Making new methods for quantum problems often relies on using basic operations in linear algebra. Often these routines are hidden behind well-known libraries that have been optimized over decades. Attempting to improve on those basic routines would be highly time-consuming. We aim in this article to review those basic routines and provide a knowledge foundation for how to perform basic operations on a computer that would be inaccessible with pen and paper. Elementary details on the solutions to linear algebra problems and computational complexity are reviewed. The focus is on solving eigenvalue problems for quantum systems, but the discussion is generic to many other applications. Common matrix forms relevant to quantum systems and their solution strategies are covered. The discussion extends to computational numerical methods for which the most efficient functions exist in freely available libraries. These include eigenvalue, Schur, QR, LU, LDL, Cholesky, and singular value decompositions. The algorithms for obtaining some of these decompositions are discussed, with focus being placed on those used in modern libraries.
Making new methods for quantum problems often relies on using basic operations in linear algebra. Often these routines are hidden behind well-known libraries that have been optimized over decades. Attempting to improve on those basic routines would be highly time-consuming. We aim in this article to review those basic routines and provide a knowledge foundation for how to perform basic operations on a computer that would be inaccessible with pen and paper. Elementary details on the solutions to linear algebra problems and computational complexity are reviewed. The focus is on solving eigenvalue problems for quantum systems, but the discussion is generic to many other applications. Common matrix forms relevant to quantum systems and their solution strategies are covered. The discussion extends to computational numerical methods for which the most efficient functions exist in freely available libraries. These include eigenvalue, Schur, QR, LU, LDL, Cholesky, and singular value decompositions. The algorithms for obtaining some of these decompositions are discussed, with focus being placed on those used in modern libraries.
Quantum computing is a new and exciting area of computational mathematics that has the ability to solve very hard problems that traditional computing methods have not been able to solve for a long time. This abstract goes into detail about how quantum computing can be used in numerical linear algebra, which is an important part of computational mathematics that is used in many fields, such as science, engineering, and data analysis. The idea behind quantum computing is new. It uses quantum bits (qubits) and quantum gates to do calculations in a very different way, based on the rules of quantum physics. Because of this change in thinking, quantum computers might be able to solve some numerical linear algebra problems a lot faster than traditional computers. The outline then talks about some of the most important quantum computing methods and algorithms that are made for numerical linear algebra problems. There are quantum versions of standard algorithms like matrix multiplication, Gaussian elimination, and singular value decomposition. There are also new algorithms that are intended to use quantum parallelism and interference to speed up computations. For situations where full-scale quantum gear is not yet available, quantum-inspired methods are also talked about. These blend conventional and quantum techniques. The abstract talks about the difficulties and chances of using quantum algorithms for numerical linear algebra on quantum hardware systems that are available now and in the near future. It talks about things like error correction, qubit coherence times, and making efficient quantum circuit implementations. Lastly, the abstract talks about how quantum computing might change computational mathematics. It imagines that advances in quantum computing could help solve numerical linear algebra problems that were previously impossible to solve. This could have huge effects on many fields, from machine learning and optimization to quantum chemistry and cryptography. In the end, it stresses how important it is for mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, and engineers to work together across disciplines in order to fully utilize the transformative power of quantum computing in numerical linear algebra and other areas.
Solving linear systems and computing eigenvalues are two fundamental problems in linear algebra. For solving linear systems, many efficient quantum algorithms have been discovered. For computing eigenvalues, currently, we have efficient quantum algorithms for Hermitian and unitary matrices. However, the general case is far from fully understood. Combining quantum phase estimation, quantum algorithm to solve linear differential equations and quantum singular value estimation, we propose two quantum algorithms to compute the eigenvalues of diagonalizable matrices that only have real eigenvalues and normal matrices. The output of the quantum algorithms is a superposition of the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenvectors. The complexities are dominated by solving a linear system of ODEs and performing quantum singular value estimation, which usually can be solved efficiently in a quantum computer. In the special case when the matrix M is s-sparse, the complexity is O(sρ2κ2/ε2) for diagonalizable matrices that only have real eigenvalues, and O(sρ∥M∥max/ε2) for normal matrices. Here ρ is an upper bound of the eigenvalues, κ is the conditioning of the eigenvalue problem, and ε is the precision to approximate the eigenvalues. We also extend the quantum algorithm to diagonalizable matrices with complex eigenvalues under an extra assumption.
