arXiv subjects

Miriam Backens

Publications and source records attributed to Miriam Backens.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Completeness for flow-preserving rewrite rules

Complete sets of graphical rewrite rules enable fully graphical reasoning about quantum computations and have been an area of active research for more than a decade. Many recent applications of the ZX-calculus have made use of the close correspondence between ZX-diagrams and computations in the one-way model of measurement-based quantum computation. In this model, various kinds of flow properties ensure deterministic implementability; for ZX-diagrams, these same properties allow efficient translation into quantum circuits (a problem that is known to be #P-hard in general). Therefore, flow-preserving ZX-calculus rewrite rules are of strong interest. Here, we extend the set of flow-preserving rules appearing in the literature with a few new rules and extensions of existing rules. We then show that the resulting rule set is complete for all flow-preserving translations between ZX-diagrams of appropriate form. The proof employs a manifestly flow-preserving equivalent of circuit extraction, where a diagram with gflow is transformed, using only flow-preserving rewrite rules, into a diagram with causal flow.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Generating one-way computations with flow: flow-preserving rewriting that ignores the interpretation

The one-way model is a universal model of quantum computation, driven by successive adaptive single-qubit measurements on an entangled resource state. Measurements are non-deterministic, yet if the computation satisfies one of several related families of conditions known as 'flows', the computation can be made deterministic overall by modifying later measurements depending on the outcomes of earlier ones. Flow properties also enable efficient translation from one-way computations to circuits, motivating research into rewriting one-way computations while preserving the existence of flow. Existing approaches to flow-preserving rewriting are used for compilation or optimisation and preserve both the interpretation and the existence of flow. Here, we broaden our perspective to consider flow-preserving rewriting that does not necessarily preserve the interpretation, with applications to creating test instances for software that works with flow, as well as to generating ans\"atze for quantum machine learning. We show that a family of just three flow-preserving rewrite rules suffices to generate any diagram with flow from a trivial diagram with the desired number of inputs and outputs. This rule set is nearly the same as the complete set of flow- and interpretation-preserving rewrite rules for one-way computations in which all measurements are Pauli; and just a small subset of the flow- and interpretation-preserving rewrite rules for arbitrary measurements.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Working with measurement-based computations on qudits

Measurement-based quantum computing is a universal model of quantum computation in which successive product measurements of an entangled resource state drive the computation. The non-deterministic nature of measurements necessitates adaptivity to ensure an overall deterministic computation. Flow structures characterise cases in which such an adaptive correction procedure is possible. Recently, flow has been defined in a setting where the resource states are prime-dimensional qudit graph states rather than the usual qubit graph states. Yet, this qudit flow definition is more burdensome to work with than analogous definitions for qubits. Here, we give a simpler definition of qudit flow and consider various useful properties of this flow, drawing on results for the qubit case. In particular, we show how to focus qudit flow and argue that focused flow is canonical. We improve the previous algebraic formulation to capture focused flow and use it to obtain an $O(n^3)$ flow-finding algorithm (where $n$ is the number of qudits), matching the best known complexity for qubit flows and improving on the previous $O(n^4)$ result for qudits. Furthermore, we explore multiple flow-preserving transformations, thus opening a pathway to using flow for optimisation. These transformations include pivoting, removal and insertion of certain types of vertices, and reversibility of flow. Lastly, we propose an algorithmic approach to generating large qudit computations with flow, for testing or machine learning.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Inserting Planar-Measured Qubits into MBQC Patterns while Preserving Flow

In the one-way model of measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC), computation proceeds via single-qubit measurements on a resource state. Flow conditions ensure that the overall computation is deterministic in a suitable sense, and are required for efficient translation into quantum circuits. Procedures that rewrite MBQC patterns -- e.g. for optimisation, or adapting to hardware constraints -- thus need to preserve the existence of flow. Most previous work has focused on rewrites that reduce the number of qubits in the computation, or that introduce new Pauli-measured qubits. Here, we consider the insertion of planar-measured qubits into MBQC patterns, i.e. arbitrary measurements in a plane of the Bloch sphere spanned by a pair of Pauli operators; such measurements are necessary for universal MBQC. We extend the definition of causal flow, previously restricted to XY -measurements only, to also permit YZ-measurements and derive the conditions under which a YZ-insertion preserves causal flow. Then we derive conditions for YZ-insertion into patterns with gflow or Pauli flow, in which case the argument straightforwardly extends to XZ-insertions as well. We also show that the 'vertex splitting' or 'neighbour unfusion' rule previously used in the literature can be derived from YZ-insertion and pivoting. This work contributes to understanding the broad properties of flow-preserving rewriting in MBQC and in the ZX-calculus more broadly, and it will enable more efficient optimisation, obfuscation, or routing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

