Quantum circuits for permutation matrices

Abstract: Two different algorithms are presented for generating a quantum circuit realization of a matrix representing a permutation on $2^n$ letters. All circuits involve $n$ qubits and only use multi--controlled Toffoli gates. The first algorithm constructs a circuit from any decomposition of the permutation into a product of transpositions, but uses one ancilla line. The second, which uses no ancillae, constructs a circuit from a decomposition into a product of transpositions that have a Hamming distance of one. We show that any permutation admits such a decomposition, and we give a strategy for reducing the number of transpositions involved.