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arXiv:1802.07130 · Communications in Mathematical Physics

Universal Qudit Hamiltonians

Stephen Piddock, Ashley Montanaro

Published Feb 23, 2021• 7 citations
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Abstract

Abstract A family of quantum Hamiltonians is said to be universal if any other finite-dimensional Hamiltonian can be approximately encoded within the low-energy space of a Hamiltonian from that family. If the encoding is efficient, universal families of Hamiltonians can be used as universal analogue quantum simulators and universal quantum computers, and the problem of approximately determining the ground-state energy of a Hamiltonian from a universal family is QMA-complete. One natural way to categorise Hamiltonians into families is in terms of the interactions they are built from. Here we prove universality of some important classes of interactions on qudits (d-level systems): We completely characterise the k-qudit interactions which are universal, if augmented with arbitrary Hermitian 1-local terms. We find that, for all $$k \geqslant 2$$ k ⩾ 2 and all local dimensions $$d \geqslant 2$$ d ⩾ 2 , almost all such interactions are universal aside from a simple stoquastic class. We prove universality of generalisations of the Heisenberg model that are ubiquitous in condensed-matter physics, even if free 1-local terms are not provided. We show that the SU(d) and SU(2) Heisenberg interactions are universal for all local dimensions $$d \geqslant 2$$ d ⩾ 2 (spin $$\geqslant 1/2$$ ⩾ 1 / 2 ), implying that a quantum variant of the Max-d-Cut problem is QMA-complete. We also show that for $$d=3$$ d = 3 all bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg interactions are universal. One example is the general AKLT model. We prove universality of any interaction proportional to the projector onto a pure entangled state.

