Efficient and noise resilient measurements for quantum chemistry

Abstract

Methods, systems and apparatus for measuring the energy of a quantum chemical system. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining a Hamiltonian describing the chemical system, where the Hamiltonian is expressed in an orthonormal basis; decomposing the Hamiltonian into a sum of terms where each term comprises a respective operator that effects a respective single particle basis rotation, and one or more particle density operators; repeatedly, for each group comprising terms with a same operator that effects a respective single particle basis rotation, measuring expectation values of the terms included in the group, comprising: performing the respective single particle basis rotation on a qubit system encoding a state of the chemical system; and measuring Jordan-Wigner transformations of the one or more particle density operators in the group to obtain a respective measurement result for the group; and determining the energy of the chemical system using the obtained measurement results.