  We address the question of how a quantum computer can be used to simulate
experiments on quantum systems in thermal equilibrium. We present two
approaches for the preparation of the equilibrium state on a quantum computer.
For both approaches, we show that the output state of the algorithm, after long
enough time, is the desired equilibrium. We present a numerical analysis of one
of these approaches for small systems. We show how equilibrium
(time)-correlation functions can be efficiently estimated on a quantum
computer, given a preparation of the equilibrium state. The quantum algorithms
that we present are hard to simulate on a classical computer. This indicates
that they could provide an exponential speedup over what can be achieved with a
classical device.
