Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulas

Abstract In this work we propose an approach for implementing time-evolution of a quantum system using product formulas. The quantum algorithms we develop have provably better scaling (in terms of gate complexity and circuit depth) than a naive application of well-known Trotter formulas, for systems...

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Main Authors: Jan Lukas Bosse, Andrew M. Childs, Charles Derby, Filippo Maria Gambetta, Ashley Montanaro, Raul A. Santos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-03-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57580-5
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author Jan Lukas Bosse
Andrew M. Childs
Charles Derby
Filippo Maria Gambetta
Ashley Montanaro
Raul A. Santos
author_facet Jan Lukas Bosse
Andrew M. Childs
Charles Derby
Filippo Maria Gambetta
Ashley Montanaro
Raul A. Santos
author_sort Jan Lukas Bosse
collection DOAJ
description Abstract In this work we propose an approach for implementing time-evolution of a quantum system using product formulas. The quantum algorithms we develop have provably better scaling (in terms of gate complexity and circuit depth) than a naive application of well-known Trotter formulas, for systems where the evolution is determined by a Hamiltonian with different energy scales (i.e., one part is “large” and another part is “small”). Our algorithms generate a decomposition of the evolution operator into a product of simple unitaries that are directly implementable on a quantum computer. Although the theoretical scaling is suboptimal compared with state-of-the-art algorithms (e.g., quantum signal processing), the performance of the algorithms we propose is highly competitive in practice. We illustrate this via extensive numerical simulations for several models. For instance, in the strong-field regime of the 1D transverse-field Ising model, our algorithms achieve an improvement of one order of magnitude in both the system size and evolution time that can be simulated with a fixed budget of 1000 arbitrary 2-qubit gates, compared with standard Trotter formulas.
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spelling doaj-art-62dfdab3674b481fa0a341667054d8682025-08-20T02:49:27ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-03-0116111110.1038/s41467-025-57580-5Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulasJan Lukas Bosse0Andrew M. Childs1Charles Derby2Filippo Maria Gambetta3Ashley Montanaro4Raul A. Santos5Phasecraft Ltd. 77 Charlotte StreetPhasecraft Ltd. 77 Charlotte StreetPhasecraft Ltd. 77 Charlotte StreetPhasecraft Ltd. 77 Charlotte StreetPhasecraft Ltd. 77 Charlotte StreetPhasecraft Ltd. 77 Charlotte StreetAbstract In this work we propose an approach for implementing time-evolution of a quantum system using product formulas. The quantum algorithms we develop have provably better scaling (in terms of gate complexity and circuit depth) than a naive application of well-known Trotter formulas, for systems where the evolution is determined by a Hamiltonian with different energy scales (i.e., one part is “large” and another part is “small”). Our algorithms generate a decomposition of the evolution operator into a product of simple unitaries that are directly implementable on a quantum computer. Although the theoretical scaling is suboptimal compared with state-of-the-art algorithms (e.g., quantum signal processing), the performance of the algorithms we propose is highly competitive in practice. We illustrate this via extensive numerical simulations for several models. For instance, in the strong-field regime of the 1D transverse-field Ising model, our algorithms achieve an improvement of one order of magnitude in both the system size and evolution time that can be simulated with a fixed budget of 1000 arbitrary 2-qubit gates, compared with standard Trotter formulas.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57580-5
spellingShingle Jan Lukas Bosse
Andrew M. Childs
Charles Derby
Filippo Maria Gambetta
Ashley Montanaro
Raul A. Santos
Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulas
Nature Communications
title Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulas
title_full Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulas
title_fullStr Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulas
title_full_unstemmed Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulas
title_short Efficient and practical Hamiltonian simulation from time-dependent product formulas
title_sort efficient and practical hamiltonian simulation from time dependent product formulas
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57580-5
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