  Real-time evolution of quantum field theories using classical computers
requires resources that scale exponentially with the number of lattice sites.
Because of a fundamentally different computational strategy, quantum computers
can in principle be used to perform detailed studies of these dynamics from
first principles. Before performing such calculations, it is important to
ensure that the quantum algorithms used do not have a cost that scales
exponentially with the volume. In these proceedings, we present an interesting
test case: a formulation of a compact U(1) gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions free
of gauge redundancies. A naive implementation onto a quantum circuit has a gate
count that scales exponentially with the volume. We discuss how to break this
exponential scaling by performing an operator redefinition that reduces the
non-locality of the Hamiltonian. While we study only one theory as a test case,
it is possible that the exponential gate scaling will persist for formulations
of other gauge theories, including non-Abelian theories in higher dimensions.
