Efficient ancilla-free reversible and quantum circuits for the Hidden Weighted Bit function

07/10/2020

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by   Sergey Bravyi, et al.

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The Hidden Weighted Bit function plays an important role in the study of classical models of computation. A common belief is that this function is exponentially hard for the implementation by reversible ancilla-free circuits, even though introducing a small number of ancillae allows a very efficient implementation. In this paper, we refute the exponential hardness conjecture by developing a polynomial-size reversible ancilla-free circuit computing the Hidden Weighted Bit function. Our circuit has size O(n^6.42), where n is the number of input bits. We also show that the Hidden Weighted Bit function can be computed by a quantum ancilla-free circuit of size O(n^2). The technical tools employed come from a combination of Theoretical Computer Science (Barrington's theorem) and Physics (simulation of fermionic Hamiltonians) techniques.