Abstract
Virtual gates have become integral for implementing fast, high-fidelity single-qubit operations. However, virtual gates require that the system's two-qubit gates are microwave-activated or normalise the single-qubit rotationsthe group generated by , , and arbitrary phase gates. Herein, we extend the theory of virtual gates to the pulse-level, which underlies both gate design and the recent advancements of pulse-level quantum algorithms. These algorithms attempt to utilise the full potential of present-day noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices by removing overheads associated with the compilation and transpilation of gates. To extend the theory of virtual gates, we derive a platform-agnostic theoretical framework for virtual pulses by employing time dilations of the pulse sequences that control the quantum processor. Additionally, we provide worked examples of the implementation of virtual pulses on both semiconductor spin qubit and superconducting quantum processor architectures. Moreover, we present a general overview of the hardware support for virtual pulses. We find virtual pulses (and thus, virtual gates) can be used on hardware that, with previous methods, did not support the virtual gate. Finally, we present two additional applications of virtual pulses to pulse-level algorithms. First, broadening the class of Hamiltonians that can be natively simulated in an analogue manner. Second, increasing the expressibility of pulse-based variational quantum algorithms.