Magna: simulating magic state factories as cheaply as Clifford circuits

Abstract

Classical simulation of magic state factories, including distillation, cultivation, and code switching, is challenging because of their substantial non-Clifford content. We introduce $\texttt{magna}$ (magic-state-factory assessment via global network algebra), a classical simulator that simulates such protocols as cheaply as Clifford circuits. $\texttt{magna}$ expresses the figures of merit of a protocol, namely the acceptance rate and the fidelity of the accepted states, as tensor networks, which it reduces globally by exploiting a structural correspondence with transversal gates on quantum codes. $\texttt{magna}$ further supports feedforward conditioned on arbitrary functions of mid-circuit measurement outcomes, including decoder outputs. We simulate Bravyi--Haah distillation with up to 100 output magic states at a cost that does not grow exponentially in the number of outputs, and achieve state-of-the-art sampling times for distance-5 magic state cultivation on both color codes and RP$^2$ surface codes. Finally, we validate nonlinear feedforward on a logical-level distillation protocol with 15 rounds of decoder-dependent feedforward. $\texttt{magna}$ aims to contribute to the key infrastructure for the large-scale evaluation and optimization of magic state factories.