# HHL algorithm -- why isn't the required knowledge on eigenspectrum a major drawback?

This question is a continuation of Quantum phase estimation and HHL algorithm - knowledge on eigenvalues required?.

In the question linked above, I asked about the necessity for HHL to have information on the eigenspectrum of the matrix $A$ considered. It came out that the HHL algorithm needs a matrix with eigenvalues $\lambda_j \in [0,1)$ to work correctly.

Following this condition, given a matrix $A$, in order to apply the HHL algorithm we need to check one of the condition below:

1. The eigenvalues of the matrix are all within $[0,1)$.
2. A pair $(L,M) \in \mathbb{R}^2$ that bound (from below for $L$ and from above for $M$) the eigenvalues $\lambda_j$ of the matrix $A$. These bounds can be then used to rescale the matrix $A$ such that condition 1. is validated.

First group of questions: I read plenty of papers on HHL and none of them even mentioned this restriction. Why? Is this restriction known but considered weak (i.e. it's easy to have this kind of information)? Or the restriction was not known? Is there any research paper that mention this restriction?

Let's talk now about the complexity analysis of HHL. From Quantum linear systems algorithms: a primer (Dervovic, Herbster, Mountney, Severini, Usher & Wossnig, 2018), the complexity of HHL (and several improvements) is written in the image below.

The complexity analysis does not take into account (at least I did not find it) the necessary knowledge on the eigenspectrum.

The case where the considered matrix has sufficiently good properties to estimate its eigenvalues analytically is uncommon (at least for real-world matrices) and is ignored.

In this answer, @DaftWullie uses the Gershgorin's circle theorem to estimate the upper and lower bounds of the eigenspectrum. The problem with this approach is that it takes $\mathcal{O}(N)$ operations ($\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{N})$ if amplitude amplification is applicable). This number of operation destroys the logarithmic complexity of HHL (and it's only advantage over classical algorithms in the same time).

Second group of questions: Is there a better algorithm in term of complexity? If not, then why is the HHL algorithm still presented as an exponential improvement over classical algorithms?

• I guess the best way to address this is to ask what context the HHL algorithm is going to be applied in. Once you know the context, that helps specify what you know about the matrix. Jul 5, 2018 at 9:48
• By the way, the restriction is certainly known. In the introduction of the HHL paper (current arXiv version), it says "Our algorithms will generally assume that the singular values of A lie between 1/κ and 1" Jul 5, 2018 at 9:56
• Scott Aaronson's paper on "reading the fine print" for quantum machine learning algorithm may be especially interesting to anyone interested in this question. scottaaronson.com/papers/qml.pdf Oct 24, 2018 at 19:59
• A very useful resource! Thanks for the link @JalexStark Oct 25, 2018 at 8:02

## 1 Answer

The restriction on the eigenvalues is usually given in the form of a condition number. This is the $$\kappa$$ that you see in all the runtimes in your table. $$\kappa = |\lambda_{\rm{max}}/\lambda_{\rm{min}}|$$ where $$\lambda_{\rm{max}}$$ and $$\lambda_{\rm{min}}$$ are the maximum and minimum eigenvalues respectively.

In all runtimes listed in your table, it is assumed that the condition number is known. One does not usually think of "calculating the condition number" as part of the algorithm for solving $$Ax=b$$, for example. If the condition number is larger, the system is harder to solve, and if it is smaller the system is easier to solve (assuming all other parameters, including the maximum desired error $$\epsilon$$ are held fixed).

In terms of needing to know that $$\lambda_{\rm{max}} < M$$ and $$\lambda_{\rm{min}}>L$$, there are lots of examples where we can know the bounds on the eigenvalues without actually going through the effort of calculating the eigenvalues. In this way, HHL can be a great way to find the state you're looking for, without the cost of calculating the condition number or any eigenvalues.

Let me give just one real-world example. Let's say I want to find the molecular vibrational state $$|\psi\rangle$$ such that after $$t=10$$ps of evolving under its Hamiltonian $$H$$, the molecule ends up in state $$|b\rangle$$. This can be described by the equation:

$$e^{-iHt}|\psi\rangle = |b\rangle$$

where the $$|\psi\rangle$$ satisfying this equation is what you want to know. You can find your desired $$|\psi\rangle$$ by using the HHL algorithm with $$A = e^{-\frac{i}{\hbar}Ht}$$ and $$|\psi\rangle = |x\rangle$$.

