Abstract
Gaussian boson sampling (GBS) is considered a candidate problem for demonstrating quantum advantage. We propose an algorithm for the approximate classical simulation of a lossy GBS instance. The algorithm relies on the Taylor series expansion, and increasing the number of terms of the expansion that are used in the calculation yields greater accuracy. The complexity of the algorithm is polynomial in the number of modes given the number of terms is fixed. We describe conditions for the input state squeezing parameter and loss level that provide the best efficiency for this algorithm (by efficient, we mean that the Taylor series converges quickly). In recent experiments that claim to have demonstrated quantum advantage, these conditions are satisfied; thus, this algorithm can be used to classically simulate these experiments.