Fermionic quantum computation

We define a model of quantum computation with local fermionic modes (LFMs)-sites which can be either empty or occupied by a fermion. With the standard correspondence between the Foch space of m LFMs and the Hilbert space of m qubits, simulation of one fermionic gate takes O (m) qubit gates and vice versa. We show that using different encodings, the simulation cost can be reduced to O (log m) and a constant. respectively, Nearest neighbors fermionic gates on a graph of bounded degree can be simulated at a constant cost. A universal set of fermionic gates is found, We also study computation with Majorana fermions which are basically halves of LFMs. Some connection to qubit quantum codes is made. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).