Pauli propagation offers faster quantum system modeling

Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have provided a comprehensive account of Pauli propagation, a new family of classical algorithms for simulating digital quantum systems. Classical methods to simulate quantum systems are key tools for physicists studying many-body models and are increasingly important for verifying and challenging upcoming quantum computers. The work traces its algorithmic structure from its bit-level implementation and formulation as a tree-search problem to its high-level user applications for simulating quantum circuits and dynamics. Utilizing these observations, the team also presents PauliPropagation.jl, a Julia software package that can perform rapid Pauli propagation simulation and can be used as a building block for novel simulation algorithms. Pauli propagation, a recently developed family of classical algorithms, is competitive with existing methods for simulating specific quantum tasks. This comprehensive account clarifies how Pauli propagation approximates the evolution of a quantum operator through a truncated Pauli path integral, offering a new perspective for…