DOI
10.1007/s00220-021-03940-3

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Abstract A family of quantum Hamiltonians is said to be universal if any other finite-dimensional Hamiltonian can be approximately encoded within the low-energy space of a Hamiltonian from that family. If the encoding is efficient, universal families of Hamiltonians can be used as universal analogue quantum simulators and universal quantum computers, and the problem of approximately determining the ground-state energy of a Hamiltonian from a universal family is QMA-complete. One natural way to categorise Hamiltonians into families is in terms of the interactions they are built from. Here we prove universality of some important classes of interactions on qudits (d-level systems): We completely characterise the k-qudit interactions which are universal, if augmented with arbitrary Hermitian 1-local terms. We find that, for all k⩾2k \geqslant 2k⩾2 k ⩾ 2 and all local dimensions d⩾2d \geqslant 2d⩾2 d ⩾ 2 , almost all such interactions are universal aside from a simple stoquastic class. We prove universality of generalisations of the Heisenberg model that are ubiquitous in condensed-matter physics, even if free 1-local terms are not provided. We show that the SU(d) and SU(2) Heisenberg interactions are universal for all local dimensions d⩾2d \geqslant 2d⩾2 d ⩾ 2 (spin ⩾1/2\geqslant 1/2⩾1/2 ⩾ 1 / 2 ), implying that a quantum variant of the Max-d-Cut problem is QMA-complete. We also show that for d=3d=3d=3 d = 3 all bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg interactions are universal. One example is the general AKLT model. We prove universality of any interaction proportional to the projector onto a pure entangled state.
The Hamiltonians of quantum many-body systems can display an extremely diverse range of behaviours.In this thesis we show that there exist simple systems which can simulate all other quantum many-body systems, including all of their physical properties.We call these universal Hamiltonians.We first define a notion of analogue simulation which captures what it means for the Hamiltonian of one system to be reproduced in the Hamiltonian of another physical system.Then we obtain a full classification of simulation power in the case of families of Hamiltonians built up as a linear combination of 2-local qubit interactions.The generalised Heisenberg model and generalised XY model are important special cases which are universal in this classification.We also prove universality for other restricted classes of Hamiltonians such as those for which all the interaction strengths have the same sign or for Hamiltonians with spatially restricted interaction graphs.And we prove universality for large classes of qudit Hamiltonians (where the local dimension d > 2).Universality of a family of Hamiltonians implies that the problem of estimating the ground state energy, known as the Local Hamiltonian problem, is QMA-complete for Hamiltonians from that family.Our results prove that this is the case for many restricted families of Hamiltonians, for which the complexity of the Local Hamiltonian problem was not previously known.We also show that the Local Hamiltonian problem is QMA EXPcomplete for a translationally invariant Hamiltonian of 4-local interactions between spins of dimension d = 4, arranged on a face-centred cubic lattice, by directly encoding a verifier circuit into the interaction terms.Finally we consider the problem of simulating a local measurement in the ground space of a local Hamiltonian, introduced by Ambainis as APX-SIM.We simplify some of the prior work on this problem and prove some previously unknown complexity class inequalities.We show that our notion of simulation preserves hardness of this problem and obtain a complexity classification of APX-SIM for Hamiltonians of 2-local qubit interactions.i Dedication and acknowledgements First and foremost, I must thank my supervisor, Ashley Montanaro, for all of his help over the last few years.He has always made himself available to discuss work, and I am grateful for all of his advice, his problem suggestions, and his excellent proof-reading skills!I must also thank all of my other co-
An open problem of quantum information theory has been to determine under what conditions universal exchange-only computation is possible for qudits encoded on ddd-state systems for d>2d>2d>2. This problem can be posed in terms of representation theory by recognizing that each quantum mechanical swap, generated by exchange-interaction, can be identified with a transposition in a symmetric group, each ddd-state system can be identified with the fundamental representation of SU(d)SU(d)SU(d), and each encoded qudit can be identified with an irreducible representation of a Lie algebra generated by transpositions. Towards this end we first give a mathematical definition of exchange-only universality in terms of a map from the special unitary algebra on the product of qudits into a representation of a Lie algebra generated by transpositions. We show that this definition is consistent with quantum computing requirements. We then proceed with the task of characterizing universal families of qudits, that is families of encoded qudits admitting exchange-only universality. This endeavor is aided by the fact that the irreducible representations corresponding to qudits are canonically labeled by partitions. In particular we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for universality on one or two such qudits, in terms of simple arithmetic conditions on the associated partitions. We also derive necessary and sufficient conditions for universality on arbitrarily many such qudits, in terms of Littlewood--Richardson coefficients. Among other results, we prove that universal families of multiple qudits are upward closed, that universality is guaranteed for sufficiently many qudits, and that any family that is not universal can be made so by simply adding at most five ancillae. We also obtain results for 2-state systems as a special case.
The calculation of ground-state energies of physical systems can be formalized as the kkk-local Hamiltonian problem, which is a natural quantum analogue of classical constraint satisfaction problems. One way of making the problem more physically meaningful is to restrict the Hamiltonian in question by picking its terms from a fixed set S\mathcal{S}S and scaling them by arbitrary weights. Examples of such special cases are the Heisenberg and Ising models from condensed-matter physics. In this work we characterize the complexity of this problem for all 2-local qubit Hamiltonians. Depending on the subset S\mathcal{S}S, the problem falls into one of the following categories: in P\mathsf{ P}P; NP\mathsf{NP}NP-complete; polynomial-time equivalent to the Ising model with transverse magnetic fields; or QMA\mathsf{QMA}QMA-complete. The third of these classes has been shown to be StoqMA\mathsf{StoqMA}StoqMA-complete by Bravyi and Hastings. The characterization holds even if S\mathcal{S}S does not contain any 1-local terms; for example, we prove for the first time QMA\mathsf{QMA}QMA-completeness of the Heisenberg and XY interactions in this setting. If S\mathcal{S}S is assumed to contain all 1-local terms, which is the setting considered by previous work, we have a characterization that goes beyond 2-local interactions: for any constant kkk, all kkk-local qubit Hamiltonians whose terms are picked from a fixed set S\mathcal{S}S correspond to problems either in P\mathsf{P}P; polynomial-time equivalent to the Ising model with transverse magnetic fields; or QMA\mathsf{QMA}QMA-complete. These results are a quantum analogue of the maximization variant of Schaefer's dichotomy theorem for Boolean constraint satisfaction problems.
Abstract Recent work has characterized rigorously what it means for one quantum system to simulate another and demonstrated the existence of universal Hamiltonians—simple spin lattice Hamiltonians that can replicate the entire physics of any other quantum many-body system. Previous universality results have required proofs involving complicated ‘chains’ of perturbative ‘gadgets.’ In this paper, we derive a significantly simpler and more powerful method of proving universality of Hamiltonians, directly leveraging the ability to encode quantum computation into ground states. This provides new insight into the origins of universal models and suggests a deep connection between universality and complexity. We apply this new approach to show that there are universal models even in translationally invariant spin chains in 1D. This gives as a corollary a new Hamiltonian complexity result that the local Hamiltonian problem for translationally invariant spin chains in one dimension with an exponentially small promise gap is PSPACE-complete. Finally, we use these new universal models to construct the first known toy model of 2D–1D holographic duality between local Hamiltonians.
encodes the physics of a target Hamiltonian H. Some families of 2D spin-lattice Hamiltonians-such as the Heisenberg or XY model on the square lattice-are known to be "universal" simulators, in the sense that they can simulate any target Hamiltonian. Unfortunately, while the known simulations of 1D or 2D target Hamiltonians are efficient, they require resources growing exponentially with system sizes for target Hamiltonians with general connectivity. This leaves many important cases such as 3D or all-to-all-connected target Hamiltonians out of reach in practice. Here, we remedy this situation and show how the known 2D universal families of Hamiltonians and a new 1D family can simulate all target local Hamiltonians, with only polynomial-scaling overhead. This exponential improvement is achieved by a nonperturbative method combining the quantum phase-estimation algorithm and the circuit-to-Hamiltonian construction. Furthermore, all Hamiltonians efficiently simulable by quantum circuits, including nonlocal ones, also have efficient analog simulators in our 2D and 1D universal families. Our work establishes that analog simulations of general Hamiltonians can be made efficient, significantly expanding the application potential of analog Hamiltonian simulations in near-term quantum technologies.
Analogue and digital Hamiltonian simulation represent two distinct approaches to making one quantum system replicate the physical properties of another, with consequences ranging from practical applications to complexity theory and quantum gravity. They are rooted in two distinct regimes of quantum dynamics: time-independent Hamiltonians for the former; fully controllable time-dependent quantum circuits in the latter. Time-periodic Hamiltonians represent an intermediate regime. In this work, we establish a theory of Floquet simulation where we use periodically driven Hamiltonians to synthesise time-independent ones. We show that a set of interactions SSS can Floquet-simulate every Hamiltonian in the Lie algebra Lie(S)\mathrm{Lie}(S)Lie(S), and consequently we give a complete and constructive characterisation of Floquet-universal Hamiltonians that are able to produce any target Hamiltonian. Notably, our construction uses only O(1)O(1)O(1) local interaction strengths and ratios thereof, avoiding the impractical multi-scale local interaction strengths often required in analogue simulation via time-independent Hamiltonians. Instead, the construction requires a range of driving frequencies which scales polynomially with system size for important classes such as kkk-local lattice Hamiltonians. This has immediate complexity-theoretic implications, including numerous BQP-completeness and QMA-hardness results for natural physical properties and quantities studied in Floquet physics.