An algebraic interpretation of Pauli flow, leading to faster flow-finding algorithms

The one-way model of quantum computation is an alternative to the circuit model. A one-way computation is driven entirely by successive adaptive measurements of a pre-prepared entangled resource state. For each measurement, only one outcome is desired; hence a fundamental question is whether some intended measurement scheme can be performed in a robustly deterministic way. So-called flow structures witness robust determinism by providing instructions for correcting undesired outcomes. Pauli flow is one of the broadest of these structures and has been studied extensively. It is known how to find flow structures in polynomial time when they exist; nevertheless, their lengthy and complex definitions often hinder working with them. We simplify these definitions by providing a new algebraic interpretation of Pauli flow. This involves defining two matrices arising from the adjacency matrix of the underlying graph: the flow-demand matrix $M$ and the order-demand matrix $N$. We show that Pauli flow exists if and only if there is a right inverse $C$ of $M$ such that the product $NC$ forms the adjacency matrix of a directed acyclic graph. From the newly defined algebraic interpretation, we obtain $\mathcal{O}(n^3)$ algorithms for finding Pauli flow, improving on the previous $\mathcal{O}(n^4)$ bound for finding generalised flow, a weaker variant of flow, and $\mathcal{O}(n^5)$ bound for finding Pauli flow. We also introduce a first lower bound for the Pauli flow-finding problem, by linking it to the matrix invertibility and multiplication problems over $\mathbb{F}_2$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Flow-preserving ZX-calculus Rewrite Rules for Optimisation and Obfuscation

In the one-way model of measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC), computation proceeds via measurements on a resource state. So-called flow conditions ensure that the overall computation is deterministic in a suitable sense, with Pauli flow being the most general of these. Computations, represented as measurement patterns, may be rewritten to optimise resource use and for other purposes. Such rewrites need to preserve the existence of flow to ensure the new pattern can still be implemented deterministically. The majority of existing work in this area has focused on rewrites that reduce the number of qubits, yet it can be beneficial to increase the number of qubits for certain kinds of optimisation, as well as for obfuscation. In this work, we introduce several ZX-calculus rewrite rules that increase the number of qubits and preserve the existence of Pauli flow. These rules can be used to transform any measurement pattern into a pattern containing only (general or Pauli) measurements within the XY-plane. We also give the first flow-preserving rewrite rule that allows measurement angles to be changed arbitrarily, and use this to prove that the `neighbour unfusion' rule of Staudacher et al. preserves the existence of Pauli flow. This implies it may be possible to reduce the runtime of their two-qubit-gate optimisation procedure by removing the need to regularly run the costly gflow-finding algorithm.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Complete Flow-Preserving Rewrite Rules for MBQC Patterns with Pauli Measurements

In the one-way model of measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC), computation proceeds via measurements on some standard resource state. So-called flow conditions ensure that the overall computation is deterministic in a suitable sense, with Pauli flow being the most general of these. Existing work on rewriting MBQC patterns while preserving the existence of flow has focused on rewrites that reduce the number of qubits. In this work, we show that introducing new Z-measured qubits, connected to any subset of the existing qubits, preserves the existence of Pauli flow. Furthermore, we give a unique canonical form for stabilizer ZX-diagrams inspired by recent work of Hu & Khesin. We prove that any MBQC-like stabilizer ZX-diagram with Pauli flow can be rewritten into this canonical form using only rules which preserve the existence of Pauli flow, and that each of these rules can be reversed while also preserving the existence of Pauli flow. Hence we have complete graphical rewriting for MBQC-like stabilizer ZX-diagrams with Pauli flow.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

A full dichotomy for Holant$^c$, inspired by quantum computation

Holant problems are a family of counting problems parameterised by sets of algebraic-complex valued constraint functions, and defined on graphs. They arise from the theory of holographic algorithms, which was originally inspired by concepts from quantum computation. Here, we employ quantum information theory to explain existing results about holant problems in a concise way and to derive two new dichotomies: one for a new family of problems, which we call Holant$^+$, and, building on this, a full dichotomy for Holant$^c$. These two families of holant problems assume the availability of certain unary constraint functions -- the two pinning functions in the case of Holant$^c$, and four functions in the case of Holant$^+$ -- and allow arbitrary sets of algebraic-complex valued constraint functions otherwise. The dichotomy for Holant$^+$ also applies when inputs are restricted to instances defined on planar graphs. In proving these complexity classifications, we derive an original result about entangled quantum states.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2021

