Exact Gate Decompositions for Photonic Quantum Computers

The purpose of this work is to examine the use of decompositions on a continuous-variable quantum computer by both implementing and examining known methods, as well as to expand on them by developing my own. I detail the usage of known and new techniques for gate decompositions in some useful quantum algorithms such as simulating bosonic particles in a optical lattice, and solving differential equations with broad applications in other scientific fields. The new methods detailed in this work provide decompositions for continuous variable quantum computers which no longer require approximations. These methods rely on strategically using unitary conjugation and a lemma to the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula to derive new exact decompositions from previously known ones, leading to exact decompositions for a large class of gates. I also demonstrate how exact decompositions can be employed in a wide range of algorithms, while requiring much fewer gates (sometimes as many as order-of-magnitude less) than equivalent decompositions with other methods. This work can potentially further bridge the gap between what is required to perform algorithms on a quantum computer and what can be done experimentally.