# \`ApproxTimeEvo\` decomposition bug **URL:** \ **Category:** PennyLane Help\ **Created:** [July 11, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/t/approxtimeevo-decomposition-bug/3178 "2023-07-11T22:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Einar\_Gabbassov](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex012/user_avatar/discuss.pennylane.ai/einar_gabbassov/32/576_2.png) [@Einar\_Gabbassov](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/u/Einar_Gabbassov)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/t/approxtimeevo-decomposition-bug/3178/1 "2023-07-11T22:27:48Z")
Dear PennyLane team, Hope all is well. I’m having problems with using `ApproxTimeEvolution`. I would like to simulate a simple Hamiltonian given by HH molecule using `ApproxTimeEvolution` operator. However, the resulting circuit has a number of issues: 1. It seems the circuit contains **both** the operator `ApproxTimeEvolution` and its decomposition. Having just a container `ApproxTimeEvolution` doesn’t make any sense so I attempt to decompose it. However, this produces a weird result (see the figure). 2. When I export the circuit to QASM, the PauliRotation gates are decomposed into CNOTS, and single-qubit rotation. This is undesired behavior as I did not specify that the circuit should be decomposed into single- and two-qubit gates. Here is the code to reproduce the issue: ```auto symbols = ["H", "H"] coordinates = np.array([0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.74137727]) hamiltonian, num_qubits = qchem.molecular_hamiltonian(symbols, coordinates, method="pyscf") print(f"Number of qubits: {num_qubits}") print("Qubit Hamiltonian") print(hamiltonian) wires = range(num_qubits) num_wires = num_qubits dev = qml.device('default.qubit', wires=wires) evolution_time=0.5 trotter_steps=1 @qml.qnode(dev) def circuit(evolution_time): ApproxTimeEvolution(hamiltonian, evolution_time, trotter_steps).decompose() return [qml.expval(qml.PauliZ(wires=i)) for i in wires] specs_func = qml.specs(circuit, expansion_strategy='device') print(specs_func(evolution_time)) fig, ax = qml.draw_mpl(circuit)(evolution_time) ``` Output of `spec_func`: ```auto {'gate_sizes': defaultdict(, {1: 8, 2: 12, 4: 8}), 'gate_types': defaultdict(, {'PauliRot': 28}), 'num_operations': 28, 'num_observables': 4, 'num_diagonalizing_gates': 0, 'num_used_wires': 4, 'depth': 19, 'num_trainable_params': 28, 'num_device_wires': 4, 'device_name': 'default.qubit.autograd', 'expansion_strategy': 'gradient', 'gradient_options': {}, 'interface': 'autograd', 'diff_method': 'best', 'gradient_fn': 'backprop'} ``` Note that there is a wrong number of Pauli rotation gates (twice of what is expected). There should be 14 Pauli rotation gates because there are 14 non-tirival Hamiltonian terms. The drawing of the circuit shows that the circuit contains both the decomposition and the original ApproxTimeEvo operator which is also incorrect. ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex012/uploads/pennylane/original/2X/d/d453281fe61f8dc75a85f3be2f2b227f0b5ebe7b.png) ```auto Name: PennyLane Version: 0.28.0 Summary: PennyLane is a Python quantum machine learning library by Xanadu Inc. Home-page: https://github.com/XanaduAI/pennylane Author: Author-email: License: Apache License 2.0 Requires: appdirs, autograd, autoray, cachetools, networkx, numpy, pennylane-lightning, requests, retworkx, scipy, semantic-version, toml Required-by: PennyLane-Lightning Platform info: Linux-5.19.0-46-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35 Python version: 3.10.6 Numpy version: 1.23.5 Scipy version: 1.10.0 ``` Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![isaacdevlugt](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex012/user_avatar/discuss.pennylane.ai/isaacdevlugt/32/1159_2.png) [@isaacdevlugt](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/u/isaacdevlugt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 2:55pm UTC](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/t/approxtimeevo-decomposition-bug/3178/2 "2023-07-12T14:55:59Z")
