Catalytic $z$-rotations in constant $T$-depth

Isaac H. Kim

Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

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Abstract

We show that the $T$-depth of any single-qubit $z$-rotation can be reduced to $3$ if a certain catalyst state is available. To achieve an $\epsilon$-approximation, it suffices to have a catalyst state of size polynomial in $\log(1/\epsilon)$. This implies that $\mathsf{QNC}^0_f/\mathsf{qpoly}$ admits a finite universal gate set consisting of Clifford+$T$. In particular, there are catalytic constant $T$-depth circuits that approximate multi-qubit Toffoli, adder, and quantum Fourier transform arbitrarily well. We also show that the catalyst state can be prepared in time polynomial in $\log (1/\epsilon)$.

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[6] Craig Gidney, "A Classical-Quantum Adder with Constant Workspace and Linear Gates", arXiv:2507.23079, (2025).

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[10] William A. Simon and Peter J. Love, "Halving the Cost of Controlled Time-Evolution", arXiv:2511.13855, (2025).

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