The Helmholtz equation is a prototypical model for time-harmonic wave propagation. Numerical solutions become increasingly challenging as the wave number $k$ grows, due to the equation's elliptic yet noncoercive character and the highly oscillatory nature of its solutions, with wavelengths scaling as $1/k$. These features lead to strong indefiniteness and large system sizes. We present a quantum algorithm for solving such indefinite problems, built upon the Schrödingerization framework. This approach reformulates linear differential equations into Schrödinger-type systems by capturing the steady state of damped dynamics. A warped phase transformation lifts the original problem to a higher-dimensional formulation, making it compatible with quantum computation. To suppress numerical pollution, the algorithm incorporates asymptotic dispersion correction. It achieves a query complexity of $\mathcal{O}(κ^2\text{polylog}\varepsilon^{-1})$, where $κ$ is the condition number and $\varepsilon$ the desired accuracy. For the Helmholtz equation, a simple preconditioner further reduces the complexity to $\mathcal{O}(κ\text{polylog}\varepsilon^{-1})$. Our constructive extension to the quantum setting is broadly applicable to all indefinite problems.
The Helmholtz equation is a prototypical model for time-harmonic wave propagation. Numerical solutions become increasingly challenging as the wave number k grows, due to the equation's elliptic yet noncoercive character and the highly oscillatory nature of its solutions, with wavelengths scaling as 1/k. These features lead to strong indefiniteness and large system sizes. We present a quantum algorithm for solving such indefinite problems, built upon the Schrödingerization framework. This approach reformulates linear differential equations into Schrödinger-type systems by capturing the steady state of damped dynamics. A warped phase transformation lifts the original problem to a higher-dimensional formulation, making it compatible with quantum computation. To suppress numerical pollution, the algorithm incorporates asymptotic dispersion correction. It achieves a query complexity of O(κ2polylogε−1), where κ is the condition number and ε the desired accuracy. For the Helmholtz equation, a simple preconditioner further reduces the complexity to O(κpolylogε−1). Our constructive extension to the quantum setting is broadly applicable to all indefinite problems.
We develop a quantum algorithm for solving high-dimensional fractional Poisson equations. By applying the Caffarelli-Silvestre extension, the d-dimensional fractional equation is reformulated as a local partial differential equation in d+1 dimensions. We propose a quantum algorithm for the finite element discretization of this local problem, by capturing the steady-state of the corresponding differential equations using the Schrödingerization approach from \cite{JLY22SchrShort, JLY22SchrLong, analogPDE}. The Schrödingerization technique transforms general linear partial and ordinary differential equations into Schrödinger-type systems, making them suitable for quantum simulation. This is achieved through the warped phase transformation, which maps the equation into a higher-dimensional space. We provide detailed implementations of the method and conduct a comprehensive complexity analysis, which can show up to exponential advantage -- with respect to the inverse of the mesh size in high dimensions -- compared to its classical counterpart. Specifically, while the classical method requires O(d1/233d/2h−d−2) operations, the quantum counterpart requires O(d33d/2h−2.5) queries to the block-encoding input models, with the quantum complexity being independent of the dimension d in terms of the inverse mesh size h−1. Numerical experiments are conducted to verify the validity of our formulation.
We develop a quantum algorithm for linear algebraic equations $ A\bb{x} = \bb{b} $ from the perspective of Schrödingerization-form problems, which are characterized by a system of linear convection equations in one higher dimension. When $ A $ is positive definite, the solution $ \bb{x} $ can be interpreted as the steady-state solution to a system of linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). This ODE system can be solved by using the linear combination of Hamiltonian simulation (LCHS) method in \cite{ACL2023LCH2}, which serves as the continuous implementation of the Fourier transform in the Schrödingerization method from \cite{JLY22SchrShort, JLY22SchrLong}. Schrödingerization transforms linear partial differential equations (PDEs) and ODEs with non-unitary dynamics into Schrödinger-type systems via the so-called warped phase transformation that maps the equation into one higher dimension. When $ A $ is a general Hermitian matrix, the inverse matrix can still be represented in the LCHS form in \cite{ACL2023LCH2}, but with a kernel function based on the Fourier approach in \cite{Childs2017QLSA}. Although this LCHS form provides the steady-state solution to a system of linear ODEs associated with the least-squares equation, applying Schrödingerization to this least-squares system is not appropriate, as it results in a much larger condition number. We demonstrate that in both cases, the solution $ \bb{x} $ can be expressed as the LCHS of Schrödingerization-form problems. We provide a detailed implementation and error analysis. Furthermore, we incorporate a block preconditioning technique to achieve nearly linear scaling in the condition number, thereby attaining near-optimal query complexity.
