Quantum universality by state distillation
Ben W. Reichardt · 2009
Quantum universality can be achieved using classically controlled stabilizer operations and repeated preparation of certain ancilla states. Which ancilla states suffice for universality? This “magic states distillation ” question is closely related to quantum fault tolerance. Lower bounds on the noise tolerable on the ancilla help give lower bounds on the tolerable noise rate threshold for fault-tolerant computation. Upper bounds show the limits of threshold upperbound arguments based on the Gottesman-Knill theorem. We extend the range of single-qubit mixed states that are known to give universality, by using a simple parity-checking operation. For applications to proving threshold lower bounds, certain practical stability characteristics are often required, and we also show a stable distillation procedure. No distillation upper bounds are known beyond those given by the Gottesman-Knill theorem. One might ask whether distillation upper bounds reduce to upper bounds for single-qubit ancilla states. For multi-qubit pure states and previously considered two-qubit ancilla states, the answer is yes. However, we exhibit two-qubit mixed states that are not mixtures of stabilizer states, but for which every postselected stabilizer reduction from two qubits to one outputs a mixture of stabilizer states. Distilling such states would require true multi-qubit state distillation methods. 1