Topological Quantum Computation and Quantum Compilation
Summary
A central problem in realizing universal quantum computers is dealing with decoherence effects, which can destroy the vulnerable quantum states present in the internal registers. Several schemes have been developed that provide resistance to decoherence, leading to theories of fault-tolerant quantum computation. One such scheme is the theory of topological quantum computation, which encodes qubit states in robust topological properties of certain quantum systems. However, fault-tolerant theories typically only provide a finite set of primitive gates, from which we must then form approximations to arbitrary quantum gates. The Solovay-Kitaev algorithm describes a procedure for accomplishing this, and proves that the number of primitive gates required to approximate an arbitrary gate is only polylogarithmic in the desired degree of accuracy. In this thesis, we first outline the basic theory of quantum computation. Secondly, we describe the general problem of quantum compilation, list several possible strategies for relevant optimizations, and outline a proof of the Solovay-Kitaev theorem. Next, we give an introduction to the theory of topological quantum computation by anyons, with special focus on Fibonacci-anyons. Finally, we list some numerical results of an implementation of the Solovay-Kitaev algorithm when applied to a Fibonacci-anyon model and analyze the performance gains obtained through applications of the proposed optimizations.