qlbm – A quantum lattice Boltzmann software framework

Abstract

We present qlbm, a Python software package designed to facilitate the development, simulation, and analysis of Quantum Lattice Boltzmann Methods (QBMs). qlbm is a modular framework that introduces a quantum component abstraction hierarchy tailored to the implementation of novel QBMs. The framework interfaces with state-of-the-art quantum software infrastructure to enable efficient simulation and validation pipelines, and leverages novel execution and pre-processing techniques that significantly reduce the computational resources required to develop quantum circuits. We demonstrate the versatility of the software by showcasing multiple QBMs in 2D and 3D with complex boundary conditions, integrated within automated benchmarking utilities. Accompanying the source code are extensive test suites, thorough online documentation resources, analysis tools, visualization methods, and demos that aim to increase the accessibility of QBMs while encouraging reproducibility and collaboration.

Program summary

Program Title: qlbm

CPC Library link to program files: https://doi.org/10.17632/28hkvsg7p2.1

Developer's repository link: https://github.com/QCFD-Lab/qlbm

Licensing provisions: MPL-2.0

Programming language: Python3

Supplementary material: The documentation of is available at https://qcfd-lab.github.io/qlbm/.

Nature of problem: The advent of quantum algorithms for computational fluid dynamics brings with it challenges that are new to the established field of computational physics. These challenges include the lack of standardized implementations of the still nascent quantum methods, the intense computational demands of developing and simulating quantum algorithms on hardware available today, and the absence of tools that integrate novel developments into established infrastructure. Because of these current limitations, physicists and mathematicians expend superfluous resources on tasks that more mature computational physics branches have surmounted long ago.

Solution method: QLBM is a software package that provides an end-to-end development environment for quantum lattice Boltzmann methods. The modular design and flexible quantum circuit library provide a base for extending and generalizing quantum algorithms. Performance enhancements exploit the paradigm of quantum computing simulations to accelerate the speed at which researchers can verify the validity of their methods. Its integration with state-of-the-art quantum computing software and visualization tools increases the algorithms' accessibility. These features allow QLBM to effectively generate, simulate, and analyze quantum circuits for 2D and 3D computational fluid dynamics problems.