Structured decomposition for reversible Boolean functions

Abstract

Reversible Boolean function is a one-to-one function which maps $n$-bit input to $n$-bit output. Reversible logic synthesis has been widely studied due to its relationship with low-energy computation as well as quantum computation. In this work, we give a structured decomposition for even reversible Boolean functions (RBF). Specifically, for $n\geq 6$, any even $n$-bit RBF can be decomposed to $7$ blocks of $(n-1)$-bit RBF, where $7$ is a constant independent of $n$; and the positions of those blocks have large degree of freedom. Moreover, if the $(n-1)$-bit RBFs are required to be even as well, we show for $n\geq 10$, $n$-bit RBF can be decomposed to $10$ even $(n-1)$-bit RBFs. For simplicity, we say our decomposition has block depth $7$ and even block depth $10$. Our result improves Selinger's work in block depth model, by reducing the constant from $9$ to $7$; and from $13$ to $10$ when the blocks are limited to be even. We emphasize that our setting is a bit different from Selinger's. In Selinger's constructive proof, each block is one of two specific positions and thus the decomposition has an alternating structure. We relax this restriction and allow each block to act on arbitrary $(n-1)$ bits. This relaxation keeps the block structure and provides more candidates when choosing positions of blocks.