Magic state distillation and gate compilation in quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry

Abstract

Quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry map the dynamics of electrons in a molecule to the dynamics of a coupled spin system. To reach chemical accuracy for interesting molecules, a large number of quantum gates must be applied which implies the need for quantum error correction and fault‐tolerant quantum computation. Arbitrary fault‐tolerant operations can be constructed from a small, universal set of fault‐tolerant operations by gate compilation. Quantum chemistry algorithms are compiled by decomposing the dynamics of the coupled spin‐system using a Trotter formula, synthesizing the decomposed dynamics using Clifford operations and single‐qubit rotations, and finally approximating the single‐qubit rotations by a sequence of fault‐tolerant single‐qubit gates. Certain fault‐tolerant gates rely on the preparation of specific single‐qubit states referred to as magic states. As a result, gate compilation and magic state distillation are critical for solving quantum chemistry problems on a quantum computer. We review recent progress that has improved the efficiency of gate compilation and magic state distillation by orders of magnitude. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Locations

• International Journal of Quantum Chemistry - View - PDF
• arXiv (Cornell University) - View - PDF
• DataCite API - View