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Physical Review A

Quantum simulations of hydrodynamics via the Madelung transformation

Julien Zylberman, Giuseppe Di Molfetta, Marc Brächet, Nuno Loureiro, Fabrice Debbasch

Published Sep 7, 2022• 29 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Developing numerical methods to simulate efficiently nonlinear fluid dynamics on universal quantum computers is a challenging problem. In this paper, a generalization of the Madelung transform is defined to solve quantum relativistic charged fluid equations interacting with external electromagnetic forces via the Dirac equation. The Dirac equation is discretized into discrete-time quantum walks which can be efficiently implemented on universal quantum computers. A variant of this algorithm is proposed to implement simulations using current noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) devices in the case of homogeneous external forces. High resolution (up to $N={2}^{17}$ grid points) numerical simulations of relativistic and nonrelativistic hydrodynamical shocks on current IBM NISQs are performed with this algorithm. This paper demonstrates that fluid dynamics can be simulated on NISQs, and opens the door to simulating other fluids, including plasmas, with more general quantum walks and quantum automata.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.106.032408

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Developing numerical methods to simulate efficiently nonlinear fluid dynamics on universal quantum computers is a challenging problem. In this paper, a generalization of the Madelung transform is defined to solve quantum relativistic charged fluid equations interacting with external electromagnetic forces via the Dirac equation. The Dirac equation is discretized into discrete-time quantum walks which can be efficiently implemented on universal quantum computers. A variant of this algorithm is proposed to implement simulations using current noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) devices in the case of homogeneous external forces. High resolution (up to N=217N={2}^{17}N=217 grid points) numerical simulations of relativistic and nonrelativistic hydrodynamical shocks on current IBM NISQs are performed with this algorithm. This paper demonstrates that fluid dynamics can be simulated on NISQs, and opens the door to simulating other fluids, including plasmas, with more general quantum walks and quantum automata.
A new model of nonlinear charged quantum relativistic fluids is presented. This model can be discretized into Discrete Time Quantum Walks (DTQWs), and a new hybrid (quantum-classical) algorithm for implementing these walks on NISQ devices is proposed. High resolution (up to N=217N=2^{17}N=217 grid points) hybrid numerical simulations of relativistic and non-relativistic hydrodynamical shocks on current IBM NISQs are performed with this algorithm and shown to reproduce equivalent simulations on classical computers. This work demonstrates that nonlinear fluid dynamics can be simulated on NISQs, and opens the door to simulating other, quantum and non-quantum fluids, including plasmas, with more general quantum walks and quantum automata.
A simple Discrete-Time Quantum Walk (DTQW) on the line is revisited and given an hydrodynamic interpretation through a novel relativistic generalization of the Madelung transform. Numerical results show that suitable initial conditions indeed produce hydrodynamical shocks and that the coherence achieved in current experiments is robust enough to simulate quantum hydrodynamical phenomena through DTQWs. An analytical computation of the asymptotic quantum shock structure is presented. The non-relativistic limit is explored in the Supplementary Material (SM).
We focus on the electromagnetic fluid dynamics governing plasmas and develop a quantum algorithm for nonlinear partial differential equations. Specifically, we apply Koopman-von Neumann (KvN) linearization to transform the electromagnetic fluid dynamics into a Schrödinger equation. The time evolution of this system is then computed using Hamiltonian simulation via Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT). The proposed quantum algorithm has the potential to significantly reduce computational complexity compared to an ideal classical high-precision scheme, which scales asO(Nx4)O\left(N_{x}^{4}\right)O(Nx4​)whereNxN_{x}Nx​is the number of grid points per direction. By leveraging quantum computation, this complexity is reduced toO(Nxlog⁡Nx)O\left(N_{x} \log N_{x}\right)O(Nx​logNx​)offering a potential advantage in large-scale simulations. To assess the feasibility and performance of quantum computing in plasma simulations, we implement the proposed quantum algorithm and conduct numerical validations. Specifically, we present results for two test cases: one with a linear solution and the other with a nonlinear solution. As a result, the behavior of composite numerical errors arising from discretization, KvN, and QSVT is elucidated, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed quantum algorithm. The novelty of this study lies in the application of a promising quantum algorithm for nonlinear partial differential equations to plasma simulations, along with a concrete numerical evaluation of its computational performance. Furthermore, this work presents a novel direction by identifying a nonlinear, high- degree-of-freedom physical system that can be efficiently solved by a quantum algorithm under theoretical guarantees.
Simulating fluid dynamics on a quantum computer is intrinsically difficult due to the nonlinear and non-Hamiltonian nature of the Navier-Stokes equation (NSE). We propose a framework for quantum computing of fluid dynamics based on the hydrodynamic Schr\"odinger equation (HSE), which can be promising in simulating three-dimensional turbulent flows in various engineering applications. The HSE is derived by generalizing the Madelung transform to compressible or incompressible flows with finite vorticity and dissipation. Since the HSE is expressed as a unitary operator on a two-component wave function, it is more suitable than the NSE for quantum computing. The flow governed by the HSE can resemble a turbulent flow consisting of tangled vortex tubes with the five-thirds scaling of energy spectrum. We develop a prediction-correction quantum algorithm to solve the HSE. This algorithm is implemented for simple flows on the quantum simulator Qiskit with partial exponential speedup.
To predict and simulate plasma phenomena, large-scale computational resources have been employed to develop high-precision, high-resolution plasma simulations. However, multi-scale plasma simulations require computational resources that scale polynomially with the number of spatial grids, posing a significant challenge for large-scale modeling. In this study, we present a quantum algorithm for simulating the nonlinear electromagnetic fluid dynamics systems that govern space plasmas. By applying Koopman–von Neumann (KvN) linearization, we map the nonlinear electromagnetic fluid dynamics systems to a Schrödinger equation and evolve it using Hamiltonian simulation via quantum singular value transformation (QSVT). The resulting algorithm reduces the computational complexity from O(Nx4) scaling of classical finite volume schemes to O(Nx log Nx), where Nx is the number of spatial grid points per dimension. And numerical experiments quantify behaviors of combined errors of discretization, KvN linearization, and QSVT-Hamiltonian simulation. As a practical demonstration, the method accurately reproduces the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, underscoring its capability to tackle intricate nonlinear dynamics. These results suggest that quantum computing can offer a viable pathway to overcome the computational barriers of traditional multiscale plasma modeling.