Fix zero-repetition measurement record shapes in simulator - #8316

Summary

This PR fixes an issue in Cirq’s sampling interface where the simulator returned incorrectly shaped empty measurement records when circuits were run with repetitions=0.

Previously, the zero-repetition path bypassed execution but hardcoded an empty record shape of (0, 1, 1). This occurred regardless of how many qubits were measured or how many times a key was repeated.

This change updates the zero-repetition path so that Result.records accurately preserves the circuit's structural dimensions:
(repetitions, measurement_instances, measured_qubits) -> (0, measurement_instances, measured_qubits)

Problem

Cirq’s SimulatesSamples.run_sweep_iter method includes a fast path for zero repetitions to avoid unnecessary simulation. However, it still must construct a valid ResultDict containing accurately dimensioned empty measurement records.

Before this change, the implementation initialized these records using np.empty([0, 1, 1]). This fallback shape failed to represent circuits utilizing multi-qubit measurement operations or repeated measurement keys.

Minimal Reproducible Example

import cirq

q0, q1 = cirq.LineQubit.range(2)

circuit = cirq.Circuit(
    cirq.measure(q0, q1, key="m"),
    cirq.measure(q0, q1, key="m"),
)

result = cirq.Simulator().run(circuit, repetitions=0)

Previous Behavior

result.records["m"].shape
# Output: (0, 1, 1) -> Incorrect: key "m" occurs twice, measuring 2 qubits each time.

Corrected Behavior

result.records["m"].shape
# Output: (0, 2, 2)

Note: This is a correctness fix, not a performance optimization. No unverified simulator optimizations have been introduced.

Tests Added

Added a dedicated regression test in simulator_test.py that constructs a circuit containing multiple qubits and repeated measurement keys. The test runs with repetitions=0 and asserts:

assert result.repetitions == 0
assert result.records["m"].shape == (0, 2, 2)

Prior to this fix, the shape assertion would fail with a layout mismatch.

Validation Performed

The following checks passed locally:

• Linting: ruff checks passed successfully on all modified files.
• Compilation: Python compilation validated for cirq-core/cirq/sim.
• Test Suite Execution:
  • Passed 46 targeted simulator and sampler tests.
  • Passed 474 simulator, sparse-simulator, and density-matrix-simulator tests.
  • Passed 73 sampler, zero-sampler, and Clifford-simulator tests.
  • Passed 641 comprehensive backend tests during broad directory auditing.

Files Changed

cirq-core/cirq/sim/simulator.py

Updated the zero-repetition execution pipeline to:

• Count unique measurement instances per key.
• Extract and preserve the explicit measured-qubit width.
• Allocate matching empty NumPy arrays matching actual structural layouts.
• Raise a clear error if mismatched measurement widths are associated with an identical key.

cirq-core/cirq/sim/simulator_test.py

Added regression coverage validating repeated multi-qubit measurement outputs under zero repetitions.

API Compatibility

This change is fully backwards-compatible.

• Public type signatures, classes, imports, serialization formats, and standard positive-repetition outputs remain entirely unchanged.
• The only observable behavioral modification is that edge-case empty measurement arrays now report accurate matrix dimensions.