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Quantum Computing Resource Estimate of Molecular Energy Simulation

James Daniel Whitfield, Jacob Biamonte, Alán Aspuru‐Guzik

Published Jan 21, 2010• 4 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Over the last century, ingenious physical and mathematical insights paired with rapidly advancing technology have allowed the field of quantum chemistry to advance dramatically. However, efficient methods for the exact simulation of quantum systems on classical computers do not exist. The present paper reports an extension of one of the authors’ previous work [Aspuru-Guzik et al., Science 309 p. 1704, (2005)] where it was shown that the chemical Hamiltonian can be efficiently simulated using a quantum computer. In particular, we report in detail how a set of molecular integrals can be used to create a quantum circuit that allows the energy of a molecular system with fixed nuclear geometry to be extracted using the phase estimation algorithm proposed by Abrams and Lloyd [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 p. 5165, (1999)]. We extend several known results related to this idea and present numerical examples of the state preparation procedure required in the algorithm. With future quantum devices in mind, we provide a complete example using the Hydrogen molecule, of how a chemical Hamiltonian can be simulated using a quantum computer. Some of the results we present here represent an extension of our recent collaboration appearing in B. P. Lanyon et al. [Nature Chem., advance online publication, doi: 10.1038/nchem.483 (2010)].

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Over the last century, ingenious physical and mathematical insights paired with rapidly advancing technology have allowed the field of quantum chemistry to advance dramatically. However, efficient methods for the exact simulation of quantum systems on classical computers do not exist. The present paper reports an extension of one of the authors’ previous work [Aspuru-Guzik et al., Science 309 p. 1704, (2005)] where it was shown that the chemical Hamiltonian can be efficiently simulated using a quantum computer. In particular, we report in detail how a set of molecular integrals can be used to create a quantum circuit that allows the energy of a molecular system with fixed nuclear geometry to be extracted using the phase estimation algorithm proposed by Abrams and Lloyd [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 p. 5165, (1999)]. We extend several known results related to this idea and present numerical examples of the state preparation procedure required in the algorithm. With future quantum devices in mind, we provide a complete example using the Hydrogen molecule, of how a chemical Hamiltonian can be simulated using a quantum computer. Some of the results we present here represent an extension of our recent collaboration appearing in B. P. Lanyon et al. [Nature Chem., advance online publication, doi: 10.1038/nchem.483 (2010)].
Over the last century, a large number of physical and mathematical developments paired with rapidly advancing technology have allowed the field of quantum chemistry to advance dramatically. However, the lack of computationally efficient methods for the exact simulation of quantum systems on classical computers presents a limitation of current computational approaches. We report, in detail, how a set of pre-computed molecular integrals can be used to explicitly create a quantum circuit, i.e. a sequence of elementary quantum operations, that, when run on a quantum computer, obtains the energy of a molecular system with fixed nuclear geometry using the quantum phase estimation algorithm. We extend several known results related to this idea and discuss the adiabatic state preparation procedure for preparing the input states used in the algorithm. With current and near future quantum devices in mind, we provide a complete example using the hydrogen molecule of how a chemical Hamiltonian can be simulated using a quantum computer.
Over the last century, a large number of physical and mathematical developments paired with rapidly advancing technology have allowed the field of quantum chemistry to advance dramatically. However, the lack of computationally efficient methods for the exact simulation of quantum systems on classical computers presents a limitation of current computational approaches. We report, in detail, how a set of pre-computed molecular integrals can be used to explicitly create a quantum circuit, i.e. a sequence of elementary quantum operations, that, when run on a quantum computer, obtains the energy of a molecular system with fixed nuclear geometry using the quantum phase estimation algorithm. We extend several known results related to this idea and discuss the adiabatic state preparation procedure for preparing the input states used in the algorithm. With current and near future quantum devices in mind, we provide a complete example using the hydrogen molecule of how a chemical Hamiltonian can be simulated using a quantum computer.
methods for the exact simulation of quantum systems on classical computers presents a limitation of current computational approaches. We report, in detail, how a set of pre-computed molecular integrals can be used to explicitly create a quantum circuit, i.e. a sequence of elementary quantum operations, that, when run on a quantum computer, to obtain the energy of a molecular system with xed nuclear geometry using the quantum phase estimation algorithm. We extend several known results related to this idea and discuss the adia- batic state preparation procedure for preparing the input states used in the algorithm. With current and near future quantum devices in mind, we provide a complete example using the hydrogen molecule, of how a chemical Hamiltonian can be simulated using a quantum computer.
We present an efficient quantum algorithm for beyond‐Born–Oppenheimer molecular energy computations. Our approach combines the quantum full configuration interaction method with the nuclear orbital plus molecular orbital method. We give the details of the algorithm and demonstrate its performance by classical simulations. Two isotopomers of the hydrogen molecule (H2, HT) were chosen as representative examples and calculations of the lowest rotationless vibrational transition energies were simulated. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Abstract In this article, the hydrogen molecular ground-state energies using our algorithm based on quantum variational principle are calculated. They are calculated through a simulator since the system of the present study (i.e., the hydrogen molecule) is relatively small and hence the ground-state energies for this molecule are efficiently classically simulable using a simulator. Complete details of this algorithm are elucidated. For this, a full description on the fermions–qubits and the molecular Hamiltonian–qubit Hamiltonian transformations, is given. The authors search for qubit system parameters ( θ 0 {\theta }_{0} and θ 1 {\theta }_{1} ) that yield the minimum energies for the system and also study the ground state energies as a function of the molecular bond length. Proposed circuit is humble and does not include many parameters compared with that of Kandala et al., the authors control only two parameters ( θ 0 {\theta }_{0} and θ 1 {\theta }_{1} ).
Simulations of chemical dynamics are a powerful means for understanding chemistry. However, classical computers struggle to simulate many chemical processes, especially non-adiabatic ones, where the Born-Oppenheimer approximation breaks down. Quantum computers could simulate quantum-chemical dynamics more efficiently than classical computers, but there is currently no complete quantum algorithm for calculating dynamical observables to within a known error. Here, we develop an efficient, end-to-end quantum algorithm for simulating chemical dynamics that avoids all uncontrolled approximations (including the Born-Oppenheimer approximation) and whose error is bounded subject to mild assumptions. To do so, we treat the nuclei and the electrons on an equal footing and simulate the full molecular wavefunction on a momentum-space grid in first quantization, including all algorithmic steps: initial-state preparation, time evolution using qubitization, and measurement of chemical observables such as reaction yields and rates. Our work gives the first algorithm for quantum simulation of chemistry whose end-to-end complexity achieves sublinear scaling in the size of the grid. We achieve this by developing an exponentially faster method for initial-state-preparation. Photochemistry is a likely early application of our algorithm and we estimate resources required for end-to-end simulations of non-adiabatic dynamics of atmospherically important molecules. Classically intractable photochemical computations could be performed using resources comparable to those required for other chemical applications of quantum computing.