We introduce the stochastic Zassenhaus expansions (SZEs), a class of ancilla-free quantum algorithms for Hamiltonian simulation. These algorithms map nested Zassenhaus formulas onto quantum gates and then employ randomized sampling to minimize circuit depths. Unlike Suzuki-Trotter product formulas, which grow exponentially long with approximation order, the nested commutator structures of SZEs enable high-order formulas for many systems of interest. For a 10-qubit transverse-field Ising model, we construct an 11th-order SZE with 42x fewer CNOTs than the standard 10th-order product formula. Further, we empirically demonstrate regimes where SZEs reduce simulation errors by many orders of magnitude compared to leading algorithms.
A fundamental challenge in quantum simulation is approximating the time-evolution operator
U(t)=e−iHt generated by a large sum of typically non-commuting Hamiltonians using resource-efficient circuits compatible with near-term devices. We present a refinement of fixed-depth Lie-theoretic simulation that incorporates second-order Zassenhaus commutator corrections into a Cartan/KAK decomposition template. The resulting approximation retains constant circuit depth while achieving local error
O(t3) in operator norm under standard boundedness assumptions, and it substantially reduces gate counts relative to first-order product formulas when time is large and depth is constrained. The method leverages closure of Pauli commutators inside Pauli-generated Lie algebras, enabling symbolic commutator evaluation and avoiding explicit matrix exponentiation in classical preprocessing. This yields a structured pathway to compile lattice and chemistry-inspired Hamiltonians with locality constraints into fixed-depth circuits suitable for noisy intermediate-scale quantum hardware.
Various Hamiltonian simulation algorithms have been proposed to efficiently study the dynamics of quantum systems on a quantum computer. The existing algorithms generally approximate the time evolution operators, which may need a deep quantum circuit that is beyond the capability of near-term noisy quantum devices. Here, focusing on the time evolution of a fixed input quantum state, we propose an adaptive approach to construct a low-depth time evolution circuit. By introducing a measurable quantifier that characterizes the simulation error, we use an adaptive strategy to learn the shallow quantum circuit that minimizes that error. We numerically test the adaptive method with electronic Hamiltonians of the H_{2}O and H_{4} molecules, and the transverse field Ising model with random coefficients. Compared to the first-order Suzuki-Trotter product formula, our method can significantly reduce the circuit depth (specifically the number of two-qubit gates) by around two orders while maintaining the simulation accuracy. We show applications of the method in simulating many-body dynamics and solving energy spectra with the quantum Krylov algorithm. Our work sheds light on practical Hamiltonian simulation with noisy-intermediate-scale-quantum devices.
Abstract Trotter product formulas constitute a cornerstone quantum Hamiltonian simulation technique. However, the efficient implementation of Hamiltonian evolution of nested commutators remains an under explored area.In this work, we construct optimized product formulas of orders 3 to 6 approximating the exponential of a commutator of two arbitrary operators in terms of the exponentials of the operators involved. The new schemes require a reduced number of exponentials and thus provide more efficient approximations than other previouslypublished alternatives. They can also be used as basic methods in recursive procedures to increasethe order of approximation.We expect this research will improve the efficiency of quantum control protocols, as well as quantum algorithms such as the Zassenhaus-based product formula, Magnus operator-based time-dependent simulation, and product formula schemes with modified potentials.
Hamiltonian simulation is known to be one of the fundamental building blocks of a variety of quantum algorithms such as its most immediate application, that of simulating many-body systems to extract their physical properties. In this work, we present qSWIFT, a high-order randomized algorithm for Hamiltonian simulation. In qSWIFT, the required number of gates for a given precision is independent of the number of terms in the Hamiltonian, while the systematic error is exponentially reduced with regard to the order parameter. In this respect, our qSWIFT is a higher-order counterpart of the previously proposed quantum stochastic drift protocol (qDRIFT), the number of gates in which scales linearly with the inverse of the precision required. We construct the qSWIFT channel and establish a rigorous bound for the systematic error quantified by the diamond norm. qSWIFT provides an algorithm to estimate given physical quantities by using a system with one ancilla qubit, which is as simple as other product-formula-based approaches such as regular Trotter-Suzuki decompositions and qDRIFT. Our numerical experiment reveals that the required number of gates in qSWIFT is significantly reduced compared to qDRIFT. In particular, the advantage is significant for problems where high precision is required; e.g., to achieve a systematic relative propagation error of 10−6 , the required number of gates in third-order qSWIFT is 1000 times smaller than that of qDRIFT. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Product formulas, also known as Trotter formulas, are among the most widely used and practical methods for simulating quantum systems on quantum computers. Here we introduce two new classes of randomized product formulas for simulating Hamiltonians with separated energy scales,
H=A+αB, where
α is small. In the standard access model, where one can implement exponentials of
A and
B separately, our randomized formulas achieve
O(α2) error scaling at the cost of only doubling the gate depth of the corresponding deterministic formula. We further prove an
Ω(α) lower bound for deterministic product formulas. In a stronger access model, allowing exponentials of
A+αBℓ for
B=∑ℓBℓ, our randomized formula, based on Trotter Heuristic Resource Improved Formulas for Time-dynamics (THRIFT)~[J. L. Bosse et al., Nat. Commun. 16, 2673 (2025)], achieves
O(α3) error scaling with only constant-factor expected gate overhead. We also establish an
Ω(α2) lower bound for deterministic product formulas in this access model. Numerical simulations confirm gate-count reductions for simulating physically motivated systems.
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.