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arXiv:2602.17569

Efficiency of classical simulations of a noisy Grover algorithm

Raphaël Menu, Johannes Schachenmayer

quant-phSubmitted Feb 19, 2026• Announced Feb 20, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We analyze the modification of entanglement dynamics in the Grover algorithm when the qubits are subjected to single-qubit amplitude-damping or phase-flip noise. We compare quantum trajectories with full density-matrix simulations, analyzing the dynamics of averaged trajectory entanglement (TE) and operator entanglement (OE), in the respective state representation. Although not a genuine entanglement measure, both TE and OE are connected to the efficiency of matrix product state simulations and thus of fundamental interest. As in many quantum algorithms, at the end of the Grover circuit entanglement decreases as the system converges towards the target product state. While we find that this is well captured in the OE dynamics, quantum trajectories rarely follow paths of reducing entanglement. Optimized unraveling schemes can lower TE slightly, however we show that deep in the circuit OE is generally smaller than TE. This implies that matrix product density operator (MPDO) simulations of quantum circuits can in general be more efficient than quantum trajectories. In addition, we investigate the noise-rate scaling of success probabilities for both amplitude-damping and phase-flip noise in Grover's algorithm.

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We analyze the modification of entanglement dynamics in the Grover algorithm when the qubits are subjected to single-qubit amplitude-damping or phase-flip noise. We compare quantum trajectories with full density-matrix simulations, analyzing the dynamics of averaged trajectory entanglement (TE) and operator entanglement (OE), in the respective state representation. Although not a genuine entanglement measure, both TE and OE are connected to the efficiency of matrix product state simulations and thus of fundamental interest. As in many quantum algorithms, at the end of the Grover circuit entanglement decreases as the system converges towards the target product state. While we find that this is well captured in the OE dynamics, quantum trajectories rarely follow paths of reducing entanglement. Optimized unraveling schemes can lower TE slightly, however we show that deep in the circuit OE is generally smaller than TE. This implies that matrix product density operator (MPDO) simulations of quantum circuits can in general be more efficient than quantum trajectories. In addition, we investigate the noise-rate scaling of success probabilities for both amplitude-damping and phase-flip noise in Grover's algorithm.
The dynamics of open quantum systems can be simulated by unraveling it into an ensemble of pure state trajectories undergoing nonunitary monitored evolution, which has recently been shown to undergo measurement-induced entanglement phase transition. Here, we show that, for an arbitrary decoherence channel, one can optimize the unraveling scheme to lower the threshold for entanglement phase transition, thereby enabling efficient classical simulation of the open dynamics for a broader range of decoherence rates. Taking noisy random unitary circuits as a paradigmatic example, we analytically derive the optimum unraveling basis that on average minimizes the threshold. Moreover, we present a heuristic algorithm that adaptively optimizes the unraveling basis for given noise channels, also significantly extending the simulatable regime. When applied to noisy Hamiltonian dynamics, the heuristic approach indeed extends the regime of efficient classical simulation based on matrix product states beyond conventional quantum trajectory methods. Finally, we assess the possibility of using a quasi-local unraveling, which involves multiple qubits and time steps, to efficiently simulate open systems with an arbitrarily small but finite decoherence rate.
Simulating quantum circuits with classical computers requires resources growing exponentially in terms of system size.Real quantum computer with noise, however, may be simulated polynomially with various methods considering different noise models.In this work, we simulate random quantum circuits in one dimension with matrix product density operators (MPDOs), for different noise models such as dephasing, depolarizing, and amplitude damping.We show that the method based on matrix product states (MPSs) fails to approximate the noisy output quantum states for any of the noise models considered, while the MPDO method approximates them well.Compared with the method of matrix product operators (MPOs), the MPDO method reflects a clear physical picture of noise (with inner indices taking care of the noise simulation) and quantum entanglement (with bond indices taking care of two-qubit gate simulation).Consequently, in case of weak system noise, the resource cost of the MPDO will be significantly less than that of the MPO due to a relatively small inner dimension needed for the simulation.In case of strong system noise, a relatively small bond dimension may be sufficient to simulate the noisy circuits, indicating a regime that the noise is large enough for an "easy" classical simulation, which is further supported by a comparison with the experimental results on an IBM cloud device.Moreover, we propose a more effective tensor updates scheme with optimal truncations for both the inner and the bond dimensions, performed after each layer of the circuit, which enjoys a canonical form of the MPDO for improving simulation accuracy.With truncated inner dimension to a maximum value κ and bond dimension to a maximum value χ , the cost of our simulation scales as ∼NDκ 3 χ 3 , for an N-qubit circuit with depth D.
