Simulating Large Quantum Circuits on a Small Quantum Computer

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. We propose a cluster simulation scheme that can simulate any $(K,d)$-clustered quantum circuit on a $d$-qubit machine in time roughly $2^{O(K)}$, with further speedups possible when taking more fine-grained circuit structure into account. We show how our scheme can be used to simulate clustered quantum systems -- such as large molecules -- that can be partitioned into multiple significantly smaller clusters with weak interactions among them. By using a suitable clustered ansatz, we also experimentally demonstrate that a quantum variational eigensolver can still achieve the desired performance for estimating the energy of the BeH$_2$ molecule while running on a physical quantum device with half the number of required qubits.Comment: Codes are available at https://github.com/TianyiPeng/Partiton_VQ

Optimized Lie-Trotter-Suzuki decompositions for two and three non-commuting terms

Lie-Trotter-Suzuki decompositions are an efficient way to approximate operator exponentials $\exp(t H)$ when $H$ is a sum of $n$ (non-commuting) terms which, individually, can be exponentiated easily. They are employed in time-evolution algorithms for tensor network states, digital quantum simulation protocols, path integral methods like quantum Monte Carlo, and splitting methods for symplectic integrators in classical Hamiltonian systems. We provide optimized decompositions up to order $t^6$. The leading error term is expanded in nested commutators (Hall bases) and we minimize the 1-norm of the coefficients. For $n=2$ terms, several of the optima we find are close to those in McLachlan, SlAM J. Sci. Comput. 16, 151 (1995). Generally, our results substantially improve over unoptimized decompositions by Forest, Ruth, Yoshida, and Suzuki. We explain why these decompositions are sufficient to efficiently simulate any one- or two-dimensional lattice model with finite-range interactions. This follows by solving a partitioning problem for the interaction graph.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables; added results, figures, and references, extended discussio