Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators

Hamiltonian simulation is arguably the most fundamental application of quantum computers. The Magnus operator is a popular method for time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation in computational mathematics, yet its usage requires the implementation of exponentials of commutators, which has previously mad...

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Main Authors: Pablo Antonio Moreno Casares, Modjtaba Shokrian Zini, Juan Miguel Arrazola
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Verein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften 2024-12-01
Series:Quantum
Online Access:https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2024-12-17-1567/pdf/
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author Pablo Antonio Moreno Casares
Modjtaba Shokrian Zini
Juan Miguel Arrazola
author_facet Pablo Antonio Moreno Casares
Modjtaba Shokrian Zini
Juan Miguel Arrazola
author_sort Pablo Antonio Moreno Casares
collection DOAJ
description Hamiltonian simulation is arguably the most fundamental application of quantum computers. The Magnus operator is a popular method for time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation in computational mathematics, yet its usage requires the implementation of exponentials of commutators, which has previously made it unappealing for quantum computing. The development of commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators (CFQMs) circumvents this obstacle, at the expense of a lack of provable global numeric error bounds. In this work, we establish one such error bound for CFQM-based time-dependent quantum Hamiltonian simulation by carefully estimating the error of each step involved in their definition. This allows us to compare its cost with the alternatives, and show that CFQMs are often the most efficient product-formula technique available by more than an order of magnitude. As a result, we find that CFQMs may be particularly useful to simulate time-dependent Hamiltonians on early fault-tolerant quantum computers.
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issn 2521-327X
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publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Verein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften
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spelling doaj-art-8b133c36f7af4b48b5a5020e1565d4462024-12-17T13:40:02ZengVerein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den QuantenwissenschaftenQuantum2521-327X2024-12-018156710.22331/q-2024-12-17-156710.22331/q-2024-12-17-1567Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operatorsPablo Antonio Moreno CasaresModjtaba Shokrian ZiniJuan Miguel ArrazolaHamiltonian simulation is arguably the most fundamental application of quantum computers. The Magnus operator is a popular method for time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation in computational mathematics, yet its usage requires the implementation of exponentials of commutators, which has previously made it unappealing for quantum computing. The development of commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators (CFQMs) circumvents this obstacle, at the expense of a lack of provable global numeric error bounds. In this work, we establish one such error bound for CFQM-based time-dependent quantum Hamiltonian simulation by carefully estimating the error of each step involved in their definition. This allows us to compare its cost with the alternatives, and show that CFQMs are often the most efficient product-formula technique available by more than an order of magnitude. As a result, we find that CFQMs may be particularly useful to simulate time-dependent Hamiltonians on early fault-tolerant quantum computers.https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2024-12-17-1567/pdf/
spellingShingle Pablo Antonio Moreno Casares
Modjtaba Shokrian Zini
Juan Miguel Arrazola
Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators
Quantum
title Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators
title_full Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators
title_fullStr Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators
title_full_unstemmed Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators
title_short Quantum simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians via commutator-free quasi-Magnus operators
title_sort quantum simulation of time dependent hamiltonians via commutator free quasi magnus operators
url https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2024-12-17-1567/pdf/
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