  Let G(A,B) denote the 2-qubit gate which acts as the 1-qubit SU(2) gates A
and B in the even and odd parity subspaces respectively, of two qubits. Using a
Clifford algebra formalism we show that arbitrary uniform families of circuits
of these gates, restricted to act only on nearest neighbour (n.n.) qubit lines,
can be classically efficiently simulated. This reproduces a result originally
proved by Valiant using his matchgate formalism, and subsequently related by
others to free fermionic physics. We further show that if the n.n. condition is
slightly relaxed, to allowing the same gates to act only on n.n. and next-n.n.
qubit lines, then the resulting circuits can efficiently perform universal
quantum computation. From this point of view, the gap between efficient
classical and quantum computational power is bridged by a very modest use of a
seemingly innocuous resource (qubit swapping). We also extend the simulation
result above in various ways. In particular, by exploiting properties of
Clifford operations in conjunction with the Jordan-Wigner representation of a
Clifford algebra, we show how one may generalise the simulation result above to
provide further classes of classically efficiently simulatable quantum
circuits, which we call Gaussian quantum circuits.
