[recursive]

> A qubit has the storage capacity of 2 complex numbers, which corresponds to 4 floats, which is at least 16*8 bits of information if we are conservative about our assumptions.

The fourth float would seem to be almost totally determined by the first three. If I'm visualizing correctly, there are at most 2 values it could possibly be.

[diegoperini]

Yes, the constraints reduce the capacity from the ideal limit of 4 real numbers.

(a + bi) type of complex numbers are indistinguishable from (b + ai) ones. Deciding the value of b immediately reduces the number of possible values for a to 2, which is a and -a respectively. Luckily, the real number line is continuous. We can accept such sacrifices without too much precision loss.

Also I should note that my calculations assumed a pair of maximally entangled particles per quantum circuit element since that's the most straightforward way to harvest quantum information with minimum number of objects.