Quantum Algorithm for Linear Systems of Equations

Solving linear systems of equations is a common problem that arises both on its own and as a subroutine in more complex problems: given a matrix $A$ and a vector $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{b}$, find a vector $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}$ such that $A\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}=\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{b}$. We consider the case where one does not need to know the solution $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}$ itself, but rather an approximation of the expectation value of some operator associated with $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}$, e.g., ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}M\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}$ for some matrix $M$. In this case, when $A$ is sparse, $N\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}N$ and has condition number $\ensuremath{\kappa}$, the fastest known classical algorithms can find $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}$ and estimate ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}M\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}$ in time scaling roughly as $N\sqrt{\ensuremath{\kappa}}$. Here, we exhibit a quantum algorithm for estimating ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}M\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{x}$ whose runtime is a polynomial of $\mathrm{log}(N)$ and $\ensuremath{\kappa}$. Indeed, for small values of $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ [i.e., $\mathrm{poly}\mathrm{log}(N)$], we prove (using some common complexity-theoretic assumptions) that any classical algorithm for this problem generically requires exponentially more time than our quantum algorithm.