- Open Access
Sub-Riemannian geometry of measurement-based quantum computation
Phys. Rev. A 113, 012444 – Published 30 January, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zq4l-vwbz
Abstract
The computational power of quantum phases of matter with symmetry can be accessed through local measurements, but what is the most efficient way of doing so? In this work we show that minimizing operational resources in measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC) on subsystem symmetric resource states amounts to solving a sub-Riemannian geodesic problem between the identity and the target logical unitary. This reveals a geometric structure underlying MBQC and offers a principled route to optimize quantum processing in computational phases.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Article Text
References (38)
- B. Eastin and E. Knill, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 110502 (2009).
- N. E. Bonesteel, L. Hormozi, G. Zikos, and S. H. Simon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 140503 (2005).
- M. A. Nielsen, M. R. Dowling, M. Gu, and A. C. Doherty, Phys. Rev. A 73, 062323 (2006).
- M. A. Nielsen, M. R. Dowling, M. Gu, and A. C. Doherty, Science 311, 1133 (2006).
- N. Khaneja, R. Brockett, and S. J. Glaser, Phys. Rev. A 63, 032308 (2001).
- N. Khaneja, S. J. Glaser, and R. Brockett, Phys. Rev. A 65, 032301 (2002).
- R. Raussendorf and H. J. Briegel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5188 (2001).
- S. D. Bartlett, G. K. Brennen, A. Miyake, and J. M. Renes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 110502 (2010).
- A. C. Doherty and S. D. Bartlett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 020506 (2009).
- A. Miyake, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 040501 (2010).
- D. V. Else, I. Schwarz, S. D. Bartlett, and A. C. Doherty, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 240505 (2012).
- J. Miller and A. Miyake, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 120506 (2015).
- R. Raussendorf, C. Okay, D.-S. Wang, D. T. Stephen, and H. P. Nautrup, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 090501 (2019).
- R. Raussendorf, W. Yang, and A. Adhikary, Quantum 7, 1215 (2023).
- P. Herringer, V. B. Bulchandani, Y. Javanmard, D. T. Stephen, and R. Raussendorf, PRX Quantum 6, 040314 (2025).
- T. Devakul and D. J. Williamson, Phys. Rev. A 98, 022332 (2018).
- D. T. Stephen, H. P. Nautrup, J. Bermejo-Vega, J. Eisert, and R. Raussendorf, Quantum 3, 142 (2019).
- A. K. Daniel, R. N. Alexander, and A. Miyake, Quantum 4, 228 (2020).
- A. Mantri, T. F. Demarie, and J. F. Fitzsimons, Sci. Rep. 7, 42861 (2017).
- R. Raussendorf, D.-S. Wang, A. Prakash, T.-C. Wei, and D. T. Stephen, Phys. Rev. A 96, 012302 (2017).
- G. Rovelli, Chow theorem and structure of Carnot-Carathéodory balls, Ph.D. thesis, Università degli Studi di Padova, 2024.
- A. Adhikary, W. Yang, and R. Raussendorf, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 160601 (2024).
- A. A. Agrachev and Y. Sachkov, Control Theory from the Geometric Viewpoint, Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences (Springer, Berlin, 2013), Vol. 87.
- Y.-A. Chen, A. M. Childs, M. Hafezi, Z. Jiang, H. Kim, and Y. Xu, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 013191 (2022).
- R. S. Strichartz, J. Funct. Anal. 72, 320 (1987).
- F. Casas, A. Escorihuela-Tomàs, and P. A. Moreno Casares, Approximating exponentials of commutators by optimized product formulas, Quant. Inf. Process. 24, 47 (2025).
- N. Wiebe, D. Berry, P. Høyer, and B. C. Sanders, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 43, 065203 (2010).
- A. Nagel, E. M. Stein, and S. Wainger, Acta Math. 155, 103 (1985).
- A. Bellaïche, J. Math. Sci. 83, 461 (1997).
- I. D. Smith, M. Cautrès, D. T. Stephen, and H. P. Nautrup, Optimally generating using Pauli strings, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 200601 (2025).
- P. Herringer and R. Raussendorf, Quantum 7, 1041 (2023).
- A. H. da Silva, L. K. Castelano, and R. d. J. Napolitano, Phys. Rev. A 112, 052603 (2025).
- M. Goerz, D. Basilewitsch, F. Gago-Encinas, M. G. Krauss, K. P. Horn, D. M. Reich, and C. Koch, SciPost Phys. 7, 080 (2019).
- G. Sanguinetti, E. Bekkers, R. Duits, M. H. J. Janssen, A. Mashtakov, and J.-M. Mirebeau, in Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications, edited by A. Pardo and J. Kittler, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Springer, Cham, 2015), Vol. 9423, pp. 366–374.
- K. Crane, M. Livesu, E. Puppo, and Y. Qin, A survey of algorithms for geodesic paths and distances, arXiv:2007.10430.
- A. Adhikary, Symmetry protected measurement-based quantum computation in finite spin chains, M.Sc. thesis, University of British Columbia, 2021.
- D. T. Stephen, W. W. Ho, T.-C. Wei, R. Raussendorf, and R. Verresen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 250601 (2024).
- L. Hantzko, Simulation of geodesics (GitHub, San Francisco, 2025), https://github.com/HANTLUK/Simulation_Geodesics.