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Say, I wanted to implement a unitary $U_f$ to compute a Boolean function $f:B_n \to B_n$. This is done by the unitary $$U_f|x\rangle | y \rangle = |x\rangle|y\oplus f(x)\rangle$$ which one can construct even if $f$ itself is not invertible. Now, suppose $f$ can classically be computed in polynomial time.

What is the cost of implementing $U_f$?

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    $\begingroup$ I would say that this depends on what your function will do it. For example, you function f(x) can be just a toffoli gate, i.e., it performs a "and" operation with a xor operation. Can you give more details about the function $f$? You can give a look at this presentation: vlsicad.eecs.umich.edu/BK/Slots/cache/www.eecs.umich.edu/… $\endgroup$ May 6, 2019 at 8:02
  • $\begingroup$ I am not interested in any function in particular and I think the question is well defined as is. In particular, I would like to know if one is assured that $U_f$ could be implemented in polynomial time, too and if so why. $\endgroup$
    – Marsl
    May 6, 2019 at 8:20
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    $\begingroup$ @Marsl if $f$ is implemented with a polynomial number of irreversible gates (from, say, $\mathsf{NAND},\mathsf{NOR}$, etc.), it can also be implementable also with a polynomial number of reversible gates (from, say, $\mathsf{CNOT},\mathsf{CCNOT}$, etc.) Is that your question? If $f$ is, instead, defined recursively, it has been a bit tricky; however, this Quanta article on Craig Gentry's recent breakthrough on such recursive functions. $\endgroup$ May 6, 2019 at 15:03
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    $\begingroup$ Yes, the first part is exactly what I am interested in. Can you argue this a little more? The second part is indeed very interesting, thx for the reference. $\endgroup$
    – Marsl
    May 6, 2019 at 15:21
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    $\begingroup$ @Marsl In fact, there are several papers showing that you can make any function reversible. See [1], where Bennett shows how to do it. Also, in terms of karatsuba multiplication, there are papers showing how to do it and the costs for it, see [2]. However, this is just logical gates. One of the only papers that I know that go deep in terms of costs is [3]. [1] dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=73186 [2] arxiv.org/abs/1706.03419 [3] arxiv.org/abs/1603.09383 $\endgroup$ May 7, 2019 at 9:07

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As to the question of how to convert a function performed iteratively using irreversible gates to the same function performed iteratively using reversible gates, you should probably accept that any boolean function from $\{0,1\}^n$ to $\{0,1\}$ can be written in $\mathsf{3CNF}$-normal form with a polynomial number of $\mathsf{AND, OR, NOT}$ gates (i.e. $\lor$, $\land$, and $\lnot$ gates). Of these three, only $\lnot$ is reversible; the other two, $\land$ and $\lor$ are not.

You should probably also accept that you can convert any function written in $\mathsf{3CNF}$ having $\{\lnot,\lor,\land\}$ gates to the same function written with a polynomial number of clauses using only $\uparrow$, the Sheffer stroke (for $\mathsf{NAND}$). The Sheffer stroke $\uparrow$ is not reversible.

It would suffice to replace the Sheffer stroke $\{\uparrow\}$, or the $\mathsf{3CNF}$ gates $\{\lor,\land,\lnot\}$, with some reversible gates.

Enter the Toffoli gate, aka the $\mathsf{CCNOT}$ gate.

Quoting from Wikipedia:

[The Toffoli gate] preserves two of its inputs a,b and replaces the third c by $c\oplus (a\cdot b)$. With $c=0$, this gives the $\mathsf{AND}$ function, and with $a\cdot b=1$ this gives the $\mathsf{NOT}$ function. Thus, the Toffoli gate is universal and can implement any reversible boolean function (given enough zero-initialized ancillary bits).

Thus, you can implement $\mathsf{AND}$ and $\mathsf{NOT}$ with Toffoli gates, and hence implement $\mathsf{NAND}$ with two Toffoli gates. The implication is that the "enough zero-initialized ancillary bits" is not more than polynomial in $n$.

I don't expect that real synthesis of boolean functions uses only Toffoli gates - but at least there's an outline of how you could convert a function written in $\mathsf{3CNF}$-normal form into some other normal form using nothing but Toffoli gates.

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