Space and time cost of continuous rotations in surface codes

Journal article

While Clifford operations are relatively easy to implement in fault-tolerant quantum computers, continuous rotation gates remain a significant bottleneck in typical quantum algorithms. In this work, we ask the question: ‘What is the most efficient approach for implementing continuous rotations in a surface code architecture?’ Several techniques have been developed to reduce the T-count or T-depth of rotations, such as Hamming weight phasing and catalyst towers. However, these methods often require additional a number of ancilla qubits, and thus the ultimate cost function one needs to optimise against should rather be the total runtime or the total space required for performing a rotation. We explicitly construct surface code layouts for catalyst towers in two practical application examples in the context of option pricing: (a) implementing a phase oracle circuit, which is a ubiquitous subroutine in many quantum algorithms, and (b) state preparation using a variational quantum circuit. Our analysis shows that, at small and medium code distances, catalyst towers not only reduce the runtime but can also decrease the total spacetime volume of rotations. However, at large code distances, conventional Clifford+T synthesis may prove more efficient. Additionally, we note that our conclusions are sensitive to specific application scenarios and the choices of various parameters. Nevertheless, catalyst towers may be particularly advantageous for early fault-tolerant quantum applications, where low and medium code distances are assumed and a spacetime tradeoff is needed to reduce the runtime of individual circuit runs, such as in scenarios involving high circuit repetition counts.

Authors: Sun, Z; Koczor, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Journal: Quantum Science and Technology
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 025046
• Article number: 025046
• Publication date: 2026-05-05
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-22
• DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/ae636b
• EISSN: 2058-9565
• ISSN: 2058-9565
• Language: English
• Keywords: catalyst tower; quantum resource estimation; spacetime tradeoff; continuous rotation gate; surface code