Detecting Entanglement-Generating Circuits in Cloud-Based Quantum Computing

Abstract

Entanglement, a direct consequence of elementary quantum gates such as controlled-NOT or Toffoli gates, is a key resource that leads to quantum advantages. In this work, we establish the framework of certifying entanglement generation in cloud-based quantum computing services. Namely, we present the construction of quantum circuits that certify entanglement generation in a circuit-based quantum computing model. The framework relaxes the assumption of the so-called qubit allocation, which is the step in a cloud service to relate physical qubits in hardware to a circuit proposed by a user. Consequently, the certification is valid no matter how unsuccessful qubit allocations may be in cloud computing or how untrustful the service may be in qubit allocations. We then demonstrate the certification of entanglement generation on two and three qubits in the IBMQ and IonQ services. Remarkably, entanglement generation is successfully certified in the IonQ service that does not provide a command of qubit allocations. The capabilities of entanglement generation in the circuits of IBMQ and IonQ are also quantified. We envisage that the proposed framework is applied when cloud-based quantum computing services are exploited for practical computation and information tasks, for which our results would find if it is possible to achieve quantum advantages.