  We study the classical simulatability of commuting quantum circuits with n
input qubits and O(log n) output qubits, where a quantum circuit is classically
simulatable if its output probability distribution can be sampled up to an
exponentially small additive error in classical polynomial time. First, we show
that there exists a commuting quantum circuit that is not classically
simulatable unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses to the third level. This
is the first formal evidence that a commuting quantum circuit is not
classically simulatable even when the number of output qubits is exponentially
small. Then, we consider a generalized version of the circuit and clarify the
condition under which it is classically simulatable. Lastly, we apply the
argument for the above evidence to Clifford circuits in a similar setting and
provide evidence that such a circuit augmented by a depth-1 non-Clifford layer
is not classically simulatable. These results reveal subtle differences between
quantum and classical computation.