The Harrow-Hassidim-Lloyd (HHL) quantum algorithm for sampling from the solution of a linear system provides an exponential speed-up over its classical counterpart. The problem of solving a system of linear equations has a wide scope of applications, and thus HHL constitutes an important algorithmic primitive. In these notes, we present the HHL algorithm and its improved versions in detail, including explanations of the constituent sub- routines. More specifically, we discuss various quantum subroutines such as quantum phase estimation and amplitude amplification, as well as the important question of loading data into a quantum computer, via quantum RAM. The improvements to the original algorithm exploit variable-time amplitude amplification as well as a method for implementing linear combinations of unitary operations (LCUs) based on a decomposition of the operators using Fourier and Chebyshev series. Finally, we discuss a linear solver based on the quantum singular value estimation (QSVE) subroutine.
Solving linear systems of equations plays a fundamental role in numerous computational problems from different fields of science. The widespread use of numerical methods to solve these systems motivates investigating the feasibility of solving linear systems problems using quantum computers. In this work, we provide a survey of the main advances in quantum linear systems algorithms, together with some applications. We summarize and analyze the main ideas behind some of the algorithms for the quantum linear systems problem in the literature. The analysis begins by examining the Harrow-Hassidim-Lloyd (HHL) solver. We note its limitations and reliance on computationally expensive quantum methods, then highlight subsequent research efforts which aimed to address these limitations and optimize runtime efficiency and precision via various paradigms. We focus in particular on the post-HHL enhancements which have paved the way towards optimal lower bounds with respect to error tolerance and condition number. By doing so, we propose a taxonomy that categorizes these studies. Furthermore, by contextualizing these developments within the broader landscape of quantum computing, we explore the foundational work that have inspired and informed their development, as well as subsequent refinements. Finally, we discuss the potential applications of these algorithms in differential equations, quantum machine learning, and many-body physics.
Linear equations play a pivotal role in many areas of science and engineering, making efficient solutions to linear systems highly desirable. The development of quantum algorithms for solving linear systems has been a significant breakthrough, with such algorithms rapidly becoming some of the most influential in quantum computing. Subsequent advances have focused on improving the efficiency of quantum linear solvers and extending their core techniques to address various challenges, such as least-squares data fitting. In this article, we introduce a new quantum algorithm for solving linear systems based on the gradient descent method. Inspired by the vector/density state formalism, we represent a point, or vector, as a density state-like entity, enabling us to leverage recent advancements in quantum algorithmic frameworks, such as block encoding, to directly manipulate operators and carry out the gradient descent method in a quantum setting. The operator corresponding to the intermediate solution is updated iteratively, with a provable guarantee of convergence. The quantum state representing the final solution to the linear system can then be extracted by further measurement. We provide a detailed complexity analysis and compare our approach with existing methods, demonstrating significant improvement in certain aspects.
These notes begin in Chapter 1 with a review of linear algebra and the postulates of quantum mechanics, leading to an explanation of single- and multi-qubit gates. Chapter 2 explores the challenge of constructing arbitrary quantum states from given initial states, and introduces circuits for building oracles. Chapter 3 presents foundational algorithms such as entanglement creation, quantum teleportation, Deutsch-Jozsa, Bernstein-Vazirani, and Simon's algorithm. Chapters 4 and 5 cover algorithms based on the quantum Fourier transform, including phase estimation, period finding, factoring, and logarithm computation. These chapters also include complexity analysis and detailed quantum circuits suitable for implementation in code. Chapter 6 introduces Grover's algorithm for quantum search and amplitude amplification, including its realization via Hamiltonian simulation and a method for derandomization. Chapter 7 discusses basic techniques for Hamiltonian simulation, such as Lie-Trotter decomposition, sparse Hamiltonians, and the linear combination of unitaries. It also provides example circuits for simulating Hamiltonians expressed as linear combinations of Pauli operators. Chapter 8 introduces variational quantum algorithms, and Chapter 9 presents an algorithm for simulating fermionic many-particle systems, with an emphasis on molecular Hamiltonians. It also outlines the key transformations needed to map a molecular Hamiltonian to a form suitable for simulation on a quantum computer.