On the impossibility to perform a global unitary operation sequentially

In quantum information, sequential protocols are of utmost importance which involve a very demanding task, especially in the implementation of a global unitary acting on N qubits. In principle, this can be simplified by decomposing the unitary in sequential two-body interactions, between each qubit and an ancillary system, in a manner where each qubit is acted upon only once by the ancilla. This study shows that the sequential decomposition of a global unitary that entangles two or more qubits is impossible in general, even in the case of an infinite-dimensional ancilla.