Gate teleportation-assisted routing for quantum algorithms

Abstract The limited qubit connectivity of quantum processors poses a significant challenge in deploying practical algorithms and logical gates, necessitating efficient qubit mapping and routing strategies. When implementing a gate that requires additional connectivity beyond the native connectivity, the qubit state must be moved to a nearby connected qubit to execute the desired gate locally. This is typically achieved using a series of SWAP gates creating a SWAP path. However, routing methods relying on SWAP gates often lead to increased circuit depth and gate count, motivating the need for alternative approaches. This work explores the potential of teleported gates to improve qubit routing efficiency, focusing on implementation within specific hardware topologies and benchmark quantum algorithms. We propose a routing method that is assisted by gate teleportation. It establishes additional connectivity using gate teleportation paths through available unused qubits, termed auxiliary qubits, within the topology. To optimize this approach, we have developed an algorithm to identify the best gate teleportation connections, considering their potential to reduce the depth of the circuit and address possible errors that may arise from the teleportation paths. Finally, we demonstrate depth reduction with gate teleportation-assisted routing in various benchmark algorithms, including case studies on the compilation of the Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm and the quantum approximation optimization algorithm for heavy-hexagon topology used in IBM 127-qubit Eagle r3 processors. Our benchmark results show a 10%–25% depth reduction in the routing of selected algorithms compared to regular routing without using teleported gates.