Quantum Metropolis sampling

Autor(en)

Kristan Paul Temme, Tobias Osborne, K. G. H Vollbrecht, David Poulin, Frank Verstraete

Abstrakt

The original motivation to build a quantum computer came from Feynman(1), who imagined a machine capable of simulating generic quantum mechanical systems-a task that is believed to be intractable for classical computers. Such a machine could have far-reaching applications in the simulation of many-body quantum physics in condensed-matter, chemical and high-energy systems. Part of Feynman's challenge was met by Lloyd(2), who showed how to approximately decompose the time evolution operator of interacting quantum particles into a short sequence of elementary gates, suitable for operation on a quantum computer. However, this left open the problem of how to simulate the equilibrium and static properties of quantum systems. This requires the preparation of ground and Gibbs states on a quantum computer. For classical systems, this problem is solved by the ubiquitous Metropolis algorithm(3), a method that has basically acquired a monopoly on the simulation of interacting particles. Here we demonstrate how to implement a quantum version of the Metropolis algorithm. This algorithm permits sampling directly from the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian, and thus evades the sign problem present in classical simulations. A small-scale implementation of this algorithm should be achievable with today's technology.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, University of Sherbrooke

Journal

Nature

Band

471

Seiten

87-90

Anzahl der Seiten

4

ISSN

0028-0836

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09770

Publikationsdatum

03-2011

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103025 Quantenmechanik

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/76679c36-c364-4405-99ae-533367f991cc