Abstract. We analyze the Schrödingerization method for quantum simulation of a general class of nonunitary dynamics with inhomogeneous source terms. The Schrödingerization technique, introduced in [S. Jin, N. Liu, and Y. Yu, Phys. Rev. Lett., 133 (2024), 230602], transforms any linear ordinary and partial differential equations with nonunitary dynamics into a system under unitary dynamics via a warped phase transition that maps the equations into a higher dimension, making them suitable for quantum simulation. This technique can also be applied to these equations with inhomogeneous terms modeling source or forcing terms, or boundary and interface conditions, and discrete dynamical systems such as iterative methods in numerical linear algebra, through extra equations in the system. Difficulty arises with the presence of inhomogeneous terms since they can change the stability of the original system. In this paper, we systematically study—both theoretically and numerically—the important issue of recovering the original variables from the Schrödingerized equations, even when the evolution operator contains unstable modes. We show that even with unstable modes, one can still construct a stable scheme; however, to recover the original variable, one needs to use suitable data in the extended space. We analyze and compare both the discrete and continuous Fourier transforms used in the extended dimension and derive corresponding error estimates, which allow one to use the more appropriate transform for specific equations. We also provide a smoother initialization for the Schrödingerized system to gain higher-order accuracy in the extended space. We homogenize the inhomogeneous terms with a stretch transformation, making it easier to recover the original variable. Our recovery technique also provides a simple and generic framework to solve general ill-posed problems in a computationally stable way.
We introduce a simple and stable computational method for ill-posed partial differential equation (PDE) problems. The method is based on Schrödingerization, introduced in [S. Jin, N. Liu and Y. Yu, arXiv:2212.13969][S. Jin, N. Liu and Y. Yu, Phys. Rev. A, 108 (2023), 032603], which maps all linear PDEs into Schrödinger-type equations in one higher dimension, for quantum simulations of these PDEs. Although the original problem is ill-posed, the Schrödingerized equations are Hamiltonian systems and time-reversible, allowing stable computation both forward and backward in time. The original variable can be recovered by data from suitably chosen domain in the extended dimension. We will use the backward heat equation and the linear convection equation with imaginary wave speed as examples. Error analysis of these algorithms are conducted and verified numerically. The methods are applicable to both classical and quantum computers, and we also lay out quantum algorithms for these methods. Moreover, we introduce a smooth initialization for the Schrödingerized equation which will lead to essentially spectral accuracy for the approximation in the extended space, if a spectral method is used. Consequently, the extra qubits needed due to the extra dimension, if a qubit based quantum algorithm is used, for both well-posed and ill-posed problems, becomes almost loglog1/ε where ε is the desired precision. This optimizes the complexity of the Schrödingerization based quantum algorithms for any non-unitary dynamical system introduced in [S. Jin, N. Liu and Y. Yu, arXiv:2212.13969][S. Jin, N. Liu and Y. Yu, Phys. Rev. A, 108 (2023), 032603].
We present a quantum algorithm for solving partial differential equations through a linear-system formulation, focusing on wave propagation problems described by the discretized Helmholtz equation in frequency domain. Although quantum linear-system solvers offer exponential compression of the system degrees of freedom, their runtime complexity is generally governed by the condition number of the discretized operator. Exploiting the analytic structure of the differential operator can provide an alternative to explicit matrix inversion, as illustrated for the screened Poisson equation through an explicit quantum circuit. For the Helmholtz equation, however, the inverse operator becomes singular on the dispersion surface k2=ω2/c2, rendering direct Fourier-space state-preparation methods exponentially inefficient. We address this challenge by directly preparing quantum states supported on the resonant manifold and encoding source locations through Fourier phases. The resulting algorithm eliminates the exponentially large overhead associated with post-selection on the resonant manifold, yielding a success probability that depends linearly on the number of sources and is independent of the computational domain size. More generally, our approach applies to hyperbolic differential equations whose Fourier-space solutions possess singular support on dispersion manifolds, recasting their solution as a problem of geometric quantum state preparation.
Abstract. We introduce a simple and stable computational method for ill-posed partial differential equation (PDE) problems. The method is based on Schrödingerization, introduced in [S. Jin, N. Liu, and Y. Yu, Phys. Rev. Lett., 133 (2024), 230602; S. Jin, N. Liu, and Y. Yu, Phys. Rev. A, 108 (2023), 032603], which maps all linear PDEs into Schrödinger-type equations in one higher dimension, for quantum simulations of these PDEs. Although the original problem is ill-posed, the Schrödingerized equations are Hamiltonian systems and time-reversible, allowing stable computation both forward and backward in time. The original variable can be recovered by data from suitably chosen domain in the extended dimension. We will use the (constant and variable coefficient) backward heat equation and the linear convection equation with imaginary wave speed as examples. Error analysis of these algorithms are conducted and verified numerically. The methods are applicable to both classical and quantum computers, and we also lay out quantum algorithms for these methods. Moreover, we introduce a smooth initialization for the Schrödingerized equation, which will lead to essentially spectral accuracy for the approximation in the extended space, if a spectral method is used. Consequently, the extra qubits needed due to the extra dimension, if a qubit-based quantum algorithm is used, for both well-posed and ill-posed problems, becomes almost [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is the desired precision. This optimizes the complexity of the Schrödingerization based quantum algorithms for any nonunitary dynamical system introduced in [S. Jin, N. Liu, and Y. Yu, Phys. Rev. Lett., 133 (2024), 230602; S. Jin, N. Liu, and Y. Yu, Phys. Rev. A, 108 (2023), 032603].