Location: SCL 160
Join Yale Chemistry for an Inorganic Chemistry Seminar with Francesco Evangelista, Professor at Emory University.
Abstract: Despite significant progress in classical quantum chemistry methods, accurate modeling of strongly entangled molecular states remains a computational challenge, especially in bond-breaking processes, excited electronic states, and open-shell species. Quantum computers present a promising solution to this problem, as they can efficiently represent and manipulate entangled quantum states. In this talk, I will discuss the contributions of our research group to the development of quantum algorithms for molecular electronic structure. Specifically, I will discuss the Projective Quantum Eigensolver (PQE), a novel quantum algorithm for trial-state optimization on near-term noisy quantum computers that competes with variational quantum algorithms. Additionally, I will discuss unitary downfolding approaches and illustrate how they help leverage existing quantum hardware and perform accurate quantum computations, demonstrating the reduction of problems that, in principle, require several hundred qubits to a single qubit. These new techniques, in combination with more accurate hardware and a larger number of qubits, will provide a systematic path to predictive simulations of chemical reactivity.
This seminar is generously sponsored by the Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Fund