List of quantum logic gates


In gate-based quantum computing, various sets of quantum logic gates are commonly used to express quantum operations. The following tables list several unitary quantum logic gates, together with their common name, how they are represented, and some of their properties. Controlled or conjugate transpose versions of some of these gates may not be listed.

Identity gate and global phase

The identity gate is the identity operation, most of the times this gate is not indicated in circuit diagrams, but it is useful when describing mathematical results. It has been described as being a "wait cycle", and a NOP.
The global phase gate introduces a global phase to the whole qubit quantum state. A quantum state is uniquely defined up to a phase. Because of the Born rule, a phase factor has no effect on a measurement outcome: for any. Because when the global phase gate is applied to a single qubit in a quantum register, the entire register's global phase is changed. Also,
These gates can be extended to any number of qubits or qudits.

Clifford qubit gates

This table includes commonly used Clifford gates for qubits.
Names# qubitsOperator symbolMatrixCircuit diagramSome propertiesRefs
Pauli X,
NOT,
bit flip
1
150px

or

150px

Pauli Y1150px
  • Hermitian
  • Pauli group
  • Traceless
  • Involutory
  • Pauli Z,phase flip1150px
    • Hermitian
    • Pauli group
    • Traceless
    • Involutory
    Phase gate S, square root of Z1150px
    Square root of X,
    square root of NOT
    1,,150px
    Hadamard,
    Walsh-Hadamard
    1150px
    • Hermitian
    • Traceless
    • Involutory
    Controlled NOT,controlled-X,
    controlled-bit flip,
    reversible exclusive OR,
    Feynman
    2,
    150px
    150px

    • Hermitian
    • Involutory
    Implementation:
    Anticontrolled-NOT,anticontrolled-X,
    open-controlled-CNOT,
    zero control,
    control-on-0-NOT,
    reversible exclusive NOR
    2,,150px
    • Hermitian
    • Involutory
    Controlled-Z,controlled sign flip,
    controlled phase flip
    2,,,150px
    • Hermitian
    • Involutory
    • Symmetrical
    Implementation:
    • Duan-Kimble gate
    Double-controlled NOT2150px
  • Special unitary
  • Swap2150pxor
    150px

    • Hermitian
    • Involutory
    • Symmetrical
    Imaginary swap2120pxor
    150px

    • Special unitary
    • Symmetrical
    Other Clifford gates, including higher dimensional ones are not included here but by definition can be generated using and.
    Note that if a Clifford gate A is not in the Pauli group, or controlled-A are not in the Clifford gates.
    The Clifford set is not a universal quantum gate set.

    Non-Clifford qubit gates

    Relative phase gates

    The phase shift is a family of single-qubit gates that map the basis states and. The probability of measuring a or is unchanged after applying this gate, however it modifies the phase of the quantum state. This is equivalent to tracing a horizontal circle, or a rotation along the z-axis on the Bloch sphere by radians. A common example is the T gate where , the phase gate. Note that some Clifford gates are special cases of the phase shift gate:
    The argument to the phase shift gate is in U, and the gate performs a phase rotation in U along the specified basis state can be done with a series circuit:. When this gate is the [|rotation operator] gate and if it is a global phase.
    The T gate's historic name of gate comes from the identity, where.
    Arbitrary single-qubit phase shift gates are natively available for transmon quantum processors through timing of microwave control pulses. It can be explained in terms of change of frame.
    As with any single qubit gate one can build a controlled version of the phase shift gate. With respect to the computational basis, the 2-qubit controlled phase shift gate is: shifts the phase with only if it acts on the state :
    The controlled-Z gate is the special case where.
    The controlled-S gate is the case of the controlled- when and is a commonly used gate.''''

    Rotation operator gates

    Names# qubitsOperator symbolExponential formMatrixCircuit diagramPropertiesRefs
    Rotation about x-axis1150px
    • Special unitary
    • Continuous parameters:
    Rotation about y-axis1150px
  • Special unitary
  • Continuous parameters:
  • Rotation about z-axis1150px
  • Special unitary
  • Continuous parameters:
  • The rotation operator gates and are the analog rotation matrices in three Cartesian axes of SO, along the x, y or z-axes of the Bloch sphere projection.
    As Pauli matrices are related to the generator of rotations, these rotation operators can be written as matrix exponentials with Pauli matrices in the argument. Any unitary matrix in SU can be written as a product of three rotation gates or less. Note that for two-level systems such as qubits and spinors, these rotations have a period of. A rotation of returns the same statevector with a different phase.
    We also have and for all
    The rotation matrices are related to the Pauli matrices in the following way:
    It is possible to work out the adjoint action of rotations on the Pauli vector, namely rotation effectively by double the angle to apply Rodrigues' rotation formula:
    Taking the dot product of any unit vector with the above formula generates the expression of any single qubit gate when sandwiched within adjoint rotation gates. For example, it can be shown that. Also, using the anticommuting relation we have.
    Rotation operators have interesting identities. For example, and Also, using the anticommuting relations we have and
    Global phase and phase shift can be transformed into each other's with the Z-rotation operator:.
    The gate represents a rotation of about the x axis at the Bloch sphere.
    Similar rotation operator gates exist for SU using Gell-Mann matrices. They are the rotation operators used with qutrits.

    Two-qubit interaction gates

    The qubit-qubit Ising coupling or Heisenberg interaction gates Rxx, Ryy and Rzz are 2-qubit gates that are implemented natively in some trapped-ion quantum computers, using for example the Mølmer–Sørensen gate procedure.
    Note that these gates can be expressed in sinusoidal form also, for example.
    The CNOT gate can be further decomposed as products of rotation operator gates and exactly a single two-qubit interaction gate, for example
    The SWAP gate can be constructed from other gates, for example using the two-qubit interaction gates:.
    In superconducting circuits, the family of gates resulting from Heisenberg interactions is sometimes called the fSim gate set. They can be realized using flux-tunable qubits with flux-tunable coupling, or using microwave drives in fixed-frequency qubits with fixed coupling.

    Non-Clifford swap gates

    The gate performs half-way of a two-qubit swap. It is universal such that any many-qubit gate can be constructed from only and single qubit gates. More than one application of the is required to produce a Bell state from product states. The gate arises naturally in systems that exploit exchange interaction.
    For systems with Ising like interactions, it is sometimes more natural to introduce the imaginary swap or iSWAP. Note that and, or more generally for all real n except 0.
    SWAPα arises naturally in spintronic quantum computers.
    The Fredkin gate, named after Edward Fredkin, is a 3-bit gate that performs a controlled swap. It is universal for classical computation. It has the useful property that the numbers of 0s and 1s are conserved throughout, which in the billiard ball model means the same number of balls are output as input.

    Other named gates