New features since last release
* Support added for Python 3.12 wheel builds. [(541)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/541)
* Lightning-Qubit support arbitrary controlled gates (any wires and any control values). The kernels are implemented in the `LM` module. [(576)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/576)
* Shot-noise related methods now accommodate observable objects with arbitrary eigenvalues. Add a Kronecker product method for two diagonal matrices. [(570)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/570)
* Add shot-noise support for probs in the C++ layer. Probabilities are calculated from generated samples. All Lightning backends support this feature. Please note that target wires should be sorted in ascending manner. [(568)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/568)
* Add `LM` kernels to apply arbitrary controlled operations efficiently. [(516)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/516)
* Add shots support for variance value, probs, sample, counts calculation for given observables (`NamedObs`, `TensorProd` and `Hamiltonian`) based on Pauli words, `Identity` and `Hadamard` in the C++ layer. All Lightning backends support this support feature. [(561)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/561)
* Add shots support for expectation value calculation for given observables (`NamedObs`, `TensorProd` and `Hamiltonian`) based on Pauli words, `Identity` and `Hadamard` in the C++ layer by adding `measure_with_samples` to the measurement interface. All Lightning backends support this support feature. [(556)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/556)
* `qml.QubitUnitary` operators can be included in a circuit differentiated with the adjoint method. Lightning handles circuits with arbitrary non-differentiable `qml.QubitUnitary` operators. 1,2-qubit `qml.QubitUnitary` operators with differentiable parameters can be differentiated using decomposition. [(540)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/540)
Breaking changes
* Set the default version of Kokkos to 4.2.00 throughout the project (CMake, CI, etc.) [(578)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/578)
* Overload `applyOperation` with a fifth `matrix` argument to all state vector classes to support arbitrary operations in `AdjointJacobianBase`. [(540)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/540)
Improvements
* Ensure aligned memory used for numpy arrays with state-vector without reallocations. [(572)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/572)
* Unify error messages of shot measurement related unsupported observables to better Catalyst. [(577)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/577)
* Add configuration files to improve compatibility with Catalyst. [(566)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/566)
* Refactor shot-noise related methods of MeasurementsBase class in the C++ layer and eigenvalues are not limited to `1` and `-1`. Add `getObs()` method to Observables class. Refactor `applyInPlaceShots` to allow users to get eigenvalues of Observables object. Deprecated `_preprocess_state` method in `MeasurementsBase` class for safer use of the `LightningQubitRaw` backend. [(570)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/570)
* Modify `setup.py` to use backend-specific build directory (`f"build_{backend}"`) to accelerate rebuilding backends in alternation. [(540)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/540)
* Update Dockerfile and rewrite the `build-wheel-lightning-gpu` stage to build Lightning-GPU from the `pennylane-lightning` monorepo. [(539)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/539)
* Add the MPI test CI workflows of Lightning-GPU in compatibility cron jobs. [(536)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/536)
* Add MPI synchronization in places to safely handle communicated data. [(538)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/538)
* Add release option in compatibility cron jobs to test the release candidates of PennyLane and the Lightning plugins against one another. [(531)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/531)
* Add GPU workflows in compatibility cron jobs to test Lightning-GPU and Lightning-Kokkos with the Kokkos CUDA backend. [(528)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/528)
Documentation
* Fixed a small typo in the documentation page for the PennyLane-Lightning GPU device. [(563)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/563)
* Add OpenGraph social preview for Lightning docs. [(574)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/574)
Bug fixes
* Fix CodeCov file contention issue when uploading data from many workloads. [(584)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/584)
* Ensure the `lightning.gpu` intermediate wheel builds are uploaded to TestPyPI. [(575)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/575)
* Allow support for newer clang-tidy versions on non-x86_64 platforms. [(567)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/567)
* Do not run C++ tests when testing for compatibility with PennyLane, hence fixing plugin-matrix failures. Fix Lightning-GPU workflow trigger. [(571)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/571)
* Revert single-node multi-GPU batching behaviour to match https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning-gpu/pull/27. [(#564)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/564)
* Move deprecated `stateprep` `QuantumScript` argument into the operation list in `mpitests/test_adjoint_jacobian.py`. [(540)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/540)
* Fix MPI Python unit tests for the adjoint method. [(538)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/538)
* Fix the issue with assigning kernels to ops before registering kernels on macOS. [(582)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/582)
* Update `MANIFEST.in` to include device config files and `CHANGELOG.md`. [(585)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/585)
Contributors
This release contains contributions from (in alphabetical order):
Ali Asadi, Isaac De Vlugt, Amintor Dusko, Vincent Michaud-Rioux, Erick Ochoa Lopez, Lee James O'Riordan, Shuli Shu