One-way quantum computation

Abstract

In this book chapter, we provide a tutorial introduction to one-way quantum computation and many of the techniques one can use to understand it. The techniques which are described include the stabilizer formalism and the logical Heisenberg picture. We highlight ways in which it is useful to understand one-way computation beyond simple equivalence with the quantum circuit model. We briefly review current proposals of implementations and experimental progress and summarize some recent related theoretical developments. Although the chapter is primarily didactic in focus, we include a number of new methods and observations. These include: a simpler and more compact formulation of one-way quantum computation in the stabilizer formalism; A new way of implementing unitaries diagonal in the computational basis; New results on the family of operations which may be implemented in a single round of measurements; A method for constructing compact one-way patterns by decomposing unitaries in terms of diagonal unitaries and Clifford group transformations. The chapter was revised in 2018 with a survey of recent developments in measurement-based quantum computation.