Factoring with Qutrits: Shor's Algorithm on Ternary and Metaplectic Quantum Architectures

Abstract: We determine the cost of performing Shor's algorithm for integer factorization on a ternary quantum computer, using two natural models of universal fault-tolerant computing: (i) a model based on magic state distillation that assumes the availability of the ternary Clifford gates, projective measurements, classical control as its natural instrumentation set; (ii) a model based on a metaplectic topological quantum computer (MTQC). A natural choice to implement Shor's algorithm on a ternary quantum computer is to translate the entire arithmetic into a ternary form. However, it is also possible to emulate the standard binary version of the algorithm by encoding each qubit in a three-level system. We compare the two approaches and analyze the complexity of implementing Shor's period finding function in the two models. We also highlight the fact that the cost of achieving universality through magic states in MTQC architecture is asymptotically lower than in generic ternary case.