Real-time Sign-Problem-Suppressed Quantum Monte Carlo Algorithm For Noisy Quantum Circuit Simulations

Tong Shen, Daniel A. Lidar

Published: 2025/2/26

Abstract

We present a real-time quantum Monte Carlo algorithm that simulates the dynamics of open quantum systems by stochastically compressing and evolving the density matrix under both Markovian and non-Markovian master equations. Our algorithm uses population dynamics to continuously suppress the sign problem, preventing its accumulation throughout the evolution. We apply it to a variety of quantum circuits and demonstrate significant speedups over state-of-art quantum trajectory methods and convergence to exact solutions even in non-Markovian regimes where trajectory methods fail. Our approach improves the efficiency of classical simulation of gate-based quantum computing, quantum annealing, and general open system dynamics.