English

Practical Tests and Witnesses of Fermionic non-Gaussianity

Quantum Physics 2026-05-27 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

Detecting when a quantum state leaves the efficiently simulable fermionic Gaussian regime is a central task for benchmarking quantum devices and certifying fermionic magic resources. We develop practical tests and witnesses based on fermionic antiflatness (FAF), a covariance-matrix-based measure of non-Gaussianity. For nn-qubit states, we estimate FAF using two complementary protocols: two-copy Bell measurements and a single-copy scheme based on commuting matchings of Majorana bilinears. These yield testers that distinguish pure Gaussian states from states ϵ\epsilon-far from the Gaussian set, using O(n2/ϵ2)O(n^2/\epsilon^2) two-copy Bell measurements or O(n3/ϵ4)O(n^3/\epsilon^4) single-copy measurements, improving the state of the art in the dependence on both nn and ϵ\epsilon. For mixed states, we introduce a purity-corrected FAF witness that certifies non-Gaussianity and is highly robust to noise. With our witness, we demonstrate on the IQM quantum computer that noise can both reduce and enhance non-Gaussianity. Finally, by examining pseudo non-Gaussianity, we show that the cryptographic task of pseudorandom-state generation requires extensive fermionic non-Gaussianity. Together, these results provide experimentally accessible tools for detecting, witnessing, and quantifying non-Gaussian fermionic resources.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.26218,
  title  = {Practical Tests and Witnesses of Fermionic non-Gaussianity},
  author = {Tobias Haug and Xhek Turkeshi and Piotr Sierant},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.26218},
  year   = {2026}
}

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