Quantum computation and the evaluation of tensor networks

Abstract

We present a quantum algorithm that additively approximates the value of a tensor network to a certain scale. When combined with existing results, this provides a complete problem for quantum computation. The result is a simple new way of looking at quantum computation in which unitary gates are replaced by tensors and time is replaced by the order in which the tensor-network is "swallowed". We use this result to derive new quantum algorithms that approximate the partition function of a variety of classical statistical mechanics models, including the Potts model.