  We describe stabilizer states and Clifford group operations using linear
operations and quadratic forms over binary vector spaces. We show how the
n-qubit Clifford group is isomorphic to a group with an operation that is
defined in terms of a (2n+1)x(2n+1) binary matrix product and binary quadratic
forms. As an application we give two schemes to efficiently decompose Clifford
group operations into one and two-qubit operations. We also show how the
coefficients of stabilizer states and Clifford group operations in a standard
basis expansion can be described by binary quadratic forms. Our results are
useful for quantum error correction, entanglement distillation and possibly
quantum computing.
