Prof. Alexei Kitaev

California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125

Representing continuous wavefunctions on a digital quantum computer

In a classical computer, a real number $x$ is approximated by a number of the form $2^{-n}j$, where $j$ is an integer stored as binary. A quantum analog of that is the replacement of a continuous wavefunction $\psi(x)$ by a discrete function $\xi(j)$. However, using this representation presents a fundamental difficulty: some natural operations, such as wavepacket squeezing, become nonunitary. To deal with issue, I will introduce a technique called "quantum resampling". Multidimensional resampling involves the preparation of Gaussian states.

Seminar schedule: http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/qcg/Seminars.html