Publications
Note: The contents of these manuscripts are the IP of the authors, and may not be reproduced, presented to funding agencies or private foundations or in other presentations without attribution.
A Trailhead for Quantum Simulation of SU(3) Yang-Mills Lattice Gauge Theory in the Local Multiplet Basis
A Trailhead for Quantum Simulation of SU(3) Yang-Mills Lattice Gauge Theory in the Local Multiplet Basis
Anthony Ciavarella, Natalie Klco and Martin Savage
Maintaining local interactions in the quantum simulation of gauge field theories relegates most states in the Hilbert space to be unphysical—theoretically benign, but experimentally difficult to avoid. Reformulations of the gauge fields can modify the ratio of physical to gauge-variant states often through classically preprocessing the Hilbert space and modifying the representation of the field on qubit degrees of freedom. This paper considers the implications of representing SU(3) Yang-Mills gauge theory on a lattice of irreducible representations in both a global basis of projected global quantum numbers and a local basis in which controlled-plaquette operators support efficient time evolution. Classically integrating over the internal gauge space at each vertex (e.g., color isospin and color hypercharge) significantly reduces both the qubit requirements and the dimensionality of the unphysical Hilbert space. Initiating tuning procedures that may inform future calculations at scale, the time evolution of one- and two-plaquettes are implemented on one of IBM’s superconducting quantum devices, and early benchmark quantities are identified. The potential advantages of qudit environments, with either constrained 2D hexagonal or 1D nearest-neighbor internal state connectivity, are discussed for future large-scale calculations.
Alessandro Roggero, Chenyi Gu, Alessandro Baroni, Thomas Papenbrock
We study two different methods to prepare excited states on a quantum computer, a key initial step to study dynamics within linear response theory. The first method uses unitary evolution for a short timeT=O(√(1−F)) to approximate the action of an excitation operator O with fidelity F and success probability P≈1−F. The second method probabilistically applies the excitation operator using the Linear Combination of Unitaries (LCU) algorithm. We benchmark these techniques on emulated and real quantum devices, using a toy model for thermal neutron-proton capture. Despite its larger memory footprint, the LCU-based method is efficient even on current generation noisy devices and can be implemented at a lower gate cost than a naive analysis would suggest. These findings show that quantum techniques designed to achieve good asymptotic scaling on fault tolerant quantum devices might also provide practical benefits on devices with limited connectivity and gate fidelity.
Natalie Klco and Martin J. Savage
An upper limit to distillable entanglement between two disconnected regions of massless noninteracting scalar field theory has an exponential decay defined by a geometric decay constant. When regulated at short distances with a spatial lattice, this entanglement abruptly vanishes beyond a dimensionless separation, defining a negativity sphere. In two spatial dimensions, we determine this geometric decay constant between a pair of disks and the growth of the negativity sphere toward the continuum through a series of lattice calculations. Making the connection to quantum field theories in three-spatial dimensions, assuming such quantum information scales appear also in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), a new relative scale may be present in effective field theories describing the low-energy dynamics of nucleons and nuclei. We highlight potential impacts of the distillable entanglement structure on effective field theories, lattice QCD calculations and future quantum simulations.
Entanglement Rearrangement in Self-Consistent Nuclear Structure Calculations
Entanglement Rearrangement in Self-Consistent Nuclear Structure Calculations
Caroline Robin, Martin J. Savage and Nathalie Pillet
Entanglement properties of 4He and 6He are investigated using nuclear many-body calculations, specifically the single-nucleon entanglement entropy, and the two-nucleon mutual information and negativity. Nuclear wavefunctions are obtained by performing active-space no-core configuration interaction calculations using a two-body nucleon-nucleon interaction derived from chiral effective field theory. Entanglement measures within single-particle bases, the harmonic oscillator (HO), Hartree-Fock (HF), natural (NAT) and variational natural (VNAT) bases, are found to exhibit different degrees of complexity. Entanglement in both nuclei is found to be more localized within NAT and VNAT bases than within a HO basis for the optimal HO parameters, and, as anticipated, a core-valence (tensor product) structure emerges from the full six-body calculation of 6He. The two-nucleon mutual information shows that the VNAT basis, which typically exhibits good convergence properties, effectively decouples the active and inactive spaces. We conclude that measures of one- and two-nucleon entanglement are useful in analyzing the structure of nuclear wave functions, in particular the efficacy of basis states, and may provide useful metrics toward developing more efficient schemes for ab initio computations of the structure and reactions of nuclei, and quantum many-body systems more generally.
