QEQS ASSIGNMENT
Clifford gates
the Clifford gates are the elements of the Clifford
group, a set of mathematical transformations
which normalize the n-qubit Pauli group, i.e., map
tensor products of Pauli matrices to tensor
products of Pauli matrices through conjugation
The Clifford Gates are generated by the CNOT
gate , Hadamard Gate and the π ÷ 4 Phase Gate
The Clifford group is of central importance in
quantum information and computation. It sits
on the second level of the Clifford hierarchy
The Clifford group on n qubits, Cn, is the set of
unitary operations which normalize Pn in the
group-theoretic sense. That is, U ∈ Cn if U pU† ∈
Pn for all p ∈ Pn. We leave it as a simple exercise
to check that Cn is indeed a group. A Clifford gate
is any unitary in S n≥1 Cn. A Clifford circuit is a
quantum circuit of Clifford gates implementing a
unitary transformation on some set of qubits,
designated the input/output qubits, while
preserving the state of the remaining ancilla
qubits. We say that a state |ψi is stabilized by an
operation U if and only if U|ψi = |ψi. In other
words, |ψi is in the +1 eigenspace of U
Some common types of Clifford gates are:-
Single-qubit Gates We start with the single-qubit
Clifford gates, which by definition permute (up to
phases) the X, Y , and Z bases. In fact, the single-
qubit Clifford gates correspond to symmetries of
the cube (see Figure 3).7 We group the gates by
the type of rotation to emphasize this geometric
intuition. Face rotations: The Pauli matrices X, Y ,
and Z (as gates) correspond to 180◦ rotations
about the X, Y , and Z axes respectively. Similarly,
we define RX, RY , and RZ to be 90◦ rotations (in
the counterclockwise direction) about their
respective axes. Formally, RX = I − iX √ 2 , RY = I −
iY √ 2 , RZ = I − iZ √ 2 , although in the case of RZ
(also known as the phase gate and often denoted
by S or P), a different choice of phase is more
conventional. The clockwise rotations are then R †
X, R † Y , and R † Z . Edge rotations: Another
symmetry of the cube is to rotate one of the
edges 180◦ . Opposing edges produce the same
rotation, so we have six gates: θX+Y , θX−Y , θX+Z,
θX−Z, θY +Z, θY −Z. We define θP +Q = P + Q √ 2 ,
θP −Q = P − Q √ 2 , for all Pauli matrices P 6= Q.
Note that θX+Z is the well-known Hadamard gate,
usually denoted by H. Vertex rotations: The final
symmetry is a 120◦ counterclockwise rotation
around one of the diagonals passing through
opposite vertices of the cube. The cube has eight
vertices, (±1, ±1, ±1), and we denote the
corresponding single-qubit gates Γ+++, Γ++−, . . .,
Γ−−−. Algebraically, we define Γ+++ = I − iX − iY − iZ
2 , Γ++− = I − iX − iY + iZ 2 , . . . Γ−−− = I + iX + iY + iZ
2 . We also define Γ (without subscripts) to be the
first gate, Γ+++, since it is the most convenient;
conjugation by Γ maps X to Y , Y to Z, and Z to X
Multi gates:-
We now introduce the multi-qubit Clifford gates
relevant to the classification.8 The SWAP gate, for
instance, simply exchanges two qubits. A more
interesting example is the controlled-NOT or CNOT
gate, and the generalized CNOT gates. A
generalized CNOT gate is a two-qubit Clifford gate
of the form C(P, Q) := I ⊗ I + P ⊗ I + I ⊗ Q − P ⊗
Q 2 , where P and Q are Pauli matrices. If the first
qubit is in the +1 eigenspace of P then C(P, Q)
does nothing, but if it is in the −1 eigenspace of P
then C(P, Q) applies Q to the second qubit. Of
course, the definition is completely symmetric, so
you can also view it as applying P to the first qubit
when the second qubit is in the −1 eigenspace of
Q. Observe that C(Z, X) is actually the CNOT gate;
it applies a NOT gate to the second qubit when
the first qubit is |1i and does nothing when the
first qubit is |0i. Figure 4 shows this equivalence,
and illustrates our circuit diagram notation for
generalized CNOT gates. Also note that C(X, Z) is a
CNOT, but with the opposite orientation (i.e., the
second bit controls the first). The rest of the
heterogeneous generalized CNOT gates (i.e., C(P,
Q) where P 6= Q) are the natural equivalents of
CNOT in different bases. Similarly, C(Z, Z)
sometimes known as the controlled-sign gate or
CZ, which flips the sign on input |11i, but does
nothing otherwise
