Optimizing qubit resources for quantum chemistry simulations in second quantization on a quantum computer

Abstract

Quantum chemistry simulations on a quantum computer suffer from the overhead needed for encoding the Fermionic problem in a system of qubits. By exploiting the block diagonality of a Fermionic Hamiltonian, we show that the number of required qubits can be reduced while the number of terms in the Hamiltonian will increase. All operations for this reduction can be performed in operator space. The scheme is conceived as a pre-computational step that would be performed prior to the actual quantum simulation. We apply this scheme to reduce the number of qubits necessary to simulate both the Hamiltonian of the two-site Fermi–Hubbard model and the hydrogen molecule. Both quantum systems can then be simulated with a two-qubit quantum computer. Despite the increase in the number of Hamiltonian terms, the scheme still remains a useful tool to reduce the dimensionality of specific quantum systems for quantum simulators with a limited number of resources.