Qulacs: a fast and versatile quantum circuit simulator for research purpose

• Main Authors: Yasunari Suzuki, Yoshiaki Kawase, Yuya Masumura, Yuria Hiraga, Masahiro Nakadai, Jiabao Chen, Ken M. Nakanishi, Kosuke Mitarai, Ryosuke Imai, Shiro Tamiya, Takahiro Yamamoto, Tennin Yan, Toru Kawakubo, Yuya O. Nakagawa, Yohei Ibe, Youyuan Zhang, Hirotsugu Yamashita, Hikaru Yoshimura, Akihiro Hayashi, Keisuke Fujii
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Verein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften 2021-10-01
• Series: Quantum
• Online Access: https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2021-10-06-559/pdf/

To explore the possibilities of a near-term intermediate-scale quantum algorithm and long-term fault-tolerant quantum computing, a fast and versatile quantum circuit simulator is needed. Here, we introduce Qulacs, a fast simulator for quantum circuits intended for research purpose. We show the main concepts of Qulacs, explain how to use its features via examples, describe numerical techniques to speed-up simulation, and demonstrate its performance with numerical benchmarks.