On the Correct Implementation of the Walsh Series Loader

Quantum state preparation is a preliminary step needed by quantum algorithms that require a specific input state. Exact state preparation methods scale exponentially with the number of qubits, making them impractical on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. Approximate approaches offer therefore more flexible and scalable alternatives. In this paper, we discuss the Walsh Series Loader (WSL), a recently proposed approximate algorithm for state preparation. In particular, we observe that the paper does not describe how to implement the term of order zero of the operator WSL is based on. While this does not affect the theoretical validity of WSL, it poses obstacles for practitioners aiming to use WSL because, as we show in our experiments, an incorrect implementation leads to states with very poor fidelity. In this paper, we describe how to implement the full quantum circuit required by WSL, including the term of order zero, releasing our source code online, and show that the algorithm works correctly. Finally, we empirically show how, as was theoretically demonstrated in the original article, truncated WSL does not prepare well highly entangled states.