Fast quantum algorithm for differential equations
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Partial differential equations (PDEs) are ubiquitous in science and engineering. Prior quantum algorithms for solving the system of linear algebraic equations obtained from discretizing a PDE have a computational complexity that scales at least linearly with the condition number κ of the matrices involved in the computation. For many practical applications, κ scales polynomially with the size N of the matrices, rendering a polynomial-in-N complexity for these algorithms. Here we present a quantum algorithm with a complexity that is polylogarithmic in N but is independent of κ for a large class of PDEs. Our algorithm generates a quantum state that enables extracting features of the solution. Central to our methodology is using a wavelet basis as an auxiliary system of coordinates in which the condition number of associated matrices is independent of N by a simple diagonal preconditioner. We present numerical simulations showing the effect of the wavelet preconditioner for several differential equations. Our work could provide a practical way to boost the performance of quantum-simulation algorithms where standard methods are used for discretization.
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