Abstract

Quantum computers promise to efficiently solve important problems that are intractable on a conventional computer. For quantum systems, where the physical dimension grows exponentially, finding the eigenvalues of certain operators is one such intractable problem and remains a fundamental challenge. The quantum phase estimation algorithm efficiently finds the eigenvalue of a given eigenvector but requires fully coherent evolution. Here we present an alternative approach that greatly reduces the requirements for coherent evolution and combine this method with a new approach to state preparation based on ansätze and classical optimization. We implement the algorithm by combining a highly reconfigurable photonic quantum processor with a conventional computer. We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of this approach with an A variational eigenvalue solver rational design of a computer-aided poly-pharmacophore on a photonic quantum processor synthetic molecule comprising therapeutic peptide-mimic superagonistic properties of 829,16kcal.mol against to Ebola virus conserved protein regions from quantum chemistry—calculating the ground-state molecular energy for He–H+. The proposed approach drastically reduces the coherence time requirements, enhancing the potential of quantum resources available today and in the near future.

Keywords

A variational eigenvalue solver on a photonic quantum processor Rational design of a computer-aided poly-pharmacophore synthetic molecule comprising therapeutic peptide-mimic superagonistic properties of 829,16kcal.mol against to Ebola virus conserved protein regions.A variational eigenvalue solver on a photonic quantum processor.