Proceedings 18th International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic

This volume contains the proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic (QPL 2021), which was held June 7-11, 2021 at the University of Gdansk and online. QPL is an annual conference that brings together researchers working on mathematical foundations of quantum physics, quantum computing, and related areas, with a focus on structural perspectives and the use of logical tools, ordered algebraic and category-theoretic structures, formal languages, semantical methods, and other computer science techniques applied to the study of physical behaviour in general.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Completeness of the ZH-calculus

There are various gate sets used for describing quantum computation. A particularly popular one consists of Clifford gates and arbitrary single-qubit phase gates. Computations in this gate set can be elegantly described by the ZX-calculus, a graphical language for a class of string diagrams describing linear maps between qubits. The ZX-calculus has proven useful in a variety of areas of quantum information, but is less suitable for reasoning about operations outside its natural gate set such as multi-linear Boolean operations like the Toffoli gate. In this paper we study the ZH-calculus, an alternative graphical language of string diagrams that does allow straightforward encoding of Toffoli gates and other more complicated Boolean logic circuits. We find a set of simple rewrite rules for this calculus and show it is complete with respect to matrices over $\mathbb{Z}[\frac12]$, which correspond to the approximately universal Toffoli+Hadamard gateset. Furthermore, we construct an extended version of the ZH-calculus that is complete with respect to matrices over any ring $R$ where $1+1$ is not a zero-divisor.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

There and back again: A circuit extraction tale

Translations between the quantum circuit model and the measurement-based one-way model are useful for verification and optimisation of quantum computations. They make crucial use of a property known as gflow. While gflow is defined for one-way computations allowing measurements in three different planes of the Bloch sphere, most research so far has focused on computations containing only measurements in the XY-plane. Here, we give the first circuit-extraction algorithm to work for one-way computations containing measurements in all three planes and having gflow. The algorithm is efficient and the resulting circuits do not contain ancillae. One-way computations are represented using the ZX-calculus, hence the algorithm also represents the most general known procedure for extracting circuits from ZX-diagrams. In developing this algorithm, we generalise several concepts and results previously known for computations containing only XY-plane measurements. We bring together several known rewrite rules for measurement patterns and formalise them in a unified notation using the ZX-calculus. These rules are used to simplify measurement patterns by reducing the number of qubits while preserving both the semantics and the existence of gflow. The results can be applied to circuit optimisation by translating circuits to patterns and back again.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Holant clones and the approximability of conservative holant problems

We construct a theory of holant clones to capture the notion of expressibility in the holant framework. Their role is analogous to the role played by functional clones in the study of weighted counting Constraint Satisfaction Problems. We explore the landscape of conservative holant clones and determine the situations in which a set $\mathcal{F}$ of functions is "universal in the conservative case", which means that all functions are contained in the holant clone generated by $\mathcal{F}$ together with all unary functions. When $\mathcal{F}$ is not universal in the conservative case, we give concise generating sets for the clone. We demonstrate the usefulness of the holant clone theory by using it to give a complete complexity-theory classification for the problem of approximating the solution to conservative holant problems. We show that approximation is intractable exactly when $\mathcal{F}$ is universal in the conservative case.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2018

ZH: A Complete Graphical Calculus for Quantum Computations Involving Classical Non-linearity

We present a new graphical calculus that is sound and complete for a universal family of quantum circuits, which can be seen as the natural string-diagrammatic extension of the approximately (real-valued) universal family of Hadamard+CCZ circuits. The diagrammatic language is generated by two kinds of nodes: the so-called 'spider' associated with the computational basis, as well as a new arity-N generalisation of the Hadamard gate, which satisfies a variation of the spider fusion law. Unlike previous graphical calculi, this admits compact encodings of non-linear classical functions. For example, the AND gate can be depicted as a diagram of just 2 generators, compared to ~25 in the ZX-calculus. Consequently, N-controlled gates, hypergraph states, Hadamard+Toffoli circuits, and diagonal circuits at arbitrary levels of the Clifford hierarchy also enjoy encodings with low constant overhead. This suggests that this calculus will be significantly more convenient for reasoning about the interplay between classical non-linear behaviour (e.g. in an oracle) and purely quantum operations. After presenting the calculus, we will prove it is sound and complete for universal quantum computation by demonstrating the reduction of any diagram to an easily describable normal form.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Boolean approximate counting CSPs with weak conservativity, and implications for ferromagnetic two-spin

