No Arabic abstract
Near-term quantum computing (QC) systems have limited qubit counts, high gate (instruction) error rates, and typically support a minimal instruction set having one type of two-qubit gate (2Q). To reduce program instruction counts and improve application expressivity, vendors have proposed, and shown proof-of-concept demonstrations of richer instruction sets such as XY gates (Rigetti) and fSim gates (Google). These instruction sets comprise of families of 2Q gate types parameterized by continuous qubit rotation angles. However, having such a large number of gate types is problematic because each gate type has to be calibrated periodically, across the full system, to obtain high fidelity implementations. This results in substantial recurring calibration overheads even on current systems which use only a few gate types. Our work aims to navigate this tradeoff between application expressivity and calibration overhead, and identify what instructions vendors should implement to get the best expressivity with acceptable calibration time. We develop NuOp, a flexible compilation pass based on numerical optimization, to efficiently decompose application operations into arbitrary hardware gate types. Using NuOp and four important quantum applications, we study the instruction set proposals of Rigetti and Google, with realistic noise simulations and a calibration model. Our experiments show that implementing 4-8 types of 2Q gates is sufficient to attain nearly the same expressivity as a full continuous gate family, while reducing the calibration overhead by two orders of magnitude. With several vendors proposing rich gate families as means to higher fidelity, our work has potential to provide valuable instruction set design guidance for near-term QC systems.
We present a number of quantum computing patterns that build on top of fundamental algorithms, that can be applied to solving concrete, NP-hard problems. In particular, we introduce the concept of a quantum dictionary as a summation of multiple patterns and algorithms, and show how it can be applied in the context of Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problems. We start by presenting a visual approach to quantum computing, which avoids a heavy-reliance on quantum mechanics, linear algebra, or complex mathematical notation, and favors geometrical intuition and computing paradigms. We also provide insights on the fundamental quantum computing algorithms (Fourier Transforms, Phase Estimation, Grover, Quantum Counting, and Amplitude Estimation).
We present a synthesis framework to map logic networks into quantum circuits for quantum computing. The synthesis framework is based on LUT networks (lookup-table networks), which play a key role in conventional logic synthesis. Establishing a connection between LUTs in a LUT network and reversible single-target gates in a reversible network allows us to bridge conventional logic synthesis with logic synthesis for quantum computing, despite several fundamental differences. We call our synthesis framework LUT-based Hierarchical Reversible Logic Synthesis (LHRS). Input to LHRS is a classical logic network; output is a quantum network (realized in terms of Clifford+$T$ gates). The framework offers to trade-off the number of qubits for the number of quantum gates. In a first step, an initial network is derived that only consists of single-target gates and already completely determines the number of qubits in the final quantum network. Different methods are then used to map each single-target gate into Clifford+$T$ gates, while aiming at optimally using available resources. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in automatically synthesizing IEEE compliant floating point networks up to double precision. As many quantum algorithms target scientific simulation applications, they can make rich use of floating point arithmetic components. But due to the lack of quantum circuit descriptions for those components, it can be difficult to find a realistic cost estimation for the algorithms. Our synthesized benchmarks provide cost estimates that allow quantum algorithm designers to provide the first complete cost estimates for a host of quantum algorithms. Thus, the benchmarks and, more generally, the LHRS framework are an essential step towards the goal of understanding which quantum algorithms will be practical in the first generations of quantum computers.
The superiority of variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) such as quantum neural networks (QNNs) and variational quantum eigen-solvers (VQEs) heavily depends on the expressivity of the employed ansatze. Namely, a simple ansatze is insufficient to capture the optimal solution, while an intricate ansatze leads to the hardness of the trainability. Despite its fundamental importance, an effective strategy of measuring the expressivity of VQAs remains largely unknown. Here, we exploit an advanced tool in statistical learning theory, i.e., covering number, to study the expressivity of VQAs. In particular, we first exhibit how the expressivity of VQAs with an arbitrary ansatze is upper bounded by the number of quantum gates and the measurement observable. We next explore the expressivity of VQAs on near-term quantum chips, where the system noise is considered. We observe an exponential decay of the expressivity with increasing circuit depth. We also utilize the achieved expressivity to analyze the generalization of QNNs and the accuracy of VQE. We numerically verify our theory employing VQAs with different levels of expressivity. Our work opens the avenue for quantitative understanding of the expressivity of VQAs.
The practical use of many types of near-term quantum computers requires accounting for their limited connectivity. One way of overcoming limited connectivity is to insert swaps in the circuit so that logical operations can be performed on physically adjacent qubits, which we refer to as solving the `routing via matchings problem. We address the routing problem for families of quantum circuits defined by a hypergraph wherein each hyperedge corresponds to a potential gate. Our main result is that any unordered set of $k$-qubit gates on distinct $k$-qubit subsets of $n$ logical qubits can be ordered and parallelized in $O(n^{k-1})$ depth using a linear arrangement of $n$ physical qubits; the construction is completely general and achieves optimal scaling in the case where gates acting on all $binom{n}{k}$ sets of $k$ qubits are desired. We highlight two classes of problems for which our method is particularly useful. First, it applies to sets of mutually commuting gates, as in the (diagonal) phase separators of Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm) circuits. For example, a single level of a QAOA circuit for Maximum Cut can be implemented in linear depth, and a single level for $3$-SAT in quadratic depth. Second, it applies to sets of gates that do not commute but for which compilation efficiency is the dominant criterion in their ordering. In particular, it can be adapted to Trotterized time-evolution of fermionic Hamiltonians under the Jordan-Wigner transformation, and also to non-standard mixers in QAOA. Using our method, a single Trotter step of the electronic structure Hamiltonian in an arbitrary basis of $n$ orbitals can be done in $O(n^3)$ depth while a Trotter step of the unitary coupled cluster singles and doubles method can be implemented in $O(n^2 eta)$ depth, where $eta$ is the number of electrons.
We introduce ProjectQ, an open source software effort for quantum computing. The first release features a compiler framework capable of targeting various types of hardware, a high-performance simulator with emulation capabilities, and compiler plug-ins for circuit drawing and resource estimation. We introduce our Python-embedded domain-specific language, present the features, and provide example implementations for quantum algorithms. The framework allows testing of quantum algorithms through simulation and enables running them on actual quantum hardware using a back-end connecting to the IBM Quantum Experience cloud service. Through extension mechanisms, users can provide back-ends to further quantum hardware, and scientists working on quantum compilation can provide plug-ins for additional compilation, optimization, gate synthesis, and layout strategies.