Benchmarking non-Clifford gates using Pauli twirling
Abstract
Quantum gate benchmarking is unavoidably influenced by state preparation and measurement errors. Randomized benchmarking addresses this challenge by employing group twirling to regularize the noise channel, then provides a characterization of quantum channels that is robust to these errors through exponential fittings. In practice, local twirling gates are preferred due to their high fidelity and experimental feasibility. However, while existing RB methods leveraging local twirling gates are effective for benchmarking Clifford gates, they face fundamental challenges in benchmarking non-Clifford gates. In this work, we solve this problem by introducing the Pauli Transfer Character Benchmarking. This protocol estimates the Pauli transfer matrix elements for a quantum channel using only local Pauli operations. Building on this protocol, we develop a fidelity benchmarking method for non-Clifford gates $U$ satisfying $U^2=I$. We validate the feasibility of our protocol through numerical simulations applied to Toffoli gates as a concrete example.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
Quantum Information and Cryptography
Quantum many-body systems
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical Review A
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 1
- Publication date
- 13 January 2026
- Language
- EN