New features since last release
* Add `qml.StatePrep()` and `qml.QubitStateVector()` support to `lightning.tensor`. [(849)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/849)
* Add analytic `qml.probs()` measurement support to `lightning.tensor`. [(830)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/830)
* Add `qml.state()` measurement support to `lightning.tensor`. [(827)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/827)
* Add Lightning-GPU Linux (AArch64 + GraceHopper) wheels to PyPI. [(815)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/815)
* Add `var` support to `lightning.tensor`. Note that `var` support is added via `obs**2` and this implementation scales as `O(num_obs**2)`. [(804)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/804)
Breaking changes
* Update python packaging to follow PEP 517/518/621/660 standards. [(832)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/832)
* Add `getData()` in the `lightning.tensor` C++ backend. Users are responsible for ensuring sufficient host memory is allocated for the full state vector. [(827)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/827)
* Remove `NDpermuter.hpp` which is no longer required. [(795)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/795)
* Remove temporary steps from the CI, such as downgrading Scipy to <1.14 and installing Kokkos v4.2 for `lightning-version == 'stable'`. [(792)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/792)
* Do not run GPU tests and Docker workflows on release. [(788)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/788)
Improvements
* Update Lightning tests to support the generalization of basis state preparation. [(864)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/864)
* Add `SetState` and `SetBasisState` to `LightningKokkosSimulator`. [(861)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/861)
* Remove use of the deprecated `Operator.expand` in favour of `Operator.decomposition`. [(846)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/846)
* The `setBasisState` and `setStateVector` methods of `StateVectorLQubit` and `StateVectorKokkos` are overloaded to support PennyLane-like parameters. [(843)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/843)
* Move `setBasisState`, `setStateVector` and `resetStateVector` from `StateVectorLQubitManaged` to `StateVectorLQubit`. [(841)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/841)
* Update `generate_samples` in `LightningKokkos` and `LightningGPU` to support `qml.measurements.Shots` type instances. [(839)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/839)
* Add a Catalyst-specific wrapping class for Lightning Kokkos. [(837)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/837) [(#770)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/770)
* Lightning-Qubit natively supports the `PauliRot` gate. [(834)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/834)
* Multiple calls to the `append_mps_final_state()` API is allowed in `lightning.tensor`. [(830)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/830)
* Add `initial_state_prep` option to Catalyst TOML file. [(826)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/826)
* `ENABLE_LAPACK` is `OFF` by default for all Lightning backends. [(825)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/825)
* Update `ctrl_decomp_zyz` tests with `len(control_wires) > 1`. [(821)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/821)
* Update the Catalyst-specific wrapping class for Lightning Kokkos to track Catalyst's new support for MCM seeding. [(819)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/819)
* Replace ``size_t`` by ``std::size_t`` everywhere. [(816)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/816/)
* Shot batching is made more efficient by executing all the shots in one go on Lightning-Qubit. [(814)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/814)
* Lightning-Qubit calls `generate_samples(wires)` on a minimal subset of wires when executing in finite-shot mode. [(813)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/813)
* Update `LightingQubit.preprocess` to work with changes to preprocessing for mid-circuit measurements. [(812)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/812)
* Avoid unnecessary memory reset in Lightning-Qubit's state vector class constructor. [(811)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/811)
* Add `generate_samples(wires)` support in Lightning-Qubit, which samples faster for a subset of wires. [(809)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/809)
* Optimize the OpenMP parallelization of Lightning-Qubit's `probs` for all number of targets. [(807)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/807)
* Optimize `probs(wires)` of Lightning-Kokkos using various kernels. Which kernel is to be used depends on the device, number of qubits and number of target wires. [(802)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/802)
* Add GPU device compute capability check for Lightning-Tensor. [(803)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/803)
* Refactor CUDA utils Python bindings to a separate module. [(801)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/801)
* Parallelize Lightning-Qubit `probs` with OpenMP when using the `-DLQ_ENABLE_KERNEL_OMP=1` CMake argument. [(800)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/800)
* Implement `probs(wires)` using a bit-shift implementation akin to the gate kernels in Lightning-Qubit. [(795)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/795)
* Enable setting the PennyLane version when invoking, for example, `make docker-build version=master pl_version=master`. [(791)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/791)
Documentation
* The installation instructions for all lightning plugins have been improved. [(858)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/858) [(#851)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/851)
* Updated the README and added citation format for Lightning arXiv preprint. [(818)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/818)
Bug fixes
* Point to the right Lightning root folder independently from the invocation location, when configuring the project. [(874)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/874)
* Update dependencies and `build` command options following changes in the build system. [(863)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/863)
* Replace structured bindings by variables in `GateImplementationsLM.hpp`. [(856)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/856)
* Remove wrong `-m` when calling `setup.py`. [(854)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/854)
* Fix plugin-test-matrix CI/CD workflows. [(850)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/850)
* Set the `immutable` parameter value as `false` for the `cutensornetStateApplyTensorOperator` to allow the following `cutensornetStateUpdateTensorOperator` call. [(845)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/845)
* Fix cuQuantum SDK path pass-thought in CMake. [(831)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/831)
* Fix CUDA sync issues on AArch64 + GraceHopper. [(823)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/823)
* Check for the number of wires for Hermitian observables in Lightning-Tensor. Only 1-wire Hermitian observables are supported as of `cuTensorNet-v24.03.0`. [(806)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/806)
* Set `PL_BACKEND` for the entire `build-wheel-lightning-gpu` Docker-build stage to properly build the Lightning-GPU wheel. [(791)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/791)
* Fix conditions for skipping build & push steps in the Docker build workflows. [(790)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/790)
* Downgrade Scipy on Lightning stable version tests. [(783)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/783)
* Fix checkout command in test workflows for rc branches. [(777)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/777)
Contributors
This release contains contributions from (in alphabetical order):
Ali Asadi, Astral Cai, Ahmed Darwish, Amintor Dusko, Vincent Michaud-Rioux, Erick Ochoa Lopez, Lee J. O'Riordan, Mudit Pandey, Shuli Shu, Raul Torres, Paul Haochen Wang