We aim to rigorously address how local noise affects classical simulability of quantum dynamics benchmarked by tensor-network methods. Using operator entanglement entropy (OEE), we prove the following: (1) For single-qubit depolarizing noise on arbitrary circuits, tensor networks with poly(n)\mathrm{poly}(n)poly(n) bond dimension suffice for fixed absolute Hilbert-Schmidt error after $\order{1}$ depth, while relative error demands $\order{\log n}$ depth; and this bound is optimal. (2) For single-qubit depolarizing noise on 1D local circuits, the existence of whole-trajectory error-bounded matrix product operator (MPO) of poly(n)\mathrm{poly}(n)poly(n) bond dimension at all depths. (3) For general single-qubit noise in 1D brickwall circuits, random two-design gates with contraction coefficient c<1/3c<1/3c<1/3 yield an $\order{1}$ OEE plateau with probability 1−Te−Ω(n)1-Te^{-Ω(n)}1−Te−Ω(n), while arbitrary gates with c<1/48c<1/48c<1/48 give $\order{\log n}$ OEE in the worst case. (4) In higher dimensions, these bounds yield uniform-in-depth poly(n)\mathrm{poly}(n)poly(n) average boundary-bond dimensions for projected entangled pair operators~(PEPO) across every cut -- under depolarizing noise at either absolute or relative accuracy, and under general noise with strong contraction at absolute accuracy. Our results establish a rigorous connection between certain noise models, circuit types, and their classical simulability.
The cost of classical simulations of quantum many-body dynamics is often determined by the amount of entanglement in the system. In this paper, we study entanglement in stochastic quantum trajectory approaches that solve master equations describing open quantum system dynamics. First, we introduce and compare adaptive trajectory unravelings of master equations. Specifically, building on [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 243601 (2022)], we study several greedy algorithms that generate trajectories with a low average entanglement entropy. Second, we consider various conventional unravelings of a one-dimensional open random Brownian circuit and locate the transition points from area- to volume-law-entangled trajectories. Third, we compare various trajectory unravelings using matrix product states with a direct integration of the master equation using matrix product operators. We provide concrete examples of dynamics, for which the simulation cost of stochastic trajectories is exponentially smaller than the one of matrix product operators.
We study how matrix-product-operator (MPO) truncation errors evolve when simulating two setups: (1) 1D Haar-random circuits under either depolarizing noise or amplitude-damping noise, and (2) 1D Lindbladian dynamics of a non-integrable quantum Ising model under either depolarizing or amplitude-damping noise. We first show that the average purity of the system density matrix relaxes to a steady value on a timescale that scales inversely with the noise rate. We then show that truncation errors contract exponentially in both system size NNN and the evolution time ttt, as the noisy dynamics maps different density matrices toward the same steady state. This yields an empirical bound on the L1L_1L1​ truncation error that is exponentially tighter in NNN than the existing bound. Together, these results provide empirical evidence that MPO simulation algorithms may efficiently sample from the output of 1D noisy random circuits [setup (1)] at arbitrary circuit depth, and from the steady state of 1D Lindbladian dynamics [setup (2)].
The cost of classical simulations of quantum many-body dynamics is often determined by the amount of entanglement in the system. In this paper, we study entanglement in stochastic quantum trajectory approaches that solve master equations describing open quantum system dynamics. First, we introduce and compare adaptive trajectory unravelings of master equations. Specifically, building on Ref. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 243601 (2022)], we study several greedy algorithms that generate trajectories with a low average entanglement entropy. Second, we consider various conventional unravelings of a one-dimensional open random Brownian circuit and locate the transition points from area- to volume-law-entangled trajectories. Third, we compare various trajectory unravelings using matrix product states with a direct integration of the master equation using matrix product operators. We provide concrete examples of dynamics, for which the simulation cost of stochastic trajectories is exponentially smaller than the one of matrix product operators.