Propagate each output observable backwards through the Clifford circuit and write
The are mutually commuting Pauli operators, and measuring them on has exactly the required joint output distribution. Initially the first qubits are constrained by the stabilizer generators . Process the in order. If anticommutes with a current generator, part b gives a uniform outcome and a Clifford operation that replaces that generator by ; this step needs no measurement on . If commutes with every current generator, multiply it by known generators to remove its action on the first register. What remains is a Pauli observable on the resource qubits and is measured there. The nontrivial are independent and mutually commuting. An independent commuting family of Pauli operators on qubits has at most members, so . All effective observables are fixed by the original commuting family; the sampled outcomes merely update the classical Clifford frame. The resulting nonadaptive Pauli-based computation, followed by the stated outputs, is therefore a weak classical simulation of a quantum circuit with the same joint distribution.
A Pauli-based computation starts with the supplied nonstabilizer resource state and performs an adaptive sequence of mutually commuting measurements of Pauli observables. Each outcome is recorded classically and may determine the next Pauli observable and the final classical output. When a proposed observable anticommutes with a previously fixed Pauli constraint, its outcome is uniformly random by part b(i); one samples that outcome and uses the Clifford operation from part b(ii) to update the Clifford frame. This replaces the old constraint by the newly measured one while preserving the distribution and the post-measurement state represented by the computation.
Choose a Clifford operation with and absorb into the circuit. Push each subsequent Clifford gate forward through the computation. A computational-basis measurement made after a Clifford prefix becomes a Pauli measurement
on the initial state, because Clifford conjugation preserves the Pauli group. Adaptivity merely makes the next Pauli depend on earlier classical outcomes.
It remains to eliminate the stabilizer qubits. Maintain their current stabilizer group. For a Pauli to be measured, there are two cases.
  • If commutes with every stabilizer generator, its action on the one-dimensional stabilizer sector reduces to a Pauli operator on the remaining qubits, possibly with a known sign. Measure that effective Pauli on .
  • If anticommutes with some stabilizer , its outcome is uniformly random. Sample for an ordinary measurement, or set when the original measurement is postselected. The Clifford operator
maps the old stabilizer sector into the eigenspace of . Updating the Clifford frame by removes this measurement while conjugating every later Pauli to another Pauli.
Iterating this procedure leaves an adaptive Pauli-based computation on . The same classical outcomes determine every adaptive choice and final output, so this gives a weak classical simulation. Every postselected outcome becomes either a fixed classical branch or a postselected Pauli measurement, as required.