Quantum addition circuits and unbounded fan-out

Abstract

We first show how to construct an $O(n)$-depth $O(n)$-size quantum circuit for addition of two $n$-bit binary numbers with no ancillary qubits. The exact size is $7n-6$, which is smaller than that of any other quantum circuit ever constructed for addition with no ancillary qubits. Using the circuit, we then propose a method for constructing an $O(d(n))$-depth $O(n)$-size quantum circuit for addition with $O(n/d(n))$ ancillary qubits for any $d(n) = \Omega(\log n)$. If we are allowed to use unbounded fan-out gates with length $O(n^{\varepsilon})$ for an arbitrary small positive constant $\varepsilon$, we can modify the method and construct an $O(e(n))$-depth $O(n)$-size circuit with $o(n)$ ancillary qubits for any $e(n) = \Omega(\log^* n)$. In particular, these methods yield efficient circuits with depth $O(\log n)$ and with depth $O(\log^* n)$, respectively. We apply our circuits to constructing efficient quantum circuits for Shor's discrete logarithm algorithm.