A Complete and Natural Rule Set for Multi-Qutrit Clifford Circuits

Sarah Meng Li
(University of Amsterdam, University of Waterloo)
Michele Mosca
(University of Waterloo)
Neil J. Ross
(Dalhousie University)
John van de Wetering
(University of Amsterdam)
Yuming Zhao
(University of Copenhagen, University of Waterloo)

We present a complete set of rewrite rules for n-qutrit Clifford circuits where n is any non-negative integer. This is the first completeness result for any fragment of quantum circuits in odd prime dimensions. We first generalize Selinger's normal form for n-qubit Clifford circuits to the qutrit setting. Then, we present a rewrite system by which any Clifford circuit can be reduced to this normal form. We then simplify the rewrite rules in this procedure to a small natural set of rules, giving a clean presentation of the group of qutrit Clifford unitaries in terms of generators and relations.

In Alejandro Díaz-Caro, Ognyan Oreshkov and Ana Belén Sainz: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic (QPL 2025), Varna, Bulgaria, 14 July 2025 - 18 July 2025, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 426, pp. 23–78.
Published: 20th August 2025.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.426.2 Ancillary files bibtex PDF
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