Importing the default.tensor in PL from the lightning.tensor device in PL lightning

.github/workflows/interface-unit-tests.yml

@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@ jobs:
       install_pennylane_lightning_master: false
       pytest_coverage_flags: ${{ inputs.pytest_coverage_flags }}
       pytest_markers: external
-      additional_pip_packages: pyzx pennylane-catalyst matplotlib stim
+      additional_pip_packages: pyzx pennylane-catalyst matplotlib stim quimb
       requirements_file: ${{ strategy.job-index == 0 && 'external.txt' || '' }}
       disable_new_opmath: ${{ inputs.disable_new_opmath }}
 

doc/introduction/circuits.rst

@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ instantiated using the :func:`device <pennylane.device>` loader.
     dev = qml.device('default.qubit', wires=2, shots=1000)
 
 PennyLane offers some basic devices such as the ``'default.qubit'``, ``'default.mixed'``, ``lightning.qubit``,
-``'default.gaussian'``, and ``'default.clifford'`` simulators; additional devices can be installed as plugins
+``'default.gaussian'``, ``'default.clifford'``, and ``'default.tensor'`` simulators; additional devices can be installed as plugins
 (see `available plugins <https://pennylane.ai/plugins.html>`_ for more details). Note that the
 choice of a device significantly determines the speed of your computation, as well as
 the available options that can be passed to the device loader.

doc/releases/changelog-dev.md

@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@
 
 <h3>New features since last release</h3>
 
+* The `default.tensor` device is introduced to perform tensor network simulation of a quantum circuit.
+  [(#5699)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane/pull/5699)
+
 <h3>Improvements 🛠</h3>
 
 * The sorting order of parameter-shift terms is now guaranteed to resolve ties in the absolute value with the sign of the shifts.

pennylane/devices/__init__.py

@@ -151,7 +151,8 @@ def execute(self, circuits, execution_config = qml.devices.DefaultExecutionConfi
 
 # DefaultQubitTF and DefaultQubitAutograd not imported here since this
 # would lead to an automatic import of tensorflow and autograd, which are
-# not PennyLane core dependencies
+# not PennyLane core dependencies. DefaultTensor is not imported here
+# since it would lead to an automatic import of quimb.
 from .default_qubit_legacy import DefaultQubitLegacy
 from .default_gaussian import DefaultGaussian
 from .default_mixed import DefaultMixed