Optimal simulation of nonlocal Hamiltonians using local operations and classical communication

G. Vidal, J. I. Cirac

Published 2001-08-16, updated 2002-05-20Version 2

Consider a set of $N$ systems and an arbitrary interaction Hamiltonian $H$ that couples them. We investigate the use of local operations and classical communication (LOCC), together with the Hamiltonian $H$, to simulate a unitary evolution of the $N$ systems according to some other Hamiltonian $H'$. First, we show that the most general simulation using $H$ and LOCC can be also achieved, with the same time efficiency, by just interspersing the evolution of $H$ with local unitary manipulations of each system and a corresponding local ancilla (in a so-called LU+anc protocol). Thus, the ability to make local measurements and to communicate classical information does not help in non--local Hamiltonian simulation. Second, we show that both for the case of two $d$-level systems ($d>2$), or for that of a setting with more than two systems ($N>2$), LU+anc protocols are more powerful than LU protocols. Therefore local ancillas are a useful resource for non--local Hamiltonian simulation. Third, we use results of majorization theory to explicitly solve the problem of optimal simulation of two-qubit Hamiltonians using LU (equivalently, LU+anc, LO or LOCC).