Universal Measurement-Based Quantum Computation in a One-Dimensional Architecture Enabled by Dual-Unitary Circuits

A powerful tool emerging from the study of many-body quantum dynamics is that of dual-unitary circuits, which are unitary even when read “sideways,” i.e., along the spatial direction. Here, we show that this provides the ideal framework to understand and expand on the notion of measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC). In particular, applying a dual-unitary circuit to a many-body state followed by appropriate measurements effectively implements quantum computation in the spatial direction. We show how the dual-unitary dynamics generated by the dynamics of the paradigmatic one-dimensional kicked Ising chain with certain parameter choices generate resource states for universal deterministic MBQC. Specifically, after 𝑘 time steps, equivalent to a depth-𝑘 quantum circuit, we obtain a resource state for universal MBQC on ∼3⁢𝑘/4 encoded qubits. Our protocol allows generic quantum circuits to be “rotated” in space-time and gives new ways to exchange between resources like qubit number and coherence time in quantum computers. Beyond the practical advantages, we also interpret the dual-unitary evolution as generating an infinite sequence of new symmetry-protected topological phases with spatially modulated symmetries, which gives a vast generalization of the well-studied one-dimensional cluster state and shows that our protocol is robust to symmetry-respecting deformations.