Episode 158

Title: Preparing Input States like in the Lab: Bypassing the Hardness of GroundStates in Simulating Chemical Dynamics on Quantum Computers with Philipp Schleich.

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.09268
Slides:

Abstract: Looking at the complexity of simulating chemistry on quantum computers, there is one thing we do not get around if we don't consider heuristics: Looking for groundstates is hard while simulation itself asymptotically efficient.
In this talk, I will discuss a recent idea to make quantum simulation of chemistry efficient by mimicking lablike experimental conditions. In particular, we propose a statepreparation scheme that avoids the preparation of groundstates or thermal states of systems beyond small atoms, where this is still a feasible step.
A state prepared by such a scattering can then be used as an input to a simulation step. Finally, I will give an outlook how this can be applied to specific application instances.

Bio: I am a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Toronto, supervised by Alán AspuruGuzik. My main research interest is the complexity of simulating physical problems on quantum computers. I mostly focus on simulation problems from chemistry and quantum algorithms for differential equations, where I have had and have the pleasure to work with Dominic Berry and Nathan Wiebe.