QDev Seminar: Dave Wecker

Quantum Chemistry by Quantum Simulation
Dave Wecker, QuArC Chief Architect, Microsoft Research
 
This talk is an overview of two recent papers on performing quantum chemistry with small quantum computers. With machines on the scale of a couple hundred logical qubits on the horizon, the question arises on how best to put them to use. One potential area is the simulation of quantum systems (as originally proposed by Feynman). Quantum chemistry is a potentially interesting area, since the mapping to a quantum computer is relatively straight forward, while the ability to classically simulate these systems is intractable above a very small size threshold. This talk provides an introduction to the problem, how it maps to a quantum algorithm and where the main pitfalls lie (execution time necessary to achieve a desired level of accuracy). After laying out the problem we will explore several major improvements as well as ongoing research to further reduce the computation times massively.
 
The background papers for the talk are:
          “Can quantum chemistry be performed on a small quantum computer” http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.1695
          “Improving Quantum Algorithms for Quantum Chemistry” http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.1539