Modal analysis on quantum computers via qubitization

Abstract: Natural frequencies and normal modes are basic properties of a structure which play important roles in analyses of its vibrational characteristics. As their computation reduces to solving eigenvalue problems, it is a natural arena for application of quantum phase estimation algorithms, in particular for large systems. In this note, we take up some simple examples of (classical) coupled oscillators and show how the algorithm works by using qubitization methods based on a sparse structure of the matrix. We explicitly construct block-encoding oracles along the way, propose a way to prepare initial states, and briefly touch on a more generic oracle construction for systems with repetitive structure. As a demonstration, we also give rough estimates of the necessary number of physical qubits and actual runtime it takes when carried out on a fault-tolerant quantum computer.