Quantum Computation of Electronic Transitions Using a Variational Quantum Eigensolver

We develop an extension of the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm—multistate contracted VQE (MC-VQE)—that allows for the efficient computation of the transition energies between the ground state and several low-lying excited states of a molecule, as well as the oscillator strengths associated with these transitions. We numerically simulate MC-VQE by computing the absorption spectrum of an ab initio exciton model of an 18-chromophore light-harvesting complex from purple photosynthetic bacteria.