Classical simulation supports the development and validation of quantum algorithms through full-state inspection, controlled noise models and backpropagation, albeit for small quantum systems. Existing frameworks offer gate-level execution, differentiable pulse-level dynamics or optimised hardware execution. Just another quantum simulator (JAQSI) combines gate- and pulse-level simulation in one differentiable circuit model built upon JAX. Circuits are represented as pure functions of numerical inputs which support vectorised batches and JIT compilation. Within a single circuit, matrix-defined operations, gates synthesised from Hamiltonian time evolution and noise channels can be composed freely. For a fast simulation, gate and channel fusion reduces passes over the state, while adjoint differentiation computes expectation-value gradients with a constant number of statevectors. At pulse level, JAQSI reduces evolution under single-term Hamiltonians to a scalar pulse-area integral and reuses cached execution plans and compiled solvers. In a benchmark we compare JAQSI with PennyLane, Qiskit, Qibo, Qulacs, QuTiP and dynamiqs. At gate level, we observe performance either on par or an order of magnitude faster across statevector, density, noise and gradient simulation than the compared simulators up to 12 qubits. Beyond 18 qubits, JAQSI is on par with PennyLane Lightning in both statevector and gradient simulation. In the statevector and noisy density-matrix pulse benchmarks, it is at least 5 times faster than the other simulators, even with its closed-form solve disabled. Disabling the latter increases its runtime by at most a factor of 1.5. We provide JAQSI as open-source software on GitHub and PyPI.
Classical simulation supports the development and validation of quantum algorithms through full-state inspection, controlled noise models and backpropagation, albeit for small quantum systems. Existing frameworks offer gate-level execution, differentiable pulse-level dynamics or optimised hardware execution. Just another quantum simulator (JAQSI) combines gate- and pulse-level simulation in one differentiable circuit model built upon JAX. Circuits are represented as pure functions of numerical inputs which support vectorised batches and JIT compilation. Within a single circuit, matrix-defined operations, gates synthesised from Hamiltonian time evolution and noise channels can be composed freely. For a fast simulation, gate and channel fusion reduces passes over the state, while adjoint differentiation computes expectation-value gradients with a constant number of statevectors. At pulse level, JAQSI reduces evolution under single-term Hamiltonians to a scalar pulse-area integral and reuses cached execution plans and compiled solvers. In a benchmark we compare JAQSI with PennyLane, Qiskit, Qibo, Qulacs, QuTiP and dynamiqs. At gate level, we observe performance either on par or an order of magnitude faster across statevector, density, noise and gradient simulation than the compared simulators up to 12 qubits. Beyond 18 qubits, JAQSI is on par with PennyLane Lightning in both statevector and gradient simulation. In the statevector and noisy density-matrix pulse benchmarks, it is at least 5 times faster than the other simulators, even with its closed-form solve disabled. Disabling the latter increases its runtime by at most a factor of 1.5. We provide JAQSI as open-source software on GitHub and PyPI.
This work presents QiliSim, the native C++ simulation backend of QiliSDK, an open-source Python framework for digital and analog quantum computing. QiliSim supports quantum circuits, Hamiltonian time evolution, and analog-digital quantum reservoirs through a common interface, allowing users to test quantum algorithms before executing them on quantum hardware. The simulator provides statevector and density-matrix methods for digital workloads, alongside fixed-step and adaptive Runge–Kutta integrators, Krylov-subspace methods, and direct matrix exponentiation for analog evolution. Monte Carlo trajectories, mid-circuit measurements, and Kraus and Lindbladian noise models support the simulation of noisy quantum systems. Numerical methods and execution settings are selected through structured configuration objects, allowing the same quantum program to run with different simulation strategies without modifying its definition. The poster includes a circuit simulation example and performance comparisons for digital circuit sampling and quantum annealing. The reported benchmarks show competitive CPU performance against Qiskit Aer and Cirq for small to medium circuits, and faster execution than QuTiP and CUDA-Q dynamics for the tested annealing task at a target fidelity of 99%.
The increasing complexity of quantum algorithms and the limitations of current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware underscore the importance of efficient classical simulators. To support informed decision-making by users of quantum circuit simulators, we benchmark seven statevector-based quantum circuit simulators (Qiskit, Qulacs, Qibo, Qsimov, Cirq, Pennylane and the Intel Quantum Simulator (IQS)) on a multicore node of the Lusitania high-performance computing (HPC) system. We evaluate their performance in terms of execution time, memory usage and core scalability using Grover’s algorithm, the quantum Fourier transform (QFT), and quantum volume (QV) circuits, across qubit counts ranging from 3 to 30. Our results reveal that Qulacs offers the best performance for circuits below 22 qubits, while Qiskit becomes the fastest for larger and more complex circuits. Qiskit and Qulacs achieve the most efficient parallel performance across multiple cores, while others display limited scaling benefits. IQS shows the lowest memory consumption in QFT and QV benchmarks for systems under 24 qubits; however, it suffers from higher execution times, particularly for Grover’s algorithm. The experimental implementation of Qsimov consistently underperforms in both runtime and scalability; for this reason, it is employed as a baseline in our measurements, serving to highlight the importance of performance optimizations in statevector-based quantum circuit simulators. Previous findings provide a comprehensive performance landscape to guide researchers in selecting appropriate simulators for both standard and large-scale quantum workloads on HPC infrastructures.
