2020/09/30 by Yifei Huang, Peter J. Love, Peter Love
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Algorithm #Applied mathematics #Artificial intelligence #Computer science #Feynman diagram #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques #Path (computing) #Path integral formulation #Physics #Projector #Quantum #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum circuit #Quantum computer #Quantum error correction #Quantum mechanics #Recursion (computer science) #Type (biology) #Unitary state #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.103.022428
published as Phys. Rev. A 103, 022428 (2021)
openalex created_date 2020/09/21 · arxiv created 2021/02/19 · openalex publication_date 2021/02/25 · arxiv updated 2021/03/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We propose a classical simulation method for quantum circuits based on decomposing unitary gates into a sum of stabilizer projectors. By only decomposing the non-Clifford gates, we take advantage of the Gottesman-Knill theorem and build a bridge between stabilizer-based simulation and Feynman-path-type simulation. We give two variants of this method: stabilizer-based path-integral recursion (SPIR) and stabilizer projector contraction (SPC). We also analyze further advantages and disadvantages of our method compared to the Bravyi-Gosset algorithm and recursive Feynman path-integral algorithms. We construct a parametrized circuit ensemble and identify the parameter regime in this ensemble where our method offers superior performance. We also estimate the time cost for simulating quantum supremacy experiments with our method and motivate potential improvements of the method.