Obtaining the smallest and largest eigenvalues of a molecular Hamiltonian to arbitrary precision is extremely costly on a classical compter, but knowing that they lie within the range $$(L,M)$$ can be determined with no cost at all. For example if the molecule is the nitrogen dimer we know the lowest and highest vibrational states have energies (eigenvalues) between 0 and 10 eV and since $$e^{0}=1$$ we have $$L=1$$ and $$M = e^{-\frac{i}{\hbar} 10 \rm{eV} \cdot 10 \rm{ps}}$$. You can convert eV to Hz, and ps to seconds to evaluate $$M$$ numerically, and then you can obtain the lower and upper bounds that you need to use when scaling your matrix the way you described in your previous question. At no point did I need to calculate the eigenvalues of a 14-electron molecular Hamiltonian (which would be extremely hard and would defeat the purpose of using HHL, because if I could calculate the eigenvalues I could just calculate $$A$$ and invert it to get $$|\psi\rangle$$). I just used the dissociation energy of the molecule to come up with the bounds on its vibrational energies. I could have come up with even better bounds by using the semi-classical WKB approximation, also with much less cost than actually calculating the eigenvalues, but the first example is already enough.

So now let's address all your individual questions:

First group of questions: I read plenty of papers on HHL and none of them even mentioned this restriction. Why? Is this restriction known but considered weak (i.e. it's easy to have this kind of information)? Or the restriction was not known? Is there any research paper that mention this restriction?

Out of the 539 papers that have (at present) cited the original HHL paper, many of them will not know the finer details like the dependence of its performance on the condition number or eigenvalues. Some of the papers will certainly know that the performance of the algorithm will depend on the condition number or eigenvalues of the matrix, namely, the papers listed in your table on improvements to the HHL algorithm. Robin Kothari also mentioned it, for example, at the very beginning of his talk in 2016 on the CKS algorithm (which is mentioned in your table).

Second group of questions: Is there a better algorithm in term of complexity? If not, then why is the HHL algorithm still presented as an exponential improvement over classical algorithms?

The algorithm you mention, suggested by DaftWulie, to estimate the bounds on the eigenvalues, is not going to be improved over $$\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{N})$$ because the dominant cost in that algorithm is in searching through all $$N$$ rows for the maximum and minimum values. The cost of everything else is small because the matrix is assumed to have a sparsity of $$s \lll N$$. There is no way to do this search faster in faster than $$\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{N})$$ time (unless you have some other extra knowledge of the system) because Grover's algorithm has been proven to be optimal.

You are right, people should mention the caveats of algorithms more often in their papers. In terms of your specific question "why is the HHL algorithm still presented as an exponential improvement over classical algorithms," I think the original authors HHL did do their due diligence in explaining the algorithm and its caveats, in that they said that there's an exponential scaling but the cost grows quadratically with the condition number and sparsity and inversely with the size of the error you are willing to tolerate. Why do most other people after HHL not mention all the caveats? Well many of them don't know the caveats, and those that do might have felt it wasn't necessary because calculating the condition number is not part of the algorithm. Knowing the condition number will tell you how well the algorithm will work, but it is assumed you already know this like in the molecular vibrations example I gave above!

• +1, well-addressed. Oct 27, 2018 at 7:35
• The conclusion is "The case where the considered matrix has sufficiently good properties to estimate its eigenvalues (or lower/upper bounds) analytically is uncommon (at least for real-world matrices) but is the only one we can deal with at the moment if we want to apply HHL.". My question was probably too narrow to answer with the limitation on the "simple" analytical cases. Thank you! Your specific use-case is interesting and would also be fine here: quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/2697/… Oct 29, 2018 at 7:43
• @NieldeBeaudrap: It's an honour to get that comment from you, since you're a guy that's known to like things that are precise and rigorous. I know a lot of my other answers have had loopholes, which you were the first to point out, such as the case where my answer only worked for orthogonal states. Oct 30, 2018 at 2:18