k$ or $\varepsilon$-far from all such unitaries in Frobenius distance, promised that one is the case. Along the way, we prove structural results about near-Gaussian fermionic unitaries that are likely to be of independent interest.

Marco Fanizza, Vishnu Iyer, Junseo Lee et al.

Bosonic Gaussian unitaries are fundamental building blocks of central continuous-variable quantum technologies such as quantum-optic interferometry and bosonic error-correction schemes. In this work, we present the first time-efficient algorithm for learning bosonic Gaussian unitaries with a rigorous analysis. Our algorithm produces an estimate of the unknown unitary that is accurate to small worst-case error, measured by the physically motivated energy-constrained diamond distance. Its runtime and query complexity scale polynomially with the number of modes, the inverse target accuracy, and natural energy parameters quantifying the allowed input energy and the unitary's output-energy growth. The protocol uses only experimentally friendly photonic resources: coherent and squeezed probes, passive linear optics, and heterodyne/homodyne detection. We then employ an efficient classical post-processing routine that leverages a symplectic regularization step to project matrix estimates onto the symplectic group. In the limit of unbounded input energy, our procedure attains arbitrarily high precision using only $2m+2$ queries, where $m$ is the number of modes. To our knowledge, this is the first provably efficient learning algorithm for a multiparameter family of continuous-variable unitaries.

Sabee Grewal, Vishnu Iyer, William Kretschmer et al.

We give a pair of algorithms that efficiently learn a quantum state prepared by Clifford gates and $O(\log n)$ non-Clifford gates. Specifically, for an $n$-qubit state $|ψ\rangle$ prepared with at most $t$ non-Clifford gates, our algorithms use $\mathsf{poly}(n,2^t,1/\varepsilon)$ time and copies of $|ψ\rangle$ to learn $|ψ\rangle$ to trace distance at most $\varepsilon$. The first algorithm for this task is more efficient, but requires entangled measurements across two copies of $|ψ\rangle$. The second algorithm uses only single-copy measurements at the cost of polynomial factors in runtime and sample complexity. Our algorithms more generally learn any state with sufficiently large stabilizer dimension, where a quantum state has stabilizer dimension $k$ if it is stabilized by an abelian group of $2^k$ Pauli operators. We also develop an efficient property testing algorithm for stabilizer dimension, which may be of independent interest.