Ultra-Precise Quantum Projective Designs in Constant Depth

Abstract

Random quantum objects are powerful resources for quantum information processing, yet exact Haar randomness is costly and typically unnecessary. We introduce an explicit sparse commuting circuit ensemble on $n$ qubits that reproduces low-order Haar moments in the stringent relative-error sense. The circuit consists of a sparse Clifford phase layer followed by independent single-qubit Clifford gates. Acting on a simple product state, the resulting ensemble forms $ε$-approximate projective $2$- and $3$-designs in relative error, with the required logarithmic interaction degree being asymptotically optimal within this circuit family. It admits an ancilla-free implementation of quantum depth $O(\log(n/ε))$ on an all-to-all architecture, as well as an adaptive constant-depth implementation---in fact, depth seven---using $O(n\log(n/ε))$ ancilla qubits. Departing from existing shallow-design paradigms, our analysis exploits the intrinsic moment structure of commuting phase circuits; at third order, this requires a new block decomposition and combinatorial analysis that also suggests a route toward higher-order shallow designs. Our results show that precise Haar-like statistics can emerge from sparse commuting dynamics with remarkably low quantum resources, with applications to randomized characterization, quantum metrology, quantum algorithms, and many-body physics.