Notes on nonlinear quantum algorithms

Abstract

Recenty Abrams and Lloyd have proposed a fast algorithm that is based on a nonlinear evolution of a state of a quantum computer. They have explicitly used the fact that nonlinear evolutions in Hilbert spaces do not conserve scalar products of states, and applied a description of separated systems taken from Weinberg's nonlinear quantum mechanics. On the other hand it is known that violation of orthogonality combined with the Weinberg-type description generates unphysical, arbitrarily fast influences between noninteracting systems. It was not therefore clear whether the algorithm is fast because arbitrarily fast unphysical effects are involved. In these notes I show that this is not the case. I analyze both algorithms proposed by Abrams and Lloyd on concrete, simple models of nonlinear evolution. The description I choose is known to be free of the unphysical influences (therefore it is not the Weinberg one). I show, in particular, that the correct local formalism allows even to simplify the algorithm.