Nonlinear differential equations underlie many scientific fields, yet classical solvers scale poorly with increasing resolution. Quantum linear systems algorithms (QLSAs), such as Harrow-Hassidim-Lloyd (HHL), can offer asymptotic advantages for sparse, well-conditioned linear systems. However, they do not directly treat nonlinear dynamics. We study two linearization techniques—Carleman linearization and Liouville linearization—as preprocessors for prospective QLSA use. We assess the stability of the linearization step on two models with bounded phase spaces and single- or multi-attractor dynamics. Carleman linearization tracks single trajectories until truncation error dominates. The Liouville ensemble formulation, especially with narrow initial distributions, captures multi-basin splitting and trajectory statistics while providing built-in uncertainty quantification. These results suggest that Liouville may offer broader practical applicability as a QLSA preprocessor, particularly in regimes not covered by existing efficiency guarantees for Carleman linearization.
Nonlinear differential equations underlie many scientific fields, yet classical solvers scale poorly with increasing resolution. Quantum linear systems algorithms (QLSAs), such as Harrow-Hassidim-Lloyd (HHL), can offer asymptotic advantages for sparse, well-conditioned linear systems. However, they do not directly treat nonlinear dynamics. We study two linearization techniques—Carleman linearization and Liouville linearization—as preprocessors for prospective QLSA use. We assess the stability of the linearization step on two models with bounded phase spaces and single- or multi-attractor dynamics. Carleman linearization tracks single trajectories until truncation error dominates. The Liouville ensemble formulation, especially with narrow initial distributions, captures multi-basin splitting and trajectory statistics while providing built-in uncertainty quantification. These results suggest that Liouville may offer broader practical applicability as a QLSA preprocessor, particularly in regimes not covered by existing efficiency guarantees for Carleman linearization.
We develop a pivot-shifted Carleman linearization framework for quantum algorithms solving quadratic nonlinear ordinary differential equations. By shifting the dynamics by a pivot state prior to Carleman lifting, and combining this with a Lyapunov transform and rescaling, we enlarge the class of nonlinear systems that can be efficiently simulated on quantum computers. For systems that exhibit stability in the shifted coordinates, we establish long time convergence of the truncated Carleman embedding. We prove that the truncation order scales only logarithmically with the simulation time and target precision, and we derive end-to-end quantum query complexity bounds for preparing a state proportional to the final solution. By introducing a modified nonlinearity condition, this framework entirely removes the conventional lower bound requirement on the initial condition. For more general systems that remain unstable after shifting, we provide short time convergence guarantees that are similarly free from the initial condition constraints. Numerical experiments on the logistic and the Lotka-Volterra equations demonstrate that an appropriate pivot choice improves stability and accuracy, and yields exponential error decay with truncation order. These results show that pivot shifting provides a practical and theoretically justified route for extending Carleman-based quantum algorithms to a broader class of nonlinear dynamical systems.
We present an efficient quantum algorithm to simulate nonlinear differential equations with polynomial vector fields of arbitrary degree on quantum platforms. Models of physical systems that are governed by ordinary differential equations (ODEs) or partial differential equation (PDEs) can be challenging to solve on classical computers due to high dimensionality, stiffness, nonlinearities, and sensitive dependence to initial conditions. For sparse n-dimensional linear ODEs, quantum algorithms have been developed which can produce a quantum state proportional to the solution in poly(log(nx)) time using the quantum linear systems algorithm (QLSA). Recently, this framework was extended to systems of nonlinear ODEs with quadratic polynomial vector fields by applying Carleman linearization that enables the embedding of the quadratic system into an approximate linear form. A detailed complexity analysis was conducted which showed significant computational advantage under certain conditions. We present an extension of this algorithm to deal with systems of nonlinear ODEs with k-th degree polynomial vector fields for arbitrary (finite) values of k. The steps involve: 1) mapping the k-th degree polynomial ODE to a higher dimensional quadratic polynomial ODE; 2) applying Carleman linearization to transform the quadratic ODE to an infinite-dimensional system of linear ODEs; 3) truncating and discretizing the linear ODE and solving using the forward Euler method and QLSA. Alternatively, one could apply Carleman linearization directly to the k-th degree polynomial ODE, resulting in a system of infinite-dimensional linear ODEs, and then apply step 3. This solution route can be computationally more efficient. We present detailed complexity analysis of the proposed algorithms, prove polynomial scaling of runtime on k and demonstrate the framework on an example.
