We propose a new parton theory of the hole-doped cuprates. describing the evolution from the pseudogap metal with small Fermi surfaces to the conventional Fermi liquid with a large Fermi surface. We introduce two ancilla qubits per square lattice site. and employ them to obtain a variational wave function of a fractionalized Fermi liquid for the pseudogap metal state. https://www.lorenametaute.com/