arrow
Return

Critical Limitations in Quantum-Selected Configuration Interaction Methods

delete2025-06-30
delete0
PRE
AI
P
Peter Reinholdt *
K
Karl Michael Ziems
E
Erik Rosendahl Kjellgren
S
Sonia Coriani
S
Stephan P. A. Sauer
J
Jacob Kongsted
DOI:10.1021/acs.jctc.5c00375delete
deleteOriginal
deleteOriginal request for help
deleteShare
deleteSave
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Quantum Selected Configuration Interaction (QSCI) methods (also known as Sample-based Quantum Diagonalization, SQD) have emerged as promising near-term approaches to solving the electronic Schrödinger equation with quantum computers. In this work, we perform numerical analysis to show that QSCI methods face critical limitations that severely hinder their practical applicability in chemistry. Using the nitrogen molecule and the iron–sulfur cluster [2Fe–2S] as examples, we demonstrate that while QSCI can, in principle, yield high-quality configuration interaction (CI) expansions similar to classical SCI heuristics in some cases, the method struggles with inefficiencies in finding new determinants as sampling repeatedly selects already seen configurations. This inefficiency becomes especially pronounced when targeting high-accuracy results or sampling from an approximate ansatz. In cases where the sampling problem is not present, the resulting CI expansions are less compact than those generated from classical heuristics, rendering QSCI an overall more expensive method. Our findings suggest a significant drawback in QSCI methods when sampling from the ground-state distribution as the inescapable trade-off between finding sufficiently many determinants and generating compact, accurate CI expansions. This ultimately hinders utility in quantum chemistry applications, as QSCI falls behind more efficient classical counterparts.
Keywords:
Quantum Selected Configuration Interaction
quantum chemistry
electronic structure
sampling inefficiency
classical heuristics

Journal

Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation cover
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
IF:
5.5
Papers:
1.1W
Citations:
5.4W

Organization

U
University of Copenhagen
Scholars:
7.6W
Papers: 6.6W
Citations: 86
T
technical university of denmark
Scholars:
2.6W
Papers: 2.8W
Citations: 37
U
University of Southern Denmark
Scholars:
2.1W
Papers: 2.0W
Citations: 2.9W
researcher View more organizations