Projected Cooling Algorithm for Quantum Computation

TL;DR

The paper introduces a projected cooling algorithm for quantum computation that efficiently constructs localized ground states in noisy quantum devices, showing significant improvements over existing methods for self-bound systems.

Contribution

It presents a novel projected cooling algorithm that is robust against noise and effective for self-bound quantum systems, with substantial performance improvements.

Findings

Substantial improvement over other methods for localized ground state preparation.

Requires only operations in a volume larger than the localized state.

Applicable to self-bound systems like atomic nuclei.

Abstract

In the current era of noisy quantum devices, there is a need for quantum algorithms that are efficient and robust against noise. Towards this end, we introduce the projected cooling algorithm for quantum computation. The projected cooling algorithm is able to construct the localized ground state of any Hamiltonian with a translationally-invariant kinetic energy and interactions that vanish at large distances. The term "localized" refers to localization in position space. The method can be viewed as the quantum analog of evaporative cooling. We start with an initial state with support over a compact region of a large volume. We then drive the excited quantum states to disperse and measure the remaining portion of the wave function left behind. For the nontrivial examples we consider here, the improvement over other methods is substantial. The only additional resource required is performing the operations in a volume significantly larger than the size of the localized state. These characteristics make the projected cooling algorithm a promising tool for calculations of self-bound systems such as atomic nuclei.