On the question of noise as a resource in quantum computing

Noise is usually regarded as the main obstacle to achieving a scalable quantum advantage, but recent evidence in quantum reservoir computing [L. Domingo, F. Borondo, and G. G. Carlo. Taking advantage of noise in quantum reservoir computing, Scientific Reports, 13:8790, 2023] suggests that certain channels can, in appropriate regimes, improve performance by enriching the reservoir's effective dynamics. Motivated by this idea we propose a geometric mechanism to explain how non-unital noise applied together with a universal gate set leads to a faster approach to Haar-like distributions of the final states. We find that noise of this kind induces an effective volume expansion on the manifold of pure states. In order to intuitively understand this we use a minimal 1 qubit model where we take the amplitude damping channel and combine it with a renormalization rule that associates to each resulting mixed state a representative pure state. This composition defines a globally expanding nonlinear map on the space of pure states. We analytically derive the local area expansion factor and identify the global expansion threshold. Finally, we combine amplitude damping with the G3 = {H, T, CNOT} universal gate set to show how the approach to Haar-like behavior is faster in an appropriate parameter region. This leads us to propose noise as a possible resource in future quantum algorithms.