Quantum algorithm for time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation by permutation expansion

Abstract: We present a quantum algorithm for the dynamical simulation of time-dependent Hamiltonians. Our method involves expanding the interaction-picture Hamiltonian as a sum of generalized permutations, which leads to an integral-free Dyson series of the time-evolution operator. Under this representation, we perform a quantum simulation for the time-evolution operator by means of the linear combination of unitaries technique. We optimize the time steps of the evolution based on the Hamiltonian's dynamical characteristics, leading to a gate count that scales with an $L^1$-norm-like scaling with respect only to the norm of the interaction Hamiltonian, rather than that of the total Hamiltonian. We demonstrate that the cost of the algorithm is independent of the Hamiltonian's frequencies, implying its advantage for systems with highly oscillating components, and for time-decaying systems the cost does not scale with the total evolution time asymptotically. In addition, our algorithm retains the near optimal $\log(1/\epsilon)/\log\log(1/\epsilon)$ scaling with simulation error $\epsilon$.