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Introducing QuCLEAR

QuCLEAR: Clifford Extraction and Absorption for Quantum Circuit Optimization

2025 IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture

Today’s quantum computers are limited by errors in their operations, so making quantum circuits more efficient is key to getting reliable results.

In this study, researchers introduce QuCLEAR, a new software tool that streamlines quantum circuits by cutting down on the number of complex two-qubit operations and shortening the overall execution time.

It does this in two steps. First, it identifies parts of the circuit that can be rewritten as a special type of easily simulated “Clifford” circuit. Then it processes those parts on a regular computer instead of the quantum device. Tests on a variety of problems — including in chemistry, physics and optimization — show that QuCLEAR can reduce certain types of gates by up to 78% and circuit depth by over 84% compared to the best existing methods.

The study’s co-authors are Ji Liu, Alvin Gonzales, Benchen Huang, Zain Saleem and Paul Hovland, who conducted the work at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago.

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