Faster Quantum Algorithm to simulate Fermionic Quantum Field Theory

Ali Hamed Moosavian, Stephen Jordan

Published 2017-11-10Version 1

In quantum algorithms discovered so far for simulating scattering processes in quantum field theories, state preparation is the slowest step. We present a new algorithm for preparing particle states to use in simulation of Fermionic Quantum Field Theory (QFT) on a quantum computer, which is based on the matrix product state ansatz. We apply this to the massive Gross-Neveu model in one spatial dimension to illustrate the algorithm, but we believe the same algorithm with slight modifications can be used to simulate any one-dimensional massive Fermionic QFT. In the case where the number of particle species is one, our algorithm can prepare particle states using $O\left( \epsilon^{-3.23\ldots}\right)$ gates, which is much faster than previous known results, namely $O\left(\epsilon^{-8-o\left(1\right)}\right)$. Furthermore, unlike previous methods which were based on adiabatic state preparation, the method given here should be able to simulate quantum phases unconnected to the free theory.