A quantum algorithm is developed to calculate decay rates and cross sections using quantum resources that scale polynomially in the system size assuming similar scaling for state preparation and time evolution. This is done by computing finite-volume one- and two-particle Green’s functions on the quantum hardware. Particle decay rates and two particle scattering cross sections are extracted from the imaginary parts of the Green’s function. A 0 + 1 dimensional implementation of this method is demonstrated on IBM’s superconducting quantum hardware for the decay of a heavy scalar particle to a pair of light scalars.
Spectral density estimation with the Gaussian Integral Transform
Spectral density estimation with the Gaussian Integral Transform
Alessandro Roggero
The spectral density operator ρ(ω)=δ(ω−H) plays a central role in linear response theory as it's expectation value, the dynamical response function, can be used to compute scattering cross-sections. In this work, we describe a near optimal quantum algorithm providing an approximation to the spectral density with energy resolution Δ and error ϵ using O(√(log(1/ϵ)(log(1/Δ)+log(1/ϵ)))/Δ) operations. This is achieved without using expensive approximations to the time-evolution operator but exploiting instead qubitization to implement an approximate Gaussian Integral Transform (GIT) of the spectral density. We also describe appropriate error metrics to assess the quality of spectral function approximations more generally.
Quantum Algorithms for Simulating the Lattice Schwinger Model
Quantum Algorithms for Simulating the Lattice Schwinger Model
Alexander Shaw, Pavel Lougovski, Jesse Stryker, and Nathan Wiebe
The Schwinger model (quantum electrodynamics in 1+1 dimensions) is a testbed for the study of quantum gauge field theories. We give scalable, explicit digital quantum algorithms to simulate the lattice Schwinger model in both NISQ and fault-tolerant settings. In particular, we perform a tight analysis of low-order Trotter formula simulations of the Schwinger model, using recently derived commutator bounds, and give upper bounds on the resources needed for simulations in both scenarios. In lattice units, we find a Schwinger model on N/2 physical sites with coupling constant x-1/2 and electric field cutoff x-1/2Λ can be simulated on a quantum computer for time 2xT using a number of T-gates or CNOTs in Õ(N3/2 T3/2 x1/2 Λ) for fixed operator error. This scaling with the truncation Λ is better than that expected from algorithms such as qubitization or QDRIFT. Furthermore, we give scalable measurement schemes and algorithms to estimate observables which we cost in both the NISQ and fault-tolerant settings by assuming a simple target observable---the mean pair density. Finally, we bound the root-mean-square error in estimating this observable via simulation as a function of the diamond distance between the ideal and actual CNOT channels. This work provides a rigorous analysis of simulating the Schwinger model, while also providing benchmarks against which subsequent simulation algorithms can be tested.
Fixed-Point Quantum Circuits for Quantum Field Theories
Fixed-Point Quantum Circuits for Quantum Field Theories
Natalie Klco and Martin J. Savage
Renormalization group ideas and effective operators are used to efficiently determine localized unitaries for preparing the ground states of non-interacting scalar field theories on digital quantum devices. With these methods, classically computed ground states in a small spatial volume can be used to determine operators for preparing the ground state in a beyond-classical quantum register, even for interacting scalar field theories. Due to the exponential decay of correlation functions and the double exponential suppression of digitization artifacts, the derived quantum circuits are expected to be relevant already for near-term quantum devices.
Quantum Computer Systems for Scientific Discovery
Quantum Computer Systems for Scientific Discovery
The great promise of quantum computers comes with the dual challenges of building them and finding their useful applications. We argue that these two challenges should be considered together, by co-designing full-stack quantum computer systems along with their applications in order to hasten their development and potential for scientific discovery. In this context, we identify scientific and community needs, opportunities, a sampling of a few use case studies, and significant challenges for the development of quantum computers for science over the next 2--10 years. This document is written by a community of university, national laboratory, and industrial researchers in the field of Quantum Information Science and Technology, and is based on a summary from a U.S. National Science Foundation workshop on Quantum Computing held on October 21--22, 2019 in Alexandria, VA.
