Hybrid Quantum-Classical Algorithm for Hamiltonian Simulation

TL;DR

This paper presents a hybrid classical-quantum algorithm for Hamiltonian simulation that diagonalizes operators classically and then uses quantum procedures to simulate evolution, expanding quantum simulation capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid framework combining classical diagonalization with quantum block-encoding for Hamiltonian simulation, including variants and efficiency analysis.

Findings

The algorithm can simulate Hamiltonians with pairwise commuting operators.

It extends to time-dependent coefficients in certain cases.

Comparison shows advantages over existing quantum simulation algorithms.

Abstract

We introduce a hybrid classical-quantum algorithm for simulating a Hamiltonian of the form $H= \sum_{i=1}^K H_i = \sum_{i=1}^K H_{i_1} \otimes H_{i_2} \otimes \cdots \otimes H_{i_M}$. Given that the entries of all $\{ H_{i_1}, H_{i_2} , \cdots , H_{i_M}\}$ (for all $i$) are classically known, we present a procedure (with three variants) in which these operators are classically diagonalized, and then this information is fed into three possible quantum procedures to obtain the block-encoding of $H$. The evolution operator $\exp(-iHt)$ is then obtained using the standard block-encoding/quantum singular value transformation framework. In the case where $\{H_i\}_{i=1}^K$ commute pairwise, our method can be trivially extended to the case with time-dependent coefficients. We provide a detailed discussion of the efficient regime of our hybrid framework and compare it with existing quantum simulation algorithms. Our algorithm can serve as a useful complement to existing quantum simulation algorithms, thereby expanding the reach of quantum computers for practically simulating physical systems. As a side contribution, we will show how the recent technique called \textit{randomized truncation to a quantum state} developed by Harrow, Lowe, and Witteveen [arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.08518, 2025] can be applied to the context of quantum simulation and particularly quantum state preparation, for which the latter can be of independent interest.