Source code for pennylane.ops.functions.commutator

# Copyright 2024 Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc.

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"""
This file contains the implementation of the commutator function in PennyLane
"""
import pennylane as qml
from pennylane.pauli import PauliSentence, PauliWord


[docs]def commutator(op1, op2, pauli=False): r"""Compute commutator between two operators in PennyLane .. math:: [O_1, O_2] = O_1 O_2 - O_2 O_1 Args: op1 (Union[Operator, PauliWord, PauliSentence]): First operator op2 (Union[Operator, PauliWord, PauliSentence]): Second operator pauli (bool): When ``True``, all results are passed as a ``PauliSentence`` instance. Else, results are always returned as ``Operator`` instances. Returns: ~Operator or ~PauliSentence: The commutator **Examples** You can compute commutators between operators in PennyLane. >>> qml.commutator(X(0), Y(0)) 2j * Z(0) >>> op1 = X(0) @ X(1) >>> op2 = Y(0) @ Y(1) >>> qml.commutator(op1, op2) 0 * I() We can return a :class:`~PauliSentence` instance by setting ``pauli=True``. >>> op1 = X(0) @ X(1) >>> op2 = Y(0) + Y(1) >>> res = qml.commutator(op1, op2, pauli=True) >>> res 2j * X(1) @ Z(0) + 2j * Z(1) @ X(0) >>> isinstance(res, PauliSentence) True We can also input :class:`~PauliWord` and :class:`~PauliSentence` instances. >>> op1 = PauliWord({0:"X", 1:"X"}) >>> op2 = PauliWord({0:"Y"}) + PauliWord({1:"Y"}) >>> res = qml.commutator(op1, op2, pauli=True) >>> res 2j * Z(0) @ X(1) + 2j * X(0) @ Z(1) >>> isinstance(res, PauliSentence) True Note that when ``pauli=False``, even if Pauli operators are used as inputs, ``qml.commutator`` returns Operators. >>> res = qml.commutator(op1, op2, pauli=False) >>> res 2j * (Z(0) @ X(1)) + 2j * (X(0) @ Z(1)) >>> isinstance(res, qml.operation.Operator) True It is worth noting that computing commutators with Paulis is typically faster. Internally, ``qml.commutator`` uses the ``op.pauli_rep`` whenever that is available for both operators. .. details:: :title: Usage Details The input and result of ``qml.commutator`` is not recorded in a tape context (and inside a :class:`~QNode`). .. code-block:: python3 with qml.tape.QuantumTape() as tape: a = qml.X(0) # gets recorded b = PauliWord({0:"Y"}) # does not get recorded comm = qml.commutator(a, b) # does not get recorded In this example, we obtain ``tape.operations = [qml.X(0)]``. When desired, we can still record the result of the commutator by using :func:`~apply`, i.e. ``qml.apply(comm)`` inside the recording context. A peculiarity worth repeating is how in a recording context every created operator is recorded. .. code-block:: python3 with qml.tape.QuantumTape() as tape: comm = qml.commutator(qml.X(0), qml.Y(0)) In this example, both :class:`~PauliX` and :class:`PauliY` get recorded because they were created inside the recording context. To avoid this, create the input to ``qml.commutator`` outside the recording context / qnode or insert an extra ``stop_recording()`` context (see :class:`~QueuingManager`). """ both_have_pauli_rep = op1.pauli_rep is not None and op2.pauli_rep is not None if pauli or both_have_pauli_rep: if not isinstance(op1, PauliSentence): op1 = qml.pauli.pauli_sentence(op1) if not isinstance(op2, PauliSentence): op2 = qml.pauli.pauli_sentence(op2) res = op1.commutator(op2) return res if pauli else res.operation(wire_order=res.wires) # If no pauli processing is possible, use operator arithmetic with qml.QueuingManager.stop_recording(): if isinstance(op1, (PauliWord, PauliSentence)): op1 = op1.operation() if isinstance(op2, (PauliWord, PauliSentence)): op2 = op2.operation() res = qml.sum(qml.prod(op1, op2), qml.s_prod(-1.0, qml.prod(op2, op1))) res = res.simplify() return res
comm = commutator # Slightly shorter alias