Averaging gate approximation error and performance of Unitary Coupled Cluster ansatz in Pre-FTQC Era (2301.04150v2)

Abstract: Fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC) is essential to implement quantum algorithms in a noise-resilient way, and thus to enjoy advantages of quantum computers even with presence of noise. In FTQC, a quantum circuit is decomposed into universal gates that can be fault-tolerantly implemented, for example, Clifford+$T$ gates. Here, $T$ gate is usually regarded as an essential resource for quantum computation because its action cannot be simulated efficiently on classical computers and it is experimentally difficult to implement fault-tolerantly. Practically, it is highly likely that only a limited number of $T$ gates are available in the near future. Pre-FTQC era, due to the constraint on available resources, it is vital to precisely estimate the decomposition error of a whole circuit. In this paper, we propose that the Clifford+$T$ decomposition error for a given quantum circuit containing a large number of quantum gates can be modeled as the depolarizing noise by averaging the decomposition error for each quantum gate in the circuit, and our model provides more accurate error estimation than the naive estimation. We exemplify this by taking unitary coupled-cluster (UCC) ansatz used in the applications of quantum computers to quantum chemistry as an example. We theoretically evaluate the approximation error of UCC ansatz when decomposed into Clifford+$T$ gates, and the numerical simulation for a wide variety of molecules verified that our model well explains the total decomposition error of the ansatz. Our results enable the precise and efficient usage of quantum resources in the early-stage applications of quantum computers and fuel further research towards what quantum computation can achieve in the upcoming future.