ScaleQC: A Scalable Framework for Hybrid Computation on Quantum and Classical Processors

Abstract: Quantum processing unit (QPU) has to satisfy highly demanding quantity and quality requirements on its qubits to produce accurate results for problems at useful scales. Furthermore, classical simulations of quantum circuits generally do not scale. Instead, quantum circuit cutting techniques cut and distribute a large quantum circuit into multiple smaller subcircuits feasible for less powerful QPUs. However, the classical post-processing incurred from the cutting introduces runtime and memory bottlenecks. Our tool, called ScaleQC, addresses the bottlenecks by developing novel algorithmic techniques including (1) a quantum states merging framework that quickly locates the solution states of large quantum circuits; (2) an automatic solver that cuts complex quantum circuits to fit on less powerful QPUs; and (3) a tensor network based post-processing that minimizes the classical overhead. Our experiments demonstrate both QPU requirement advantages over the purely quantum platforms, and runtime advantages over the purely classical platforms for benchmarks up to 1000 qubits.