Clifford group, stabilizer states, and linear and quadratic operations over GF(2)

Abstract

We describe stabilizer states and Clifford group operations using linear operations and quadratic forms over binary vector spaces. We show how the n-qubit Clifford group is isomorphic to a group with an operation that is defined in terms of a $\mathrm{}(2n+1)\mathrm{}\times \mathrm{}(2n+1)\mathrm{}$ binary matrix product and binary quadratic forms. As an application we give two schemes to efficiently decompose Clifford group operations into one- and two-qubit operations. We also show how the coefficients of stabilizer states and Clifford group operations in a standard basis expansion can be described by binary quadratic forms. Our results are useful for quantum error correction, entanglement distillation, and possibly quantum computing.