The study of the impact of noise on quantum circuits is especially relevant to guide the progress of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computing. In this paper, we address the pulse-level simulation of noisy quantum circuits with the Quantum Toolbox in Python (QuTiP). We introduce new tools in qutip-qip , QuTiP's quantum information processing package. These tools simulate quantum circuits at the pulse level, leveraging QuTiP's quantum dynamics solvers and control optimization features. We show how quantum circuits can be compiled on simulated processors, with control pulses acting on a target Hamiltonian that describes the unitary evolution of the physical qubits. Various types of noise can be introduced based on the physical model, e.g., by simulating the Lindblad density-matrix dynamics or Monte Carlo quantum trajectories. In particular, the user can define environment-induced decoherence at the processor level and include noise simulation at the level of control pulses. We illustrate how the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm is compiled and executed on a superconducting-qubit-based processor, on a spin-chain-based processor and using control optimization algorithms. We also show how to easily reproduce experimental results on cross-talk noise in an ion-based processor, and how a Ramsey experiment can be modeled with Lindblad dynamics. Finally, we illustrate how to integrate these features with other software frameworks.
QASMTrans is a lightweight, high-performance, C++-based quantum compiler that bridges abstract quantum algorithms to device-level control and is designed for just-in-time (JIT) deployment on QPU testbeds with tightly integrated FPGAs or CPUs. We focus on achieving fast transpilation times on circuits of interest, we find more than 100x faster compilation than Qiskit in some circuits with similar circuit quality, enabling transpilation of large, high-depth circuits in seconds. Unlike existing tools, QASMTrans offers end-to-end device-pulse compilation and direct quantum control integration with QICK, closing the gap between logical circuits and hardware control enabling closed-loop optimization. QASMTrans supports latency-aware Application-tailored Gate Sets (AGS) at the pulse level, identifying high-impact gate sequences on the circuit critical path and synthesizing optimized pulse schedules using pre-defined robust circuit ansatz. Validated through integrated QuTiP pulse-level simulation, this is found to significantly reduce execution latency and can improve final-state fidelity by up to 12% in some tested circuits. QASMTrans further implements device-aware, noise-adaptive transpilation that uses device calibration data for circuit placement on high-quality qubits and can focus on the circuit critical path to reduce transpilation-pass time while maintaining comparable fidelity. Additionally, it introduces circuit space sharing via calibration-aware device partitioning, enabling concurrent execution of multiple circuits or shots on a single QPU. Moreover, QASMTrans is entirely self-contained and has no external library dependencies, making it easy for practical deployment. By combining fast compilation, pulse-level control, and noise-aware optimization, QASMTrans enables real-time adaptive algorithms such as ADAPT-VQE and ADAPT-QAOA.
QASMTrans is a lightweight, high-performance, C++-based quantum compiler that bridges abstract quantum algorithms to device-level control and is designed for just-in-time (JIT) deployment on QPU testbeds with tightly integrated FPGAs or CPUs. We focus on achieving fast transpilation times on circuits of interest, we find more than 10× faster compilation than Qiskit in some circuits with similar circuit quality, enabling transpilation of large, high-depth circuits in seconds. Unlike existing tools, QASMTrans offers end-to-end device-pulse compilation and direct quantum control integration with QICK, closing the gap between logical circuits and hardware control enabling closed-loop optimization. QASMTrans supports latency-aware Application-tailored Gate Sets (AGS) at the pulse level, identifying high-impact gate sequences on the circuit critical path and synthesizing optimized pulse schedules using pre-defined robust circuit ansatz. Validated through integrated QuTiP pulse-level simulation, this is found to significantly reduce execution latency and can improve final-state fidelity by up to 12% in some tested circuits. QASMTrans further implements device-aware, noise-adaptive transpilation that uses device calibration data for circuit placement on high-quality qubits and can focus on the circuit critical path to reduce transpilation-pass time while maintaining comparable fidelity. Additionally, it introduces circuit space sharing via calibration-aware device partitioning, enabling concurrent execution of multiple circuits or shots on a single QPU. Moreover, QASMTrans is entirely self-contained and has no external library dependencies, making it easy for practical deployment. By combining fast compilation, pulse-level control, and noise-aware optimization, QASMTrans enables real-time adaptive algorithms such as ADAPT-VQE and ADAPT-QAOA. Source code: http://github.com/pnnl/qasmtrans
Classical simulation of quantum circuits remains indispensable for algorithm development, hardware validation, and error analysis in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era. However, state-vector simulation faces exponential memory scaling, with an n-qubit system requiring O(2^n) complex amplitudes, and existing simulators often lack the flexibility to exploit heterogeneous computing resources at runtime. This paper presents a GPU-accelerated quantum circuit simulation framework that introduces three contributions: (1) an empirical backend selection algorithm that benchmarks CuPy, PyTorch-CUDA, and NumPy-CPU backends at runtime and selects the optimal execution path based on measured throughput; (2) a directed acyclic graph (DAG) based gate fusion engine that reduces circuit depth through automated identification of fusible gate sequences, coupled with adaptive precision switching between complex64 and complex128 representations; and (3) a memory-aware fallback mechanism that monitors GPU memory consumption and gracefully degrades to CPU execution when resources are exhausted. The framework integrates with Qiskit, Cirq, PennyLane, and Amazon Braket through a unified adapter layer. Benchmarks on an NVIDIA A100-SXM4 (40 GiB) GPU demonstrate speedups of 64x to 146x over NumPy CPU execution for state-vector simulation of circuits with 20 to 28 qubits, with speedups exceeding 5x from 16 qubits onward. Hardware validation on an IBM quantum processing unit (QPU) confirms Bell state fidelity of 0.939, a five-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state fidelity of 0.853, and circuit depth reduction from 42 to 14 gates through the fusion pipeline. The system is designed for portability across NVIDIA consumer and data-center GPUs, requiring no vendor-specific compilation steps.