A New Gold Standard: Invoking Perturbation Theory

Abstract: In this talk, Dr. Claudino will discuss recent developments that alleviate some of the drawbacks that plague quantum simulations of chemistry in NISQ devices. The unitary coupled cluster ansatz (UCC) is ubiquitous in studies involving the variational quantum eigensolver ansatz, the quintessential algorithm in such simulations. However, the low-rank approximation to the ground state that the UCC ansatz affords in NISQ devices is not always accurate. However, this accuracy can be significantly improved by invoking similar arguments to those that elevated coupled cluster theory to be referred to as the "gold standard" of quantum chemistry. We show how many-body perturbation theory can help improve the energetics of a number of molecules, with no further burden to the quantum computer.
Bio: Daniel Claudino is a Research Scientist in the Quantum Computational Science Group in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and also affiliated with the Quantum Science Center, one of the five National QIS Research Centers. His main interests lie in quantum simulation, with focus on quantum chemistry, and various aspects of quantum software, spanning simulators, frameworks, compilers, programming languages, and integration with high-performance computing. He is among the lead developers of the XACC quantum software framework and the QCOR quantum compiler.

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