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arXiv:2205.02520 · Physical Review A

Improved quantum computing with higher-order Trotter decomposition

Xiaodong Yang, Xinfang Nie, Yunlan Ji, Tao Xin, Dawei Lu, Jun Li

Published Oct 3, 2022• 16 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In designing quantum control, it is generally required to simulate the controlled system evolution with a classical computer. However, computing the time evolution operator can be quite resource consuming since the total Hamiltonian is often hard to diagonalize. In this paper, we mitigate this issue by substituting the time evolution segments with their Trotter decompositions, which reduces the propagator into a combination of single-qubit operations and fixed-time system evolutions. The resulting procedure can provide substantial speed gain with acceptable costs in the propagator error. As a demonstration, we apply the proposed strategy to improve the efficiency of the gradient ascent pulse engineering algorithm for searching optimal control fields. Furthermore, we show that the higher-order Trotter decompositions can provide efficient Ans\"atze for the variational quantum algorithm, leading to improved performance in solving the ground-state problem. The strategy presented here is also applicable for many other quantum optimization and simulation tasks.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.106.042401

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In designing quantum control, it is generally required to simulate the controlled system evolution with a classical computer. However, computing the time evolution operator can be quite resource consuming since the total Hamiltonian is often hard to diagonalize. In this paper, we mitigate this issue by substituting the time evolution segments with their Trotter decompositions, which reduces the propagator into a combination of single-qubit operations and fixed-time system evolutions. The resulting procedure can provide substantial speed gain with acceptable costs in the propagator error. As a demonstration, we apply the proposed strategy to improve the efficiency of the gradient ascent pulse engineering algorithm for searching optimal control fields. Furthermore, we show that the higher-order Trotter decompositions can provide efficient Ans"atze for the variational quantum algorithm, leading to improved performance in solving the ground-state problem. The strategy presented here is also applicable for many other quantum optimization and simulation tasks.
We propose a variational alternative to the Trotter-Suzuki decomposition that provides greater control over errors while preserving the unitary structure of time evolution. The variational parameters in our ansatz are derived from a global action principle, where Euler-Lagrange equations govern their optimal dynamics. Unlike conventional wavefunction-based variational methods, our approach specifically targets the time evolution operation, and this allows a single set of optimized parameters to be applied to any initial state for a fixed Hamiltonian avoiding costly optimization procedures. Our method outperforms the standard Trotter-Suzuki formulas, typically achieving higher accuracy than higher-order Suzuki schemes. This translates directly to quantum computing applications, where it enables the design of quantum circuits with fewer gates, which reduces noise and improves precision. Although we focus on quantum dynamics, the method is broadly applicable to problems involving general time-evolution operators. Applied to various model Hamiltonians, our approach reduces errors by factors of 2 to 5 compared to Trotter-Suzuki decompositions, demonstrating its promise for accurate quantum simulation with improved efficiency. In certain cases, the variational ansatz achieves higher accuracy than more complex higher-order Suzuki formulas while reducing the gate count by nearly half within a single circuit layer. Furthermore, we derive approximate analytical expressions for the variational parameters up to cubic order in time, valid for generic Hamiltonians. These approximations enable long-time quantum simulations with improved accuracy over equivalent Suzuki decompositions, providing ready-to-use evolution formulas that match Suzuki's gate complexity while delivering better performance.
We propose a variational alternative to the Trotter-Suzuki decomposition that provides greater control over errors while preserving the unitary structure of time evolution. The variational parameters in our ansatz are derived from a global action principle, where Euler-Lagrange equations govern their optimal dynamics. Unlike conventional wavefunction-based variational methods, our approach specifically targets the time evolution operation and this allows a single set of optimized parameters to be applied to any initial state for a fixed Hamiltonian avoiding costly optimization procedures. Our method outperforms the standard Trotter-Suzuki formulas, typically achieving higher accuracy than higher-order Suzuki schemes. This translates directly to quantum computing applications, where it enables the design of quantum circuits with fewer gates which reduces noise and improves precision. Although we focus on quantum dynamics, the method is broadly applicable to problems involving general time-evolution operators. Applied to various model Hamiltonians, our approach reduces errors by factors of 2 to 5 compared to Trotter-Suzuki decompositions, demonstrating its promise for accurate quantum simulation with improved efficiency. In certain cases, the variational ansatz achieves higher accuracy than more complex higher-order Suzuki formulas while reducing the gate count by nearly half within a single circuit layer. Furthermore, we derive approximate analytical expressions for the variational parameters up to cubic order in time, valid for generic Hamiltonians. These approximations enable long-time quantum simulations with improved accuracy over equivalent Suzuki decompositions, providing ready-to-use evolution formulas that match Suzuki's gate complexity while delivering better performance.
Hamiltonian formulations of lattice field theories provide access to real-time dynamics, but their simulation is difficult to implement efficiently. Trotter-Suzuki decompositions are at the center of time evolution computation, either on quantum hardware or classically, for instance with the use of tensor networks. While low-order Trotterizations remain the standard choice due to their simplicity, higher-order schemes offer the potential for improved efficiency. In this work we outline a short guide to Trotter-Suzuki schemes and their implementations in general. To help with this, we highlight new efficient schemes found by our optimization framework, and demonstrate their performance on the Heisenberg model.
Since 2005, there has been a huge growth in the use of engineered control pulses to perform desired quantum operations in systems such as nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processors. These approaches, which build on the original gradient ascent pulse engineering algorithm, remain computationally intensive because of the need to calculate matrix exponentials for each time step in the control pulse. In this study, we discuss how the propagators for each time step can be approximated using the Trotter–Suzuki formula, and a further speedup achieved by avoiding unnecessary operations. The resulting procedure can provide substantial speed gain with negligible costs in the propagator error, providing a more practical approach to pulse engineering.
Quantum simulation is a promising application for quantum computing. Quantum simulation algorithms may require the ability to control the time evolution unitary. Naive techniques to control a unitary can substantially increase the required computational resources. A standard approach to controlling Trotterized time evolution doubles the number of single-qubit arbitrary rotations. Here, we describe a compilation scheme that does not increase the number of arbitrary rotations for symmetric Trotterizations, which applies to second-order and higher Suzuki-Trotter decompositions. This halves the number of arbitrary rotations required to implement controlled, Trotterized time evolution compared to the standard approach. Arbitrary rotations contribute significantly to resource estimates in a fault-tolerant architecture due to the number of required magic states. Therefore, arbitrary rotations dominate the TTT-cost of fault-tolerant implementations of quantum simulation. This construction reduces the number of arbitrary rotations for controlled Trotter evolution to that of uncontrolled Trotter evolution, thereby reducing the cost of fault-tolerant quantum simulation.
Hamiltonian formulations of lattice field theories provide access to real-time dynamics, but their simulation is difficult to implement efficiently. Trotter-Suzuki decompositions are at the center of time evolution computation, either on quantum hardware or classically, for instance with the use of tensor networks. While low-order Trotterizations remain the standard choice due to their simplicity, higher-order schemes offer the potential for improved efficiency. In this work we outline a short guide to Trotter-Suzuki schemes and their implementations in general. To help with this, we highlight new efficient schemes found by our optimization framework, and demonstrate their performance on the Heisenberg model.