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arXiv · 2603.06764

Efficient Classical Simulation of Low-Rank-Width Quantum Circuits Using ZX-Calculus

Fedor Kuyanov·Aleks Kissinger
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Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a technique for contracting (i.e. numerically evaluating) ZX-diagrams whose complexity scales with their rank-width, a graph parameter that behaves nicely under ZX rewrite rules. Given a rank-decomposition of width $R$, our method simulates a graph-like ZX-diagram in $\~O(4^R)$ time. Applied to classical simulation of quantum circuits, it is no slower than either naive state vector simulation or stabiliser decompositions with $\alpha = 0.5$, and in practice can be significantly faster for suitably chosen rank-decompositions. Since finding optimal rank-decompositions is NP-hard, we introduce heuristics that produce good decompositions in practice. We benchmark our simulation routine against Quimb, a popular tensor contraction library, and observe substantial reductions in floating-point operations (often by several orders of magnitude) for random and structured non-Clifford circuits as well as random ZX-diagrams.

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Fedor Kuyanov, Aleks Kissinger. 2026-03-06. Efficient Classical Simulation of Low-Rank-Width Quantum Circuits Using ZX-Calculus. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06764

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