Could you please guide me to a blog entry or article where it is elaborated that how we can simulate GBS efficiently now? I have been using Strawberry fields and learnt GBS in that only. Now, I see MrMustard as a new (supposedly better) contender for carrying out simulations. I would also like to know how I can run the simulations on GPUs if needed as applications of GBS like graph calculations may need a large circuit where GBS is only a small component wrapped around a bigger graph optimization problem.
Hi @Prabhat_Kumar .
Unfortunately GBS doesn’t seem to be useful for any practical application, including optimization.
If you’re interested in MrMustard I recommend that you check out the basic API reference. It can give you insights on what MrMustard can do and how to use it. As far as I know, GBS cannot be efficiently simulated in a classical computer, and MrMustard isn’t designed for this. If you’re generally interested in simulating photonic circuits then MrMustard can help you.
I hope this answers your questions!
Thank you for the reply,
Could you please elaborate why? Is it because of current immature hardware or some other new results?
Because Introduction to GBS — Strawberry Fields seems to imply that it may help us in getting some advantage. I was also motivated by the following article 2402.03524.
Also, in the SF webpage, I found TheWalrus as well where I can do few calculations that are needed in GBS, giving me another option. Could you guide me towards some reference where the differences (Between StrawberryFields, MrMustard and thewalrus) and use-cases are laid out?
Hi @Prabhat_Kumar ,
The hardware isn’t the problem here. In fact in 2022 Xanadu published a result in Nature using the computer Borealis, where we demonstrated quantum computational advantage (supremacy).
GBS is something that quantum computers can do well but classical computers can’t. However we haven’t found (yet) a real-world application that can be solved (better than a classical solution) by using GBS on a quantum computer. GBS can be used to solve some real-world problems, but we haven’t found one where there’s a true advantage of using a quantum computer vs a classical one.
I encourage you to check out this video to learn more about Borealis.
The documentation of The Walrus can be a great place to learn about the hafnian, which is very important in GBS.
About the libraries:
Strawberry Fields is specifically for programming Xanadu’s quantum computers (only available under special request).
MrMustard is for photonic simulations.
The Walrus is a library used under the hood by Strawberry Fields for dealing with hafnians and Gaussian quantum state calculations.
My recommendation would be to only use MrMustard unless you need specific functionality found in the other two.
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