bachelor_thesis/thesis/chapters/stabilizer.tex

% vim: ft=tex

\section{The Stabilizer Formalism}

The stabilizer formalism was originally introduced by Gottesman\cite{gottesman1997}
for quantum error correction and is a useful tool to encode quantum information
such that it is protected against noise. The prominent Shor code \cite{shor1995}
is an example of a stabilizer code (although it was discovered before the stabilizer 
formalism was discovered), as are the 3-qbit bit-flip and phase-flip codes.

It was only later that Gottesman and Knill discovered that stabilizer states can
be simulated in polynomial time on a classical machine \cite{gottesman2008}. This
performance has since been improved to $n\log(n)$ time on average \cite{andersbriegel2005}.

\subsection{Stabilizers and Stabilizer States}

\subsubsection{Local Pauli Group and Multilocal Pauli Group}

\begin{definition}
    \begin{equation}
        P := \{\pm 1, \pm i\} \cdot \{I, X, Y, Z\}
    \end{equation}

    Is called the Pauli group.
\end{definition}

The group property of $P$ can be verified easily. Note that 
the elements of $P$ either commute or anticommute.

\begin{definition}
    For $n$ qbits

    \begin{equation}
        P_n := \{\bigotimes\limits_{i=0}^{n-1} p_i | p_i \in P\}
    \end{equation}

    is called the multilocal Pauli group on $n$ qbits. 
\end{definition}

The group property of $P_n$ follows directly from its definition
via the tensor product as do the (anti-)commutator relationships.
%Further are $p \in P_n$ hermitian and have the eigenvalues $\pm 1$ for
%$p \neq \pm I$, $+1$ for $p = I$  and $-1$ for $p = -I$.

\subsubsection{Stabilizers}

\begin{definition}
    \label{def:stabilizer}
    An abelian subgroup $S = \{S^{(0)}, ..., S^{(N)}\}$ of $P_n$ is called a set of stabilizers iff
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item{$\forall i,j = 1, ..., N$ $[S^{(i)}, S^{(j)}] = 0$ $S^{(i)}$ and $S^{(j)}$ commute}
        \item{$-I \notin S$}
    \end{enumerate}
\end{definition}

\begin{lemma}
    If $S$ is a set of stabilizers, the following statements are follow
    directly

    \begin{enumerate}
        \item{$\pm iI \notin S$}
        \item{$(S^{(i)})^2 = I$ for all $i$}
        \item{$S^{(i)}$ are hermitian for all $i$}
    \end{enumerate}
\end{lemma}
\begin{proof}

    \begin{enumerate}
        \item{$(iI)^2 = (-iI)^2 = -I$. Which contradicts the definition of $S$.}
        \item{From the definition of $S$ ($G_n$ respectively) follows that any
            $S^{(i)} \in S$ has the form $\pm i^l (\bigotimes\limits_{j=0}^{n-1} \tilde{p}_j)$ where
            $\tilde{p}_j \in \{X, Y, Z, I\}$ and $l \in \{0, 1\}$. As $(\bigotimes\limits_{j=0}^{n-1} \tilde{p}_j)$
            is hermitian $(S^{(i)})^2$ is either $+I$ or $-I$. As $-I \notin S$ $(S^{(i)})^2 = I$ follows directly. 
            }
        \item{Following the argumentation above $(S^{(i)})^2 = -I \Leftrightarrow l=1$ 
            therefore $(S^{(i)})^2 = -I \Leftrightarrow (S^{(i)})^\dagger \neq (S^{(i)})$.}
    \end{enumerate}

\end{proof}

As considering all elements of a group can be unpractical for some calculations
the generators of a group are introduced. It is usually enough to discuss the generator's
properties to understand the properties of the group.

\begin{definition}
    For a finite group $G$ and some $m \in \mathbb{N}$ one denotes the generators
    of G

    $$ \langle g_1, ..., g_m \rangle \equiv \langle g_i \rangle_{i=1,...,m}$$

    where $g_i \in G$, every element in $G$ can be written as a product of the $g_i$
    and $m$ is the smallest integer for which these statements hold.
\end{definition}

In the following discussions $\langle S^{(i)} \rangle_{i=0, ..., n-1}$ will be used as
the properties of a set of stabilizers that are used in the discussions can be studied using only its
generators.

