Multi-Controlled Quantum Gates in Linear Nearest Neighbor

Abstract: Multi-controlled single-target (MC) gates are some of the most crucial building blocks for varied quantum algorithms. How to implement them optimally is thus a pivotal question. To answer this question in an architecture-independent manner, and to get a worst-case estimate, we should look at a linear nearest-neighbor (LNN) architecture, as this can be embedded in almost any qubit connectivity. Motivated by the above, here we describe a method which implements MC gates using no more than $\sim 4k+8n$ CNOT gates -- up-to $60\%$ reduction over state-of-the-art -- while allowing for complete flexibility to choose the locations of $n$ controls, the target, and a dirty ancilla out of $k$ qubits. More strikingly, in case $k \approx n$, our upper bound is $\sim 12n$ -- the best known for unrestricted connectivity -- and if $n = 1$, our upper bound is $\sim 4k$ -- the best known for a single long-range CNOT gate over $k$ qubits -- therefore, if our upper bound can be reduced, then the cost of one or both of these simpler versions of MC gates will be immediately reduced accordingly. In practice, our method provides circuits that tend to require fewer CNOT gates than our upper bound for almost any given instance of MC gates.