Hey @Einar_Gabbassov! Welcome back 😃 You’re a few versions behind. We’re currently on v0.31 🙂. That said, I don’t think your issue has anything to do with the v0.28 of pennylane, it all has to do with how operators / gates are “placed” in a circuit under the hood. The long and short of it is that **anytime an operator/gate is instantiated inside of a QNode, it gets placed in the circuit**. So, when you do `ApproxTimeEvolution(hamiltonian, evolution_time, trotter_steps).decompose()`, two things are happening: 1. An instance of `ApproxTimeEvolution` is instantiated 2. All of the operators in its decomposition are instantiated as well That’s why both `ApproxTimeEvolution` and the elements of its decomposition show up in your circuit 🙂. What you want to do is the following: ```auto coeffs_and_time = [*hamiltonian.coeffs, evolution_time] @qml.qnode(dev) def circuit(evolution_time): qml.ApproxTimeEvolution.compute_decomposition(*coeffs_and_time, wires=wires, n=trotter_steps, hamiltonian=hamiltonian) return [qml.expval(qml.PauliZ(wires=i)) for i in wires] specs_func = qml.specs(circuit, expansion_strategy='device') print(specs_func(evolution_time)) fig, ax = qml.draw_mpl(circuit)(evolution_time) ``` ![Screenshot 2023-07-12 at 10.55.22 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex012/uploads/pennylane/original/2X/1/17553c9e3c3c4237145f774985e704240d1219b7.png) This way, only its decomposition elements are instantiated, since `compute_decomposition` is a static method. ---
**Author:** ![Einar\_Gabbassov](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex012/user_avatar/discuss.pennylane.ai/einar_gabbassov/32/576_2.png) [@Einar\_Gabbassov](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/u/Einar_Gabbassov)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/t/approxtimeevo-decomposition-bug/3178/3 "2023-07-12T16:03:11Z")
Hi @isaacdevlugt, Thanks for the reply! It’s been a while since I used PennyLane, but it’s always good to use domestic products 🙂. I might update to a newer version at some point. I have a minor comment. Why does `compute_decomposition()` takes both `coeffs_and_time` and `hamiltonian`? Seems a bit redundant as both variables contain coefficients. Aside that, all seems to work now. However, my second issue is still pending. Getting the right circuit is only half of the job. Now, I need to export the PennyLane circuit **as is** into QASM. Right now, the circuit is broken down into 1- and 2-qubit gates. ```auto qasm_string = circuit.qtape.to_openqasm() print(qasm_string) ``` The output is: ```auto OPENQASM 2.0; include "qelib1.inc"; qreg q[4]; creg c[4]; rz(0.23702219030799287) q[0]; rz(0.23702219030799287) q[1]; rz(-0.4605771375540184) q[2]; rz(-0.4605771375540184) q[3]; cx q[1],q[0]; rz(0.18453162325559797) q[0]; cx q[1],q[0]; rx(1.5707963267948966) q[0]; h q[1]; h q[2]; ... ``` The command `qasm_string = circuit.qtape.to_openqasm()` was kindly recommended to me by someone from PennyLane team. Otherwise, I would never figure out how to export to QASM 😃 ---
**Author:** ![isaacdevlugt](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex012/user_avatar/discuss.pennylane.ai/isaacdevlugt/32/1159_2.png) [@isaacdevlugt](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/u/isaacdevlugt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 5:46pm UTC](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/t/approxtimeevo-decomposition-bug/3178/4 "2023-07-12T17:46:01Z")
We haven’t really updated the openqasm method in quite some time, and its still openqasm2, not 3. So it has a fairly limited gate set. It’s on the list of things we want to improve on 😁 ---
**Author:** ![isaacdevlugt](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex012/user_avatar/discuss.pennylane.ai/isaacdevlugt/32/1159_2.png) [@isaacdevlugt](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/u/isaacdevlugt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2023, 1:08pm UTC](https://discuss.pennylane.ai/t/approxtimeevo-decomposition-bug/3178/5 "2023-07-13T13:08:40Z")
FYI: I made a PR to make the relevant docstrings more clear > > > \*\*Context:\*\* > > The docstring of \`compute\_decomposition\` for \`ApproxTimeEvolutio…n\` is slightly misleading with the \`coeffs\_and\_time\` argument. > > \*\*Description of the Change:\*\* > > Adds an example to the docstring to clear things up. > > \*\*Related GitHub Issues:\*\* > > https://discuss.pennylane.ai/t/approxtimeevo-decomposition-bug/3178/2