Abstract

Limited quantum memory is one of the most important constraints for near-term quantum devices. Understanding whether a small quantum computer can simulate a larger quantum system, or execute an algorithm requiring more qubits than available, is both of theoretical and practical importance. In this Letter, we introduce cluster parameters K and d of a quantum circuit. The tensor network of such a circuit can be decomposed into clusters of size at most d with at most K qubits of inter-cluster quantum communication. Our main result is a simulation scheme of any (K,d)-clustered quantum circuit on a d-qubit machine in time roughly 2O(K). An important application of our result is the simulation of clustered quantum systems—such as large molecules—that can be partitioned into multiple significantly smaller clusters with weak interactions among them. Another potential application is quantum optimization: we demonstrate numerically that variational quantum eigensolvers can still perform well when restricted to clustered circuits, thus making it feasible to study large quantum systems on small quantum devices.

Publication Details
Publication Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2020
Volume
125
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.150504
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.00102
Journal
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Contributors
Date Published
12/2020