English

Matrix Elements of Fermionic Gaussian Operators in Arbitrary Pauli Bases: A Pfaffian Formula

Quantum Physics 2025-06-04 v1

Abstract

Fermionic Gaussian operators are foundational tools in quantum many-body theory, numerical simulation of fermionic dynamics, and fermionic linear optics. While their structure is fully determined by two-point correlations, evaluating their matrix elements in arbitrary local spin bases remains a nontrivial task, especially in applications involving quantum measurements, tomography, and basis-rotated simulations. In this work, we derive a fully explicit and general Pfaffian formula for the matrix elements of fermionic Gaussian operators between arbitrary Pauli product states. Our approach introduces a pair of sign-encoding matrices whose classification leads to a Lie algebra isomorphic to so(2L)\mathfrak{so}(2L). This algebraic structure not only guarantees consistency of the Pfaffian signs but also reveals deep connections to Clifford algebras. The resulting framework enables scalable computations across diverse fields -- from quantum tomography and entanglement dynamics to algebraic structure in fermionic circuits and matchgate computation. Beyond its practical utility, our construction sheds light on the internal symmetries of Gaussian operators and offers a new lens through which to explore their role in quantum information and computational models.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.02809,
  title  = {Matrix Elements of Fermionic Gaussian Operators in Arbitrary Pauli Bases: A Pfaffian Formula},
  author = {M. A. Rajabpour and MirAdel Seifi MirJafarlou and Reyhaneh Khasseh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.02809},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

27 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T02:56:50.095Z