No Arabic abstract
As quantum computers of non-trivial size become available in the near future, it is imperative to develop tools to emulate small quantum computers. This allows for validation and debugging of algorithms as well as exploring hardware-software co-design to guide the development of quantum hardware and architectures. The simulation of quantum computers entails multiplications of sparse matrices with very large dense vectors of dimension $2^n$, where $n$ denotes the number of qubits, making this a memory-bound and network bandwidth-limited application. We introduce the concept of a quantum computer textit{emulator} as a component of a software framework for quantum computing, enabling a significant performance advantage over simulators by emulating quantum algorithms at a high level rather than simulating individual gate operations. We describe various optimization approaches and present benchmarking results, establishing the superiority of quantum computer emulators in terms of performance.
Recently, constant-depth quantum circuits are proved more powerful than their classical counterparts at solving certain problems, e.g., the two-dimensional (2D) hidden linear function (HLF) problem regarding a symmetric binary matrix. To further investigate the boundary between classical and quantum computing models, in this work we propose a high-performance two-stage classical scheme to solve a full-sampling variant of the 2D HLF problem, which combines traditional classical parallel algorithms and a gate-based classical circuit model together for exactly simulating the target shallow quantum circuits. Under reasonable parameter assumptions, a theoretical analysis reveals our classical simulator consumes less runtime than that of near-term quantum processors for most problem instances. Furthermore, we demonstrate the typical all-connected 2D grid instances by moderate FPGA circuits, and show our designed parallel scheme is a practically scalable, high-efficient and operationally convenient tool for simulating and verifying graph-state circuits performed by current quantum hardware.
Quantum algorithms profit from the interference of quantum states in an exponentially large Hilbert space and the fact that unitary transformations on that Hilbert space can be broken down to universal gates that act only on one or two qubits at the same time. The former aspect renders the direct classical simulation of quantum algorithms difficult. Here we introduce higher-order partial derivatives of a probability distribution of particle positions as a new object that shares these basic properties of quantum mechanical states needed for a quantum algorithm. Discretization of the positions allows one to represent the quantum mechanical state of $n_text{bit}$ qubits by $2(n_text{bit}+1)$ classical stochastic bits. Based on this, we demonstrate many-particle interference and representation of pure entangled quantum states via derivatives of probability distributions and find the universal set of stochastic maps that correspond to the quantum gates in a universal gate set. We prove that the propagation via the stochastic map built from those universal stochastic maps reproduces up to a prefactor exactly the evolution of the quantum mechanical state with the corresponding quantum algorithm, leading to an automated translation of a quantum algorithm to a stochastic classical algorithm. We implement several well-known quantum algorithms, analyse the scaling of the needed number of realizations with the number of qubits, and highlight the role of destructive interference for the cost of the emulation. Foundational questions raised by the new representation of a quantum state are discussed.
Quantum computers provide a fundamentally new computing paradigm that promises to revolutionize our ability to solve broad classes of problems. Surprisingly, the basic mathematical structures of gate-based quantum computing, such as unitary operations on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space, are not unique to quantum systems but may be found in certain classical systems as well. Previously, it has been shown that one can represent an arbitrary multi-qubit quantum state in terms of classical analog signals using nested quadrature amplitude modulated signals. Furthermore, using digitally controlled analog electronics one may manipulate these signals to perform quantum gate operations and thereby execute quantum algorithms. The computational capacity of a single signal is, however, limited by the required bandwidth, which scales exponentially with the number of qubits when represented using frequency-based encoding. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a method to extend this approach to multiple parallel signals. Doing so allows a larger quantum state to be emulated with the same gate time required for processing frequency-encoded signals. In the proposed representation, each doubling of the number of signals corresponds to an additional qubit in the spatial domain. Single quit gate operations are similarly extended so as to operate on qubits represented using either frequency-based or spatial encoding schemes. Furthermore, we describe a method to perform gate operations between pairs of qubits represented using frequency or spatial encoding or between frequency-based and spatially encoded qubits. Finally, we describe how this approach may be extended to represent qubits in the time domain as well.
This paper describes a novel approach to emulate a universal quantum computer with a wholly classical system, one that uses a signal of bounded duration and amplitude to represent an arbitrary quantum state. The signal may be of any modality (e.g. acoustic, electromagnetic, etc.) but this paper will focus on electronic signals. Individual qubits are represented by in-phase and quadrature sinusoidal signals, while unitary gate operations are performed using simple analog electronic circuit devices. In this manner, the Hilbert space structure of a multi-qubit quantum state, as well as a universal set of gate operations, may be fully emulated classically. Results from a programmable prototype system are presented and discussed.
Quantum communication relies on the existence of entanglement between two nodes of a network. Since, entanglement can only be produced using local quantum operations, distribution of parts of this entangled system between different nodes becomes necessary. However, due to the extremely fragile nature of entanglement and the presence of losses in the communication channel, the direct distribution of entanglement over large distances is nearly impossible. Quantum repeaters have been proposed to solve this problem. These enable one to establish long-range entanglement by dividing the link into smaller parts, creating entanglement between each part and connecting them up to form the full link. As researchers race to establish entanglement over larger and larger distances, it becomes essential to gauge the performance and robustness of the different protocols that go into designing a quantum repeater, before deploying them in real life. Present day noisy quantum computers are ideal for this task as they can emulate the noisy environment in a quantum communication channel and provide a benchmark for how the protocols will perform on real-life hardware. In this paper, we report the circuit-level implementation of the complete architecture of a Quantum Repeater. All the protocols of the repeater have been bench-marked on IBM Q, the worlds first publicly available cloud quantum computer. The results of our experiment provide a measure for the fidelity of entanglement current repeaters can establish. In addition, the repeater protocol provides a robust benchmark for the current state-of-the-art of quantum computing hardware.