A quantum circuit simulator and its applications on Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer

Zhimin Wang,Wendong Li,Zhiqiang Wei,Guoping Guo,Shengbin Wang,Yongjian Gu,Zhaoyun Chen

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-79777-y

Abstract

Classical simulation of quantum computation is vital for verifying quantum devices and assessing quantum algorithms. We present a new quantum circuit simulator developed on the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. Compared with other simulators, the present one is distinguished in two aspects. First, our simulator is more versatile. The simulator consists of three mutually independent parts to compute the full, partial and single amplitudes of a quantum state with different methods. It has the function of emulating the effect of noise and support more kinds of quantum operations. Second, our simulator is of high efficiency. The simulator is designed in a two-level parallel structure to be implemented efficiently on the distributed many-core Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. Random quantum circuits can be simulated with 40, 75 and 200 qubits on the full, partial and single amplitude, respectively. As illustrative applications of the simulator, we present a quantum fast Poisson solver and an algorithm for quantum arithmetic of evaluating transcendental functions. Our simulator is expected to have broader applications in developing quantum algorithms in various fields.

Highlights

Classical simulation of quantum computation is vital for verifying quantum devices and assessing quantum algorithms
As these nascent quantum computers become competitive against classical computers in simulating general quantum circuits, an interesting race come to the climax
We develop a new quantum circuit simulator on the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer

Summary

Introduction

Classical simulation of quantum computation is vital for verifying quantum devices and assessing quantum algorithms. The simulator consists of three mutually independent sub-programs to calculate the full, partial and single amplitudes of a quantum state with three completely different methods. We use at most 16,384 computational nodes, roughly 10% of the computing resource of Sunway TaihuLight, and can simulate a quantum circuit with up to 40 qubits on this mode.

Results

Conclusion