Efficient Quantum Algorithms for State Measurement and Linear Algebra Applications

We present an algorithm for measurement of $k$-local operators in a quantum state, which scales logarithmically both in the system size and the output accuracy. The key ingredients of the algorithm are a digital representation of the quantum state, and a decomposition of the measurement operator in a basis of operators with known discrete spectra. We then show how this algorithm can be combined with (a) Hamiltonian evolution to make quantum simulations efficient, (b) the Newton-Raphson method based solution of matrix inverse to efficiently solve linear simultaneous equations, and © Chebyshev expansion of matrix exponentials to efficiently evaluate thermal expectation values. The general strategy may be useful in solving many other linear algebra problems efficiently.