In Situ Upgrade of Quantum Simulators to Universal Computers
Date
January 15, 2018 13:30-15:00
Venue
55N-2F Departments of Physics and Applied Physics Meeting Room, Nishi-Waseda Campus, Waseda University
Lecturer
Daniel BURGARTH (Aberystwyth University)
Language
English
Abstract
Quantum simulators, machines that can replicate the dynamics of quantum systems, are being built as useful devices and are seen as a stepping stone to universal quantum computers. A key difference between the two is the ability to perform the logic gates that make up computational algorithms. We propose a method for learning how to construct these gates efficiently by using the simulator to perform optimal control on itself. This bypasses two major problems of purely classical approaches: the need to have an accurate model of the system, and a classical computer more powerful than the quantum one to carry out the optimisation. For numerical simulations of up to 9 qubits with Ising interactions, this in situ approach scales polynomially in the number of qubits for different topologies suggesting that this is a practical way of upgrading quantum simulators to computers.
