A comparison of HPC-based quantum computing simulators using Quantum Volume

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the performance of HPC-based quantum simulators using the Quantum Volume benchmark, providing insights into their efficiency and the feasibility of quantum algorithm testing on high-performance computing systems.

Contribution

It offers a comparative analysis of quantum simulators on HPC systems using Quantum Volume, including performance results and an overview of simulation tools and benchmarking methods.

Findings

Simulators vary significantly in simulation time for the same Quantum Volume

The study highlights the importance of simulator choice for quantum algorithm development

Provides insights into the current state and challenges of quantum simulation on HPC

Abstract

This paper compares quantum computing simulators running on a single CPU or GPU-based HPC node using the Quantum Volume benchmark commonly proposed for comparing NISQ systems. As simulators do not suffer from noise, the metric used in the comparison is the time required to simulate a set Quantum Volume. The results are important to estimate the feasibility of proof of concept studies and debugging of quantum algorithms on HPC systems. Besides benchmarks of some commonly used simulators, this paper also offers an overview of their main features, a review of the state of quantum computing simulation and quantum computing benchmarking, and some insight into the theory of Quantum Volume.