Abstract The Harrow, Hassidim, Lloyd (HHL) algorithm is a quantum algorithm expected to accelerate solving large-scale linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). To apply the HHL to non-linear problems such as chemical reactions, the system must be linearized. In this study, Carleman linearization was utilized to transform nonlinear first-order ODEs of chemical reactions into linear ODEs. Although this linearization theoretically requires the generation of an infinite matrix, the original nonlinear equations can be reconstructed. For the practical use, the linearized system should be truncated with finite size and analysis precision can be determined by the extent of the truncation. Matrix should be sufficiently large so that the precision is satisfied because quantum computers can treat. Our method was applied to a one-variable nonlinear system to investigate the effect of truncation orders in Carleman linearization and time step size on the absolute error. Subsequently, two zero-dimensional homogeneous ignition problems for H2–air and CH4–air gas mixtures were solved. The results revealed that the proposed method could accurately reproduce reference data. Furthermore, an increase in the truncation order in Carleman linearization improved accuracy even with a large time-step size. Thus, our approach can provide accurate numerical simulations rapidly for complex combustion systems.
Addressing nonlinear numerical problems in quantum computing remains challenging, but several approaches, including Carleman linearization (CL), have been proposed to construct quantum algorithms for such problems. In this work, we develop a CL-based method for a high-dimensional nonlinear stochastic differential equation (SDE) dXt=(A(t)Xt+F(t)Xt⊗s)dt+B(t)dWt for an RN-valued random process Xt, aiming at quantum speed-up with respect to the dimension N. We introduce auxiliary processes Ytj that approximate Xt⊗j, derive a linearized system of SDEs for them, and obtain the linear ordinary differential equation (ODE) governing their expectations. We then apply a quantum ODE solver to it and, from the resulting quantum state, extract an estimate for the expectation of a linear function of Xt by overlap estimation. We show that, provided the nonlinear and noise terms in the SDE are sufficiently small relative to the linear term, the CL error decreases exponentially with the truncation order J in CL, and we can estimate the target expectation with a polylog(N) number of queries to unitaries encoding coefficient matrices A, F, and B. Finally, we also run a numerical demonstration for an SDE related to Langevin dynamics, observing the exponential decay of the CL error as J increases.
Abstract. In this paper, we explore the embedding of nonlinear dynamical systems into linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) via the Carleman linearization method. Under strong dissipative conditions, numerous previous works have established rigorous error bounds and linear convergence for Carleman linearization, which have facilitated the identification of quantum advantages in simulating large-scale dynamical systems. Our analysis extends these findings by exploring error bounds beyond the traditional dissipative condition, thereby broadening the scope of quantum computational benefits to a new class of dynamical regimes. This novel regime is defined by a resonance condition, and we prove how this resonance condition leads to a linear convergence with respect to the truncation level [Formula: see text] in Carleman linearization. We support our theoretical advancements with numerical experiments on a variety of models, including the Burgers’ equation, Fermi–Pasta–Ulam (FPU) chains, and the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equations, to validate our analysis and demonstrate the practical implications.
We present hybrid quantum-classical pipelines for solving the Duffing equation that leverage Carleman linearization and the Variational Quantum Linear Solver (VQLS). First, we demonstrate that Carleman linearization accurately approximates the weakly nonlinear Duffing equation, with errors diminishing as the truncation order increases. Next, across IBM and Xanadu platforms, we deploy VQLS with symmetry-grouped Hadamard Test evaluations under both global and local cost formulations, compare distinct Hermitianization within a common cost framework, and benchmark hardware-efficient ansatz architectures under a fixed Hermitianization. Across block-banded test cases, each method achieves near-unity fidelity and vanishing relative residuals. These results show that topology-agnostic ansatz, optimized Hermitianization, and efficient cost formulation enable VQLS to recover quantum states proportional to classical solutions for Carleman-structured systems, providing a portable recipe for quantum-in-the-loop simulation of nonlinear dynamics.