Quantum computing software design: Interfacing classical codes

Abstract

In recent years, the use of quantum computers as an accelerator of classical simulation workflows has become a reality. The interface between the quantum computing frameworks with existing classical quantum chemistry software packages is therefore of critical importance. In parallel to the design of more efficient and error resilient quantum algorithms, the development of efficient interfaces between the two types of processors is central to guarantee optimal performance. This raises the question which level of abstraction is needed to ensure a flawless communication by means of an optimized API. Qiskit Nature, as an open source software, bridges this gap between classical and quantum computations by providing an essential toolkit for research and development purposes. In this talk we propose the recently released \texttt{properties} framework as an implementation of the aforementioned interface. We argue, that this classical-code agnostic implementation can become a standard for the definition of parameter exchange protocols and the corresponding data formatting for different quantum computing platforms. This will allow the efficient interface of a plethora of classical codes with Qiskit Nature exposing Qiskit functionalities to the wide computational chemistry and physics communities.