Classical optimization algorithms for diagonalizing quantum Hamiltonians

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ko, Taehee, Choi, Sangkook, Park, Hyowon, Li, Xiantao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908416253886464
author Ko, Taehee
Choi, Sangkook
Park, Hyowon
Li, Xiantao
author_facet Ko, Taehee
Choi, Sangkook
Park, Hyowon
Li, Xiantao
contents Diagonalizing a Hamiltonian, which is essential for simulating its long-time dynamics, is a key primitive in quantum computing and has been proven to yield a quantum advantage for several specific families of Hamiltonians. Yet, despite its importance, only a handful of diagonalization algorithms exist, and correspondingly few families of fast-forwardable Hamiltonians have been identified. This paper introduces classical optimization algorithms for Hamiltonian diagonalization by formulating a cost function that penalizes off-diagonal terms and enforces unitarity via an orthogonality constraint, both expressed in the Pauli operator basis. We pinpoint a class of Hamiltonians that highlights severe drawbacks of existing methods, including exponential per-iteration cost, exponential circuit depth, or convergence to spurious optima. Our approach overcomes these shortcomings, achieving polynomial-time efficiency while provably avoiding suboptimal points. As a result, we broaden the known realm of fast-forwardable systems, showing that quantum-diagonalizable Hamiltonians extend to cases generated by exponentially large Lie algebras. On the practical side, we also present a randomized-coordinate variant that achieves a more efficient per-iteration cost than the deterministic counterpart. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these algorithms through explicit examples and numerical experiments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_17883
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Classical optimization algorithms for diagonalizing quantum Hamiltonians
Ko, Taehee
Choi, Sangkook
Park, Hyowon
Li, Xiantao
Quantum Physics
Numerical Analysis
Optimization and Control
Diagonalizing a Hamiltonian, which is essential for simulating its long-time dynamics, is a key primitive in quantum computing and has been proven to yield a quantum advantage for several specific families of Hamiltonians. Yet, despite its importance, only a handful of diagonalization algorithms exist, and correspondingly few families of fast-forwardable Hamiltonians have been identified. This paper introduces classical optimization algorithms for Hamiltonian diagonalization by formulating a cost function that penalizes off-diagonal terms and enforces unitarity via an orthogonality constraint, both expressed in the Pauli operator basis. We pinpoint a class of Hamiltonians that highlights severe drawbacks of existing methods, including exponential per-iteration cost, exponential circuit depth, or convergence to spurious optima. Our approach overcomes these shortcomings, achieving polynomial-time efficiency while provably avoiding suboptimal points. As a result, we broaden the known realm of fast-forwardable systems, showing that quantum-diagonalizable Hamiltonians extend to cases generated by exponentially large Lie algebras. On the practical side, we also present a randomized-coordinate variant that achieves a more efficient per-iteration cost than the deterministic counterpart. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these algorithms through explicit examples and numerical experiments.
title Classical optimization algorithms for diagonalizing quantum Hamiltonians
topic Quantum Physics
Numerical Analysis
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17883