\subsubsection{Stabilizer States}

One important basic property of quantum mechanics is that hermitian operators have real eigenvalues
and eigenspaces associated with these eigenvalues. Finding these eigenvalues and eigenvectors
is what one calls solving a quantum mechanical system. One of the most fundamental insights of 
quantum mechanics is that operators that commute have a common set of eigenvectors, i.e. they
can be diagonalized simultaneously. This motivates and justifies the following definition

\begin{definition}
    For a set of stabilizers $S$ the vector space

    \begin{equation}
        V_S := \{\ket{\psi} | S^{(i)}\ket{\psi} = +1\ket{\psi} \forall S^{(i)} \in S\}
    \end{equation}

    is called the space of stabilizer states associated with $S$ and one says
    $\ket{\psi}$ is stabilized by $S$.
\end{definition}

It is clear that it is sufficient to show the stabilization property for the generators of
$S$, as all the generators forming an element in $S$ can be absorbed into $\ket{\psi}$.
The dimension of $V_S$ is not immediately clear. One can however show that
for a set of stabilizers $\langle S^{(i)} \rangle_{i=1, ..., n-m}$ the dimension
$dim V_S = 2^m$ \cite[Chapter 10.5]{nielsen_chuang_2010}. This yields the following important
result:

\begin{theorem}
    For a $n$ qbit system and a set $S = \langle S^{(i)} \rangle_{i=1, ..., n}$ the stabilizer
    space $V_S$ has $dim V_S = 1$, in particular there exists an up to a trivial phase unique
    state $\ket{\psi}$ that is stabilized by $S$.
    
    Without proof.
\end{theorem}

In the following discussions for $n$ qbits a set $S = \langle S^{(i)} \rangle_{i=1,...,n}$ 
of $n$ independent stabilizers will be assumed.


\subsubsection{Dynamics of Stabilizer States}

Consider a $n$ qbit state $\ket{\psi}$ that is the $+1$ eigenstate of $S = \langle S^{(i)} \rangle_{i=1,...,n}$
and a unitary transformation $U$ that describes the dynamics of the system, i.e. 

\begin{equation}
    \ket{\psi'} = U \ket{\psi}
\end{equation}

It is clear that in general $\ket{\psi'}$ will not be stabilized by $S$ anymore. There are
however some statements that can still be made:

\begin{equation}
    \begin{aligned}
    \ket{\psi'} &= U \ket{\psi} \\
                &= U S^{(i)} \ket{\psi} \\
                &= U S^{(i)} U^\dagger U\ket{\psi} \\
                &= U S^{(i)} U^\dagger \ket{\psi'} \\
                &= S^{\prime(i)} \ket{\psi'} \\
    \end{aligned}
\end{equation}

Note that in \ref{def:stabilizer} it has been demanded that stabilizers are a 
subgroup of the multilocal Pauli operators. This does not hold true for an arbitrary
$U$ but there exists a group for which $S'$ will be a set of stabilizers.

\begin{definition}
    For $n$ qbits
    \begin{equation}
        C_n := \left\{U \in SU(n) | UpU^\dagger \in P_n \forall p \in P_n\right\}
    \end{equation}

    is called the Clifford group. $C_1 =: C_L$ is called the local Clifford group.
\end{definition}

\begin{theorem}
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item{$C_L$ can be generated using only $H$ and $S$.}
        \item{$C_L$ can be generated from $\sqrt{iZ} = \exp(\frac{i\pi}{4}) S^\dagger$ 
            and $\sqrt{-iX} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \left(\begin{array}{cc} 1 & -i \\ -i & 1 \end{array}\right)$. 

                Also $C_L$ is generated by a product of at most $5$ matrices $\sqrt{iZ}$, $\sqrt{-iX}$.
                }
            \item{$C_n$ can be generated using $C_L$ and $CZ$ or $CX$.} 
    \end{enumerate} 
\end{theorem}

\begin{proof}
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item{See \cite[Theorem 10.6]{nielsen_chuang_2010}}
        \item{
            One can easily verify that $\sqrt{iZ} \in C_L$ and $\sqrt{-iX} \in C_L$.
            Further one can show easily that (up to a global phase)
            $H = \sqrt{iZ} \sqrt{-iX}^3 \sqrt{iZ}$ and $S = \sqrt{iZ}^3$.

            The length of the product can be seen when explicitly calculating 
            $C_L$.
            }
        \item{See \cite[Theorem 10.6]{nielsen_chuang_2010}}
    \end{enumerate} 
\end{proof}

This is quite an important result: As under a transformation $U \in C_n$ $S'$ is a set of 
$n$ independent stabilizers and $\ket{\psi'}$ is stabilized by $S'$ one can consider
the dynamics of the stabilizers instead of the actual state. This is considerably more
efficient as only $n$ stabilizers have to be modified, each being just the tensor
product of $n$ Pauli matrices. This has led to the simulation using stabilizer tableaux
\cite{gottesman_aaronson2008}.

Interestingly also measurements are dynamics covered by the stabilizers.
When an observable $g_i \in \{\pm X_i, \pm Y_i \pm Z_i\}$ is measured