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Main Authors: Schade, Malte, Boesch, Cyrill, Hapla, Vaclav, Fichtner, Andreas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.14747
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author Schade, Malte
Boesch, Cyrill
Hapla, Vaclav
Fichtner, Andreas
author_facet Schade, Malte
Boesch, Cyrill
Hapla, Vaclav
Fichtner, Andreas
contents Quantum computing has attracted considerable attention in recent years because it promises speed-ups that conventional supercomputers cannot offer, at least for some applications. Though existing quantum computers are, in most cases, still too small to solve significant problems, their future impact on domain sciences is already being explored now. Within this context, we present a quantum computing concept for 1-D elastic wave propagation in heterogeneous media with two components: a theoretical formulation and an implementation on a real quantum computer. The method rests on a finite-difference approximation, followed by a sparsity-preserving transformation of the discrete elastic wave equation to a Schrödinger equation, which can be simulated directly on a gate-based quantum computer. An implementation on an error-free quantum simulator verifies our approach and forms the basis of numerical experiments with small problems on the real quantum computer IBM Brisbane. The latter produce simulation results that qualitatively agree with the error-free version but are contaminated by quantum decoherence and noise effects. Complementing the discrete transformation to the Schrödinger equation by a continuous version allows the replacement of finite differences by other spatial discretisation schemes, such as the spectral-element method. Anticipating the emergence of error-corrected quantum chips, an analogy between our method and analyses of coupled mass-spring systems suggests that our quantum computing approach may lead to wave field simulations that run exponentially faster than simulations on classical computers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_14747
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A quantum computing concept for 1-D elastic wave simulation with exponential speedup
Schade, Malte
Boesch, Cyrill
Hapla, Vaclav
Fichtner, Andreas
Geophysics
Quantum Physics
Quantum computing has attracted considerable attention in recent years because it promises speed-ups that conventional supercomputers cannot offer, at least for some applications. Though existing quantum computers are, in most cases, still too small to solve significant problems, their future impact on domain sciences is already being explored now. Within this context, we present a quantum computing concept for 1-D elastic wave propagation in heterogeneous media with two components: a theoretical formulation and an implementation on a real quantum computer. The method rests on a finite-difference approximation, followed by a sparsity-preserving transformation of the discrete elastic wave equation to a Schrödinger equation, which can be simulated directly on a gate-based quantum computer. An implementation on an error-free quantum simulator verifies our approach and forms the basis of numerical experiments with small problems on the real quantum computer IBM Brisbane. The latter produce simulation results that qualitatively agree with the error-free version but are contaminated by quantum decoherence and noise effects. Complementing the discrete transformation to the Schrödinger equation by a continuous version allows the replacement of finite differences by other spatial discretisation schemes, such as the spectral-element method. Anticipating the emergence of error-corrected quantum chips, an analogy between our method and analyses of coupled mass-spring systems suggests that our quantum computing approach may lead to wave field simulations that run exponentially faster than simulations on classical computers.
title A quantum computing concept for 1-D elastic wave simulation with exponential speedup
topic Geophysics
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.14747