sparse-simulator.md

author	description	ms.author	ms.date	ms.service	ms.subservice	ms.topic	no-loc	title	uid
SoniaLopezBravo	Learn how to run your Q# programs on the Azure Quantum Development Kit sparse simulator.	sonialopez	11/22/2023	azure-quantum	qsharp-guide	conceptual	Q# $$v Quantum Development Kit target targets	Sparse quantum simulator	microsoft.quantum.machines.overview.sparse-simulator

Sparse quantum simulator

The sparse simulator is the default local simulator for Azure Quantum development environments, and utilizes a sparse representation of quantum state vectors, as opposed to the full-state simulator. This feature allows the sparse simulator to minimize the memory footprint used to represent quantum states, thus enabling simulations over a larger number of qubits. The sparse simulator is efficient for representing quantum states that are sparse in the computational basis, that is, quantum states for which most of the amplitude coefficients are zero in the computational basis. As such, sparse simulator enables users to explore larger applications than what can be represented using the full-state simulator which will waste both memory and time on an exponentially large number of zero-amplitudes.

For more information about the sparse simulator, please see Jaques and Häner (arXiv:2105.01533).

Calling the sparse simulator

The sparse simulator is the default local simulator in Visual Studio Code with the Azure Quantum Development Kit extension installed, and in the Azure Quantum portal.

Scenario	Method
In a Q# program in VS Code	Select Run Q# file
In a Python notebook cell	result=qsharp.eval("EntryPointOperation()") or result=qsharp.run("EntryPointOperation()", shots=##)
In a %%qsharp notebook cell	EntryPointOperation()