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Collective unitary evolution with linear optics by Cartan decomposition

Unitary operation is an essential step for quantum information processing. We first propose an iterative procedure for decomposing a general unitary operation without resorting to controlled-NOT gate and single-qubit rotation library. Based on the results of decomposition, we design two compact architectures to deterministically implement arbitrary two-qubit polarization-spatial and spatial-polarization collective unitary operations, respectively. The involved linear optical elements are reduced from 25 to 20 and 21 to 20, respectively. Moreover, the parameterized quantum computation can be flexibly manipulated by wave plates and phase shifters. As an application, we construct the specific quantum circuits to realize two-dimensional quantum walk and quantum Fourier transformation. Our schemes are simple and feasible with the current technology.