Simulating molecular properties on noisy quantum processors

Abstract

Near term noisy quantum processors require the development of schemes that will allow one to get meaningful results with limited circuit depths and without the overhead of error correction codes. One of the most established algorithms for noisy intermediate scale quantum computers is the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) that operates in synergy with a classical computer. VQE, in its initial conception, allows one to simulate the ground state energy of a given molecule, and has since been extended to simulate many other molecular properties on a quantum computer, including thermal properties, excited state energies and transition amplitudes. In this talk I will introduce the different components of the VQE algorithm, the corresponding tools developed within the IBM Quantum Information Science kit (Qiskit), and will demo some useful error mitigation techniques for obtaining accurate results on a noisy quantum processor.