No Arabic abstract
Traditional algorithms for simulating quantum computers on classical ones require an exponentially large amount of memory, and so typically cannot simulate general quantum circuits with more than about 30 or so qubits on a typical PC-scale platform with only a few gigabytes of main memory. However, more memory-efficient simulations are possible, requiring only polynomial or even linear space in the size of the quantum circuit being simulated. In this paper, we describe one such technique, which was recently implemented at FSU in the form of a C++ program called SEQCSim, which we releasing publicly. We also discuss the potential benefits of this simulation in quantum computing research and education, and outline some possible directions for further progress.
Quantum simulation represents the most promising quantum application to demonstrate quantum advantage on near-term noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers, yet available quantum simulation algorithms are prone to errors and thus difficult to be realized. Herein, we propose a novel scheme to utilize intrinsic gate errors of NISQ devices to enable controllable simulation of open quantum system dynamics without ancillary qubits or explicit bath engineering, thus turning unwanted quantum noises into useful quantum resources. Specifically, we simulate energy transfer process in a photosynthetic dimer system on IBM-Q cloud. By employing designed decoherence-inducing gates, we show that quantum dissipative dynamics can be simulated efficiently across coherent-to-incoherent regimes with results comparable to those of the numerically-exact classical method. Moreover, we demonstrate a calibration routine that enables consistent and predictive simulations of open-quantum system dynamics in the intermediate coupling regime. This work provides a new direction for quantum advantage in the NISQ era.
It is imperative that useful quantum computers be very difficult to simulate classically; otherwise classical computers could be used for the applications envisioned for the quantum ones. Perfect quantum computers are unarguably exponentially difficult to simulate: the classical resources required grow exponentially with the number of qubits $N$ or the depth $D$ of the circuit. Real quantum computing devices, however, are characterized by an exponentially decaying fidelity $mathcal{F} sim (1-epsilon)^{ND}$ with an error rate $epsilon$ per operation as small as $approx 1%$ for current devices. In this work, we demonstrate that real quantum computers can be simulated at a tiny fraction of the cost that would be needed for a perfect quantum computer. Our algorithms compress the representations of quantum wavefunctions using matrix product states (MPS), which capture states with low to moderate entanglement very accurately. This compression introduces a finite error rate $epsilon$ so that the algorithms closely mimic the behavior of real quantum computing devices. The computing time of our algorithm increases only linearly with $N$ and $D$. We illustrate our algorithms with simulations of random circuits for qubits connected in both one and two dimensional lattices. We find that $epsilon$ can be decreased at a polynomial cost in computing power down to a minimum error $epsilon_infty$. Getting below $epsilon_infty$ requires computing resources that increase exponentially with $epsilon_infty/epsilon$. For a two dimensional array of $N=54$ qubits and a circuit with Control-Z gates, error rates better than state-of-the-art devices can be obtained on a laptop in a few hours. For more complex gates such as a swap gate followed by a controlled rotation, the error rate increases by a factor three for similar computing time.
Universal quantum computers are the only general purpose quantum computers known that can be implemented as of today. These computers consist of a classical memory component which controls the quantum memory. In this paper, the space complexity of some data stream problems, such as PartialMOD and Equality, is investigated on universal quantum computers. The quantum algorithms for these problems are believed to outperform their classical counterparts. Universal quantum computers, however, need classical bits for controlling quantum gates in addition to qubits. Our analysis shows that the number of classical bits used in quantum algorithms is equal to or even larger than that of classical bits used in corresponding classical algorithms. These results suggest that there is no advantage of implementing certain data stream problems on universal quantum computers instead of classical computers when space complexity is considered.
A major hurdle to the deployment of quantum linear systems algorithms and recent quantum simulation algorithms lies in the difficulty to find inexpensive reversible circuits for arithmetic using existing hand coded methods. Motivated by recent advances in reversible logic synthesis, we synthesize arithmetic circuits using classical design automation flows and tools. The combination of classical and reversible logic synthesis enables the automatic design of large components in reversible logic starting from well-known hardware description languages such as Verilog. As a prototype example for our approach we automatically generate high quality networks for the reciprocal $1/x$, which is necessary for quantum linear systems algorithms.
Quantum computing has recently exhibited great potentials in predicting chemical properties for various applications in drug discovery, material design, and catalyst optimization. Progress has been made in simulating small molecules, such as LiH and hydrogen chains of up to 12 qubits, by using quantum algorithms such as variational quantum eigensolver (VQE). Yet, originating from limitations of the size and the fidelity of near-term quantum hardware, how to accurately simulate large realistic molecules remains a challenge. Here, integrating an adaptive energy sorting strategy and a classical computational method, the density matrix embedding theory, which effectively finds a shallower quantum circuit and reduces the problem size, respectively, we show a means to circumvent the limitations and demonstrate the potential toward solving real chemical problems. We numerically test the method for the hydrogenation reaction of C6H8 and the equilibrium geometry of the C18 molecule, with basis sets up to cc-pVDZ (at most 144 qubits). The simulation results show accuracies comparable to those of advanced quantum chemistry methods such as coupled-cluster or even full configuration interaction, while the number of qubits required is reduced by an order of magnitude (from 144 qubits to 16 qubits for the C18 molecule) compared to conventional VQE. Our work implies the possibility of solving industrial chemical problems on near-term quantum devices.