Quantum Hamiltonian simulation, which simulates the evolution of quantum systems and probes quantum phenomena, is one of the most promising applications of quantum computing. Recent experimental results suggest that Hamiltonian-oriented analog quantum simulation would be advantageous over circuit-oriented digital quantum simulation in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) machine era. However, programming analog quantum simulators is much more challenging due to the lack of a unified interface between hardware and software. In this paper, we design and implement SimuQ, the first domain-specific language for quantum Hamiltonian simulation that supports pulse-level compilation to heterogeneous analog quantum simulators. Specifically, in SimuQ, front-end users specify the target quantum system with Hamiltonian Modeling Language, and the Hamiltonian-level programmability of analog quantum simulators is specified through a new abstraction called the abstract analog instruction set (AAIS) and programmed in AAIS Specification Language by hardware providers. Through a solver-based compilation, SimuQ generates executable pulse schedules for real devices to simulate the evolution of desired quantum systems, which is demonstrated on superconducting (IBM), neutral-atom (QuEra), and trapped-ion (IonQ) quantum devices. Moreover, we demonstrate the advantages of exposing the Hamiltonian-level programmability of devices with native operations or interaction-based gates and establish a small benchmark of quantum simulation to evaluate SimuQ's compiler with the above analog quantum simulators.

翻译：量子哈密顿量模拟通过模拟量子系统的演化并探测量子现象，是量子计算最具前景的应用之一。近期实验结果表明，在含噪中等规模量子（NISQ）机器时代，面向哈密顿量的模拟量子模拟将优于基于电路的数字化量子模拟。然而，由于缺乏硬件与软件之间的统一接口，模拟量子模拟器的编程更具挑战性。本文设计并实现了SimuQ——首个支持脉冲级编译至异构模拟量子模拟器的量子哈密顿量模拟领域专用语言。具体而言，在前端用户通过哈密顿量建模语言指定目标量子系统，而模拟量子模拟器的哈密顿量级可编程性通过一种名为抽象模拟指令集（AAIS）的新抽象层进行规范，并由硬件供应商使用AAIS规范语言进行编程。通过基于求解器的编译，SimuQ为真实设备生成可执行的脉冲调度，以模拟目标量子系统的演化，该过程已在超导（IBM）、中性原子（QuEra）和离子阱（IonQ）量子设备上得到验证。此外，我们展示了通过原生操作或基于相互作用的门暴露设备哈密顿量级可编程性的优势，并建立了量子模拟的小型基准测试，以评估SimuQ编译器与上述模拟量子模拟器的协作性能。