Gregory D. Kahanamoku-Meyer, Norman Y. Yao (Mar 28 2024).
Abstract: The multiplication of superpositions of numbers is a core operation in many quantum algorithms. The standard method for multiplication (both classical and quantum) has a runtime quadratic in the size of the inputs. Quantum circuits with asymptotically fewer gates have been developed, but generally exhibit large overheads, especially in the number of ancilla qubits. In this work, we introduce a new paradigm for sub-quadratic-time quantum multiplication with zero ancilla qubits – the only qubits involved are the input and output registers themselves. Our algorithm achieves an asymptotic gate count of $\mathcal{O}(n^{1+\epsilon})$ for any $\epsilon > 0$; with practical choices of parameters, we expect scalings as low as $\mathcal{O}(n^{1.3})$. Used as a subroutine in Shor’s algorithm, our technique immediately yields a factoring circuit with $\mathcal{O}(n^{2+\epsilon})$ gates and only $2n + \mathcal{O}(\log n)$ qubits; to our knowledge, this is by far the best qubit count of any factoring circuit with a sub-cubic number of gates. Used in Regev’s recent factoring algorithm, the gate count is $\mathcal{O}(n^{1.5+\epsilon})$. Finally, we demonstrate that our algorithm has the potential to outperform previous proposals at problem sizes relevant in practice, including yielding the smallest circuits we know of for classically-verifiable quantum advantage.