Feasibility of first principles molecular dynamics in fault-tolerant quantum computer by quantum phase estimation

Abstract

This article shows a proof of concept regarding the feasibility of ab initio molecular simulation, wherein the wavefunctions and the positions of nuclei are simultaneously determined by the quantum algorithm, as is realized by the so-called Car-Parrinello method by classical computing. The approach used in this article is of a hybrid style, which shall be realized by future fault-tolerant quantum computer. First, the basic equations are approximated by polynomials. Second, those polynomials are transformed to a specific form, wherein all variables (representing the wavefunctions and the atomic coordinates) are given by the transformations acting on a linear space of monomials with finite dimension, and the unknown variables could be determined as the eigenvalues of those transformation matrices. Third, the eigenvalues are determined by quantum phase estimation. Following these three steps, namely, symbolic, numeric, and quantum steps, we can determine the optimized electronic and atomic structures of molecules