Pauli propagation: A computational framework for simulating quantum circuits

by Mr Manuel Rudolph (EPFL)

Wednesday 25 Feb 2026, 10:00 → 11:00 Europe/Zurich

OSGA/EG6ab

Simulating quantum circuits classically is in general a hard task. However, certain families of quantum circuits may be practically or even provably efficiently simulable by use of specialized classical algorithms. In this talk, we will cover a recent simulation method called "Pauli propagation". It is a general-purpose circuit simulation framework which has been shown to enable efficient classical simulation of expectation values in noisy quantum circuits and a wide range of noise-free quantum circuits. We will cover practical strengths and weaknesses of this framework, as well as a variety of applications including simulating unitary and noisy quantum dynamics, compressing quantum circuits, and preparing thermal states.