Loop, String, and Hadron Dynamics in SU(2) Hamiltonian Lattice Gauge Theories
Loop, String, and Hadron Dynamics in SU(2) Hamiltonian Lattice Gauge Theories
Indrakshi Raychowdhury and Jesse Stryker
The question of how to efficiently formulate Hamiltonian gauge theories is experiencing renewed interest due to advances in building quantum simulation platforms. We introduce a reformulation of an SU(2) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory---a loop-string-hadron (LSH) formulation---that describes dynamics directly in terms of its loop, string, and hadron degrees of freedom, while alleviating several disadvantages of quantum-simulating the Kogut-Susskind formulation. This LSH formulation transcends the local loop formulation of d+1-dimensional lattice gauge theories by incorporating staggered quarks, furnishing the algebra of gauge-singlet operators, and being used to reconstruct dynamics between states that have Gauss's law built in to them. LSH operators are then factored into products of "normalized" ladder operators and diagonal matrices, priming them for classical or quantum information processing. Self-contained expressions of the Hamiltonian are given up to d=3. The LSH formalism uses makes little use of structures specific to SU(2) and its conceptual clarity makes it an attractive approach to apply to other non-Abelian groups like SU(3).
Correlations and measures of entanglement in ground state wavefunctions of relativistic quantum field theories are spatially localized over length scales set by the mass of the lightest particle. We utilize this localization to design digital quantum circuits for preparing the ground states of free lattice scalar quantum field theories. Controlled rotations that are exponentially localized in their position-space extent are found to provide exponentially convergent wavefunction fidelity. These angles scale with the classical two-point correlation function, as opposed to the more localized mutual information or the hyper-localized negativity. We anticipate that further investigations will uncover quantum circuit designs with controlled rotations dictated by the measures of entanglement. This work is expected to impact quantum simulations of systems of importance to nuclear physics, high-energy physics, and basic energy sciences research.
Quantum Computing for Neutrino-nucleus Scattering
Quantum Computing for Neutrino-nucleus Scattering
Alessandro Roggero, Andy C. Li, Joseph Carlson, Rajan Gupta, Gabriel N. Perdue
Neutrino-nucleus cross section uncertainties are expected to be a dominant systematic in future accelerator neutrino experiments. The cross sections are determined by the linear response of the nucleus to the weak interactions of the neutrino, and are dominated by energy and distance scales of the order of the separation between nucleons in the nucleus. These response functions are potentially an important early physics application of quantum computers. Here we present an analysis of the resources required and their expected scaling for scattering cross section calculations. We also examine simple small-scale neutrino-nucleus models on modern quantum hardware. In this paper, we use variational methods to obtain the ground state of a three nucleon system (the triton) and then implement the relevant time evolution. In order to tame the errors in present-day NISQ devices, we explore the use of different error-mitigation techniques to increase the fidelity of the calculations.
Natalie Klco, Martin Savage and Jesse Stryker
An improved mapping of one-dimensional SU(2) non-Abelian gauge theory onto qubit degrees of freedom is presented. This new mapping allows for a reduced unphysical Hilbert space. Insensitivity to interactions within this unphysical space is exploited to design more efficient quantum circuits. Local gauge symmetry is used to analytically incorporate the angular momentum alignment, leading to qubit registers encoding the total angular momentum on each link. Results of multi-plaquette calculations on IBM’s quantum hardware are presented.
The evaluation of expectation values Tr[ρO] for some pure state ρ and Hermitian operator O is of central importance in a variety of quantum algorithms. Near optimal techniques developed in the past require a number of measurements N approaching the Heisenberg limit N=O(1/ϵ) as a function of target accuracy ϵ. The use of Quantum Phase Estimation requires however long circuit depths C=O(1/ϵ) making their implementation difficult on near term noisy devices. The more direct strategy of