CUNQA: a Distributed Quantum Computing emulator for HPC

Abstract: The challenge of scaling quantum computers to gain computational power is expected to lead to architectures with multiple connected quantum processing units (QPUs), commonly referred to as Distributed Quantum Computing (DQC). In parallel, there is a growing momentum toward treating quantum computers as accelerators, integrating them into the heterogeneous architectures of high-performance computing (HPC) environments. This work combines these two foreseeable futures in CUNQA, an open-source DQC emulator designed for HPC environments that allows testing, evaluating and studying DQC in HPC before it even becomes real. It implements the three DQC models of no-communication, classical-communication and quantum-communication; which will be examined in this work. Addressing programming considerations, explaining emulation and simulation details, and delving into the specifics of the implementation will be part of the effort. The well-known Quantum Phase Estimation (QPE) algorithm is used to demonstrate and analyze the emulation of the models. To the best of our knowledge, CUNQA is the first tool designed to emulate the three DQC schemes in an HPC environment.