Hybrid Quantum-Classical Eigensolver Without Variation or Parametric Gates

Abstract: The use of near-term quantum devices that lack quantum error correction, for addressing quantum chemistry and physics problems, requires hybrid quantum-classical algorithms and techniques. Here we present a process for obtaining the eigenenergy spectrum of electronic quantum systems. This is achieved by projecting the Hamiltonian of a quantum system onto a limited effective Hilbert space specified by a set of computational bases. From this projection an effective Hamiltonian is obtained. Furthermore, a process for preparing short depth quantum circuits to measure the corresponding diagonal and off-diagonal terms of the effective Hamiltonian is given, whereby quantum entanglement and ancilla qubits are used. The effective Hamiltonian is then diagonalized on a classical computer using numerical algorithms to obtain the eigenvalues. The use case of this approach is demonstrated for ground sate and excited states of BeH$_2$ and LiH molecules, and the density of states, which agrees well with exact solutions. Additionally, hardware demonstration is presented using IBM quantum devices for H$_2$ molecule.