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arXiv:2003.09980 · Physical Review Research

Koopman–von Neumann approach to quantum simulation of nonlinear classical dynamics

Ilon Joseph

Published Oct 19, 2020• 109 citations
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Abstract

This paper shows how to use quantum computers to simulate nonlinear and non-Hamiltonian classical dynamics by using the Koopman-von Neumann approach, which reformulates the classical system as an equivalent Schrodinger equation with a Hermitian Hamiltonian and a unitary evolution operator on phase space.
DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.2.043102

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Abstract In the context of quantum dynamics there exists a coordinate transformation which maps the free particle to the harmonic oscillator. Here we extend this result by reformulating it as a unitary operation followed by a time coordinate transformation. We demonstrate that an equivalent transformation can be performed for classical systems in the context of Koopman–von Neumann dynamics. We further extend this mapping both to dissipative evolutions as well as for a quantum–classical hybrid, and show that this mapping imparts an identical time-dependent scaling on the dissipation parameters for both types of dynamics. The derived classical procedure presents a number of opportunities to import squeezing dependent quantum procedures (such as Hamiltonian amplification) into the classical regime.
Solving linear and nonlinear differential equations with large degrees of freedom is an important task for scientific and industrial applications. In order to solve such differential equations on a quantum computer, it is necessary to embed classical variables into a quantum state. While the Carleman and Koopman-von Neumann embeddings have been investigated so far, the class of problems that can be mapped to the Schrödinger equation is not well understood even for linear differential equations. In this work, we investigate the conditions for linear differential equations to be mapped to the Schrödinger equation and solved on a quantum computer. Interestingly, we find that these conditions are identical for both Carleman and Koopman-von Neumann embeddings. We also compute the computational complexity associated with estimating the expected values of an observable. This is done by assuming a state preparation oracle, block encoding of the mapped Hamiltonian via either Carleman or Koopman-von Neumann embedding, and block encoding of the observable using O(log⁡M)O(\log M)O(logM) qubits with MMM is the mapped system size. Furthermore, we consider a general classical quadratic Hamiltonian dynamics and find a sufficient condition to map it into the Schrödinger equation. As a special case, this includes the coupled harmonic oscillator model [Babbush et al., \cite{babbush_exponential_2023}]. We also find a concrete example that cannot be described as the coupled harmonic oscillator but can be mapped to the Schrödinger equation in our framework. These results are important in the construction of quantum algorithms for solving differential equations of large-degree-of-freedom.
We propose an explicit algorithm based on the Linear Combination of Hamiltonian Simulations technique to simulate both the advection-diffusion equation and a nonunitary discretized version of the Koopman--von Neumann formulation of nonlinear dynamics. By including dissipation into the model, through an upwind discretization of the advection operator, we avoid spurious parasitic oscillations which usually accompany standard finite difference discretizations of the advection equation. In contrast to prior works on quantum simulation of nonlinear problems, we explain in detail how different components of the algorithm can be implemented by using the Quantum Signal Processing (QSP) and Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT) methods. In addition, we discuss the general method for implementing the block-encoding (BE) required for QSP and QSVT circuits and provide explicit implementations of the BE oracles tailored to our specific test cases. We simulate the resulting circuit on a digital emulator of quantum fault-tolerant computers and investigate its complexity and success probability. The proposed algorithm is universal and can be used for modeling a broad class of linear and nonlinear differential equations including the KvN and Carleman embeddings of nonlinear systems, the semiclassical Koopman-van Hove (KvH) equation, as well as the advection and Liouville equations.
A number of recent studies have proposed that linear representations are appropriate for solving nonlinear dynamical systems with quantum computers, which fundamentally act linearly on a wave function in a Hilbert space. Linear representations, such as the Koopman representation and Koopman von Neumann mechanics, have regained attention from the dynamical-systems research community. Here, we aim to present a unified theoretical framework, currently missing in the literature, with which one can compare and relate existing methods, their conceptual basis, and their representations. We also aim to show that, despite the fact that quantum simulation of nonlinear classical systems may be possible with such linear representations, a necessary projection into a feasible finite-dimensional space will in practice eventually induce numerical artifacts which can be hard to eliminate or even control. As a result, a practical, reliable and accurate way to use quantum computation for solving general nonlinear dynamical systems is still an open problem.
The study of mathematical connections between operator-theoretic formulations of classical dynamics and quantum mechanics began at least as early as the 1930s in work of Koopman and von Neumann and was developed in later decades by many authors, often independently, into a framework now broadly known as Koopman-von Neumann representation of classical dynamics. This article surveys aspects of this framework for measure-preserving ergodic dynamical systems and connects it with recent approximation techniques for Koopman and transfer operators that are amenable to data-driven numerical implementation. In broad terms, these methods are based on representations of (i) classical observables as elements of an algebra of operators acting on a Hilbert space; and (ii) classical probability measures as elements of the state space of that algebra, with lifted versions of the Koopman and transfer operators inducing dynamical evolution of observables and states, respectively. A common theme underlying the techniques surveyed here is the use of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces with coalgebra structure (so-called "reproducing kernel Hilbert algebras'') that aids the quantum representation of classical objects, as well as the use of Fock spaces to build approximation schemes with high expressivity and structure preservation properties (notably, preservation of positivity and multiplicativity of composition operators). Applications to quantum algorithms for approximating the Koopman evolution of observables in systems with pure point spectra are also discussed.