On the Complexity of Level-Synchronized Tree Automata for Quantum Circuit Verification

arXiv:2610.25138 · quant-ph, cs.FL · Submitted 2026-10-18 · Read on arXiv

quant-ph, cs.FL

Submitted: 2026-10-18

Updated: 2026-10-18

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: Reliable quantum computation requires methods for verifying quantum circuits.

Terminology

Abstract

Reliable quantum computation requires methods for verifying quantum circuits. Level-synchronized tree automata (LSTAs) were recently introduced to represent sets of quantum states for this purpose. We study LSTAs along two axes relevant to verification: the complexity of their decision problems and the size of their representations under circuit operations. We prove that acyclic LSTAs have NP-complete nonemptiness and Π 2 P-complete language inclusion, and that general language inclusion is EXPSPACE-complete. We further prove inherent quadratic representation growth under individual quantum gates in a fixed qubit order, and give an adjacent-qubit reordering construction that preserves level synchronization. These results clarify the scope of applicability of the automata-theoretic toolbox for quantum circuit verification.

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