We analyse the complexity of approximate counting constraint satisfactions problems $\mathrm{\#CSP}(\mathcal{F})$, where $\mathcal{F}$ is a set of nonnegative rational-valued functions of Boolean variables. A complete classification is known in the conservative case, where $\mathcal{F}$ is assumed to contain arbitrary unary functions. We strengthen this result by fixing any permissive strictly increasing unary function and any permissive strictly decreasing unary function, and adding only those to $\mathcal{F}$: this is weak conservativity. The resulting classification is employed to characterise the complexity of a wide range of two-spin problems, fully classifying the ferromagnetic case. In a further weakening of conservativity, we also consider what happens if only the pinning functions are assumed to be in $\mathcal{F}$ (instead of the two permissive unaries). We show that any set of functions for which pinning is not sufficient to recover the two kinds of permissive unaries must either have a very simple range, or must satisfy a certain monotonicity condition. We exhibit a non-trivial example of a set of functions satisfying the monotonicity condition.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2017

Towards a Minimal Stabilizer ZX-calculus

The stabilizer ZX-calculus is a rigorous graphical language for reasoning about quantum mechanics. The language is sound and complete: one can transform a stabilizer ZX-diagram into another one using the graphical rewrite rules if and only if these two diagrams represent the same quantum evolution or quantum state. We previously showed that the stabilizer ZX-calculus can be simplified by reducing the number of rewrite rules, without losing the property of completeness [Backens, Perdrix & Wang, EPTCS 236:1--20, 2017]. Here, we show that most of the remaining rules of the language are indeed necessary. We do however leave as an open question the necessity of two rules. These include, surprisingly, the bialgebra rule, which is an axiomatisation of complementarity, the cornerstone of the ZX-calculus. Furthermore, we show that a weaker ambient category -- a braided autonomous category instead of the usual compact closed category -- is sufficient to recover the meta rule 'only connectivity matters', even without assuming any symmetries of the generators.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

A complete dichotomy for complex-valued Holant^c

Holant problems are a family of counting problems on graphs, parametrised by sets of complex-valued functions of Boolean inputs. Holant^c denotes a subfamily of those problems, where any function set considered must contain the two unary functions pinning inputs to values 0 or 1. The complexity classification of Holant problems usually takes the form of dichotomy theorems, showing that for any set of functions in the family, the problem is either #P-hard or it can be solved in polynomial time. Previous such results include a dichotomy for real-valued Holant^c and one for Holant^c with complex symmetric functions. Here, we derive a dichotomy theorem for Holant^c with complex-valued, not necessarily symmetric functions. The tractable cases are the complex-valued generalisations of the tractable cases of the real-valued Holant^c dichotomy. The proof uses results from quantum information theory, particularly about entanglement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

A new Holant dichotomy inspired by quantum computation

Holant problems are a framework for the analysis of counting complexity problems on graphs. This framework is simultaneously general enough to encompass many other counting problems on graphs and specific enough to allow the derivation of dichotomy results, partitioning all problem instances into those which can be solved in polynomial time and those which are #P-hard. The Holant framework is based on the theory of holographic algorithms, which was originally inspired by concepts from quantum computation, but this connection appears not to have been explored before. Here, we employ quantum information theory to explain existing results in a concise way and to derive a dichotomy for a new family of problems, which we call Holant$^+$. This family sits in between the known families of Holant$^*$, for which a full dichotomy is known, and Holant$^c$, for which only a restricted dichotomy is known. Using knowledge from entanglement theory -- both previously existing work and new results of our own -- we prove a full dichotomy theorem for Holant$^+$, which is very similar to the restricted Holant$^c$ dichotomy. Other than the dichotomy for #R$_3$-CSP, ours is the first Holant dichotomy in which the allowed functions are not restricted and in which only a finite number of functions are assumed to be freely available.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

A Simplified Stabilizer ZX-calculus

The stabilizer ZX-calculus is a rigorous graphical language for reasoning about quantum mechanics.The language is sound and complete: a stabilizer ZX-diagram can be transformed into another one if and only if these two diagrams represent the same quantum evolution or quantum state. We show that the stabilizer ZX-calculus can be simplified, removing unnecessary equations while keeping only the essential axioms which potentially capture fundamental structures of quantum mechanics. We thus give a significantly smaller set of axioms and prove that meta-rules like 'colour symmetry' and 'upside-down symmetry', which were considered as axioms in previous versions of the language, can in fact be derived. In particular, we show that the additional symbol and one of the rules which had been recently introduced to keep track of scalars (diagrams with no inputs or outputs) are not necessary.

quant-ph↗