A Compilation Framework for Quantum Simulation of Non-unitary Dynamics
Abstract
Most quantum compilers assume programs are reversible unitary circuits. This fits closed-system algorithms, but not open-system simulation, where the natural program objects are quantum channels describing non-unitary dynamics. We present a channel-first compilation framework that treats channels as first-class compilation objects. Our core IR, ChannelIR, represents channels explicitly in Kraus form, a standard channel representation, with Pauli-sum structure, enabling algebraic rewrites before circuit synthesis. We instantiate the framework with LindFront, a frontend that lowers continuous-time Lindbladian generators to short-time channels, and a backend that compiles these channels to executable circuits with structure-aware optimizations. On Lindbladian and channel-simulation benchmarks, the optimized pipeline reduces gate count by up to 99% over an unoptimized channel-first baseline and scales better than circuit-first Stinespring compilation.
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BibTeX
@misc{huang2026compilation,
title = {{A Compilation Framework for Quantum Simulation of Non-unitary Dynamics}},
author = {Qifan Huang and Minbo Gao and Li Zhou and Mingsheng Ying},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.23358},
eprint = {2605.23358},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23358},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Compilation Framework for Quantum Simulation of Non-unitary Dynamics
AU - Qifan Huang
AU - Minbo Gao
AU - Li Zhou
AU - Mingsheng Ying
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.23358
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23358
AB - Most quantum compilers assume programs are reversible unitary circuits. This fits closed-system algorithms, but not open-system simulation, where the natural program objects are quantum channels describing non-unitary dynamics. We present a channel-first compilation framework that treats channels as first-class compilation objects. Our core IR, ChannelIR, represents channels explicitly in Kraus form, a standard channel representation, with Pauli-sum structure, enabling algebraic rewrites before circuit synthesis. We instantiate the framework with LindFront, a frontend that lowers continuous-time Lindbladian generators to short-time channels, and a backend that compiles these channels to executable circuits with structure-aware optimizations. On Lindbladian and channel-simulation benchmarks, the optimized pipeline reduces gate count by up to 99% over an unoptimized channel-first baseline and scales better than circuit-first Stinespring compilation.
ER -