Variational algorithms for linear algebra

Authors:
  • XXXiaosi Xu
    Xiaosi Xu
  • JSJinzhao Sun
    Jinzhao Sun
  • SESuguru Endo
    Suguru Endo
  • YLYing Li
    Ying Li
  • SBSimon C. Benjamin
    Simon C. Benjamin
  • XYXiao Yuan
    Xiao Yuan

Abstract
Quantum algorithms have been developed for efficiently solving linear algebra tasks. However they generally require deep circuits and therefore universal fault-tolerant quantum computers. In this work, we propose variational algorithms for linear algebra tasks that are compatible with Noisy Intermediate Scaled Quantum devices. We show that the solutions of linear systems of equations and matrix-vector multiplications can be translated as the ground states of the constructed Hamiltonians. Based on recently proposed variational quantum algorithms, we introduce Hamiltonian morphing together with an adaptive ansatz for efficiently finding the ground state. As the ground state always has zero energy, it also enables us to verify the solution. Our algorithms have wide applications in machine learning and optimisation problems, and the algorithm for matrix multiplications can be also used for variational Hamiltonian simulation. Finally, we conduct numerical simulations of the algorithm for solving linear systems of equations.