Solving linear differential equations is a fundamental task in scientific computing and an important primitive for quantum computing. A recent one-ancilla quantum differential equation solver provides a hardware-friendly and locality-preserving approach with provable performance guarantees, making it highly suitable for the early fault-tolerant and near-term regimes. Its simple circuit structure comes with a natural trade-off: the maximum single-run circuit depth scales as $O (1/ε)$ in the target accuracy $ε$. In this work, we reduce this depth by combining the solver with classical step-size postprocessing. By running the one-ancilla solver at a logarithmic number of finite time step sizes and using classical post-processing to cancel leading discretization errors, we reduce the maximum single-run circuit depth to $O(\mathrm{polylog}(1/ε))$ without adding quantum ancillae or sacrificing locality. Technically, extending extrapolation ideas beyond Hamiltonian and Lindbladian dynamics requires regularity estimates for observable maps under nonunitary evolution, which we obtain through a holomorphic extension of the adjoint evolution. Numerical experiments on the Hatano-Nelson model (ODE) and the convection-diffusion equation (PDE) demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Solving linear differential equations is a fundamental task in scientific computing and an important primitive for quantum computing. A recent one-ancilla quantum differential equation solver provides a hardware-friendly and locality-preserving approach with provable performance guarantees, making it highly suitable for the early fault-tolerant and near-term regimes. Its simple circuit structure comes with a natural trade-off: the maximum single-run circuit depth scales as O(1/ε) in the target accuracy ε. In this work, we reduce this depth by combining the solver with classical step-size postprocessing. By running the one-ancilla solver at a logarithmic number of finite time step sizes and using classical post-processing to cancel leading discretization errors, we reduce the maximum single-run circuit depth to O(polylog(1/ε)) without adding quantum ancillae or sacrificing locality. Technically, extending extrapolation ideas beyond Hamiltonian and Lindbladian dynamics requires regularity estimates for observable maps under nonunitary evolution, which we obtain through a holomorphic extension of the adjoint evolution. Numerical experiments on the Hatano-Nelson model (ODE) and the convection-diffusion equation (PDE) demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
As quantum hardware rapidly advances toward the early fault-tolerant era, a key challenge is to develop quantum algorithms that are not only theoretically sound but also hardware-friendly on near-term devices. In this work, we propose a quantum algorithm for solving linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with a provable runtime guarantee. Our algorithm uses only a single ancilla qubit, and is locality preserving, i.e., when the coefficient matrix of the ODE is k-local, the algorithm only needs to implement the time evolution of (k+1)-local Hamiltonians. We also discuss the connection between our proposed algorithm and Lindbladian simulation. By applying our algorithm to the interacting Hatano-Nelson model, a widely studied non-Hermitian model with rich phenomenology, and numerically simulating it under realistic noise models, we demonstrate its practical feasibility on near-term quantum devices.
Unitary and non-unitary diagonal operators are fundamental building blocks in quantum algorithms with applications in the resolution of partial differential equations, Hamiltonian simulations, the loading of classical data on quantum computers (quantum state preparation) and many others. In this paper, we introduce a general approach to implement unitary and non-unitary diagonal operators with efficient-adjustable-depth quantum circuits. The depth, i.e., the number of layers of quantum gates of the quantum circuit, is reducible with respect either to the width, i.e, the number of ancilla qubits, or to the accuracy between the implemented operator and the target one. While exact methods have an optimal exponential scaling either in terms of size, i.e., the total number of primitive quantum gates, or width, approximate methods prove to be efficient for the class of diagonal operators depending on smooth, at least differentiable, functions. Our approach is general enough to allow any method for diagonal operators to become adjustable-depth or approximate, decreasing the depth of the circuit by increasing its width or its approximation level. This feature offers flexibility and can match with the hardware limitations in coherence time or cumulative gate error. We illustrate these methods by performing quantum state preparation and non-unitary-real-space simulation of the diffusion equation. This simulation paves the way to efficient implementations of stochastic models useful in physics, chemistry, biology, image processing and finance.
