Quantum spectral methods for differential equations (Q2174656)

In the new and promising realm of quantum computing, the authors formulate and analyze a collocation-type spectral method based on Chebyshev polynomials and Chebyshev-Gauss-Lobatto nodes for solving initial and boundary value problems. The problems are attached to linear systems of differential equations with time-dependent coefficients. The authors provide a quantum algorithm with complexity \(\operatorname{poly}(\log d,\log(1/\varepsilon))\) where \(d\) is the dimension of the system and \(\varepsilon\) stands for solution error. This algorithm seems capable of producing useful information about the final state of the system that cannot be efficiently computed classically. At the end of the paper, relevant comments on some open issues that arise naturally in the context of quantum algorithms are provided.