Performance Characterisation of Quantum Circuit Simulators

• Type: Bachelor thesis
• State: running
• Supervisor: Simon Thelen
• Student: Philipp Holz

This Bachelor’s thesis investigates strategies for simulating quantum circuits using the Qiskit Aer simulation toolkit, focusing on both their theoretical foundations and practical implementations in C++. It gives a comparative analysis of different simulator types, including state vector, density matrix, and tensor network approaches like matrix product states, and how they differ in terms of algorithmic structure and optimization techniques.

The practical behaviour and efficiency of the simulators are benchmarked using a diverse set of quantum circuits, considering execution time, memory usage, and scalability across various simulator–hardware combinations. Particular attention is given to identifying structural properties of circuits that influence simulator performance. This includes hardware-dependent execution, specifically between CPU- and GPU-based simulation backends. The aim is to reveal patterns that make certain simulators more suitable for specific circuit types.

These findings should contribute to a more profound comprehension of quantum simulation behaviour and provide direction for selecting efficient simulation strategies in quantum software development.