Unitary and non-unitary diagonal operators are fundamental building blocks in quantum algorithms with applications in the resolution of partial differential equations, Hamiltonian simulations, the loading of classical data on quantum computers (quantum state preparation), and many others. In this paper, we introduce a general approach to implement unitary and non-unitary diagonal operators with efficient-adjustable-depth quantum circuits. The depth, i.e., the number of layers of quantum gates of the quantum circuit, is reducible with respect either to the width, i.e., the number of ancilla qubits, or to the accuracy between the implemented operator and the target one. While exact methods have an optimal exponential scaling either in terms of size, i.e., the total number of primitive quantum gates, or width, approximate methods prove to be efficient for the class of diagonal operators depending on smooth, at least differentiable, functions. Our approach is general enough to allow any method for diagonal operators to become adjustable-depth or approximate, decreasing the depth of the circuit by increasing its width or its approximation level. This feature offers flexibility and can match with the hardware limitations in coherence time or cumulative gate error. We illustrate these methods by performing quantum state preparation and non-unitary-real-space simulation of the diffusion equation. This simulation paves the way to efficient implementations of stochastic models useful in physics, chemistry, biology, image processing, and finance.
We study algorithmic error mitigation via Richardson-style extrapolation for quantum simulations of open quantum systems modelled by the Lindblad equation. Focusing on two specific first-order quantum algorithms, we perform a backward-error analysis to obtain a step-size expansion of the density operator with explicit coefficient bounds. These bounds supply the necessary smoothness for analyzing Richardson extrapolation, allowing us to bound both the deterministic bias and the shot-noise variance that arise in postprocessing. For a Lindblad evolution with generator bounded by $\ensuremath{\ell}$, our main theorem shows that an $n=\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}({log}_{10}(1/\ensuremath{\varepsilon}))$-point extrapolator reduces the maximum circuit depth needed for accuracy $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ from polynomial $O({(\ensuremath{\ell}T)}^{2}/\ensuremath{\varepsilon})$ to polylogarithmic $O({(\ensuremath{\ell}T)}^{2}({log}_{10}(\ensuremath{\ell}T)){log}^{2}(1/\ensuremath{\varepsilon}))$ scaling, an exponential improvement in $1/\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$, while keeping sampling complexity to the standard $1/{\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}^{2}$ level, thus extending such results for Hamiltonian simulations to Lindblad simulations. Several numerical experiments illustrate the practical viability of the method.
Simulating open quantum systems is an essential technique for understanding complex physical phenomena and advancing quantum technologies. Some quantum algorithms simulate Lindblad dynamics exponentially accurately, i.e., they achieve logarithmically short circuit depth in terms of accuracy, but they need to coherently encode all possible jump operators with a large ancilla consumption. Minimizing the gate and ancilla counts while achieving such a logarithmic scaling in accuracy remains an important challenge. In this work, we present two randomized quantum algorithms for simulating general Lindblad dynamics with multiple jump operators aimed at an observable estimation that achieves a circuit depth with not only logarithmic scaling in accuracy but also either partial or complete independence from the parameters specifying the Lindbladian. This is based on a novel random circuit compilation method that leverages dissipative processes with only a single jump operator, leading to the proposed methods using minimal ancilla qubits— 4 + ⌈ log 2 M ⌉ in the first case and seven in the other, where each single jump operator has at most M Pauli strings. In addition, we numerically demonstrate the practical advantage over existing approaches by providing a detailed analysis of the required gate and ancilla counts. This work represents a significant step toward making open quantum system simulations more feasible on early fault-tolerant quantum computing devices.
Understanding the dynamics of interacting quantum systems is a central goal of quantum simulation. For geometrically local Hamiltonians, locality suggests that digital simulation should retain much of the parallelism of the underlying dynamics. For a target accuracy ε, we construct a nearest-neighbor quantum circuit that simulates the dynamics of an n-qubit, time-independent, finite-range Hamiltonian with normalized local interaction strength on a fixed-dimensional lattice for time T≥1, with circuit depth O(Tlog(nT/ε)) and gate count O(nTlog(nT/ε)). This reduces the polylogarithmic overhead of Haah, Hastings, Kothari, and Low to a single logarithm. On logarithmic-scale blocks from the Lieb--Robinson decomposition, a shallow but highly accurate implementation is essential for reducing the circuit depth. Our key observation is that spatial localization also controls the cost of high precision. In each block, the error of a constant-order product formula is compensated for by a correction, yielding exponential accuracy. The correction can be implemented with depth proportional to the block diameter, introducing no additional asymptotic depth scale beyond that required by spatial localization.
Furthermore, we prove an unconditional circuit-depth lower bound for uniform XXZ Hamiltonians: at fixed evolution time T in the stated regime and sufficiently small fixed error ε, any nearest-neighbor quantum circuit simulating these dynamics requires depth Ω(logn/loglogn). This matches our O(logn) upper bound up to a doubly logarithmic factor, establishing near-optimal circuit depth for lattice Hamiltonian simulation in this regime. Together, these results clarify the role of locality and precision in determining the circuit complexity of quantum dynamics and suggest broader principles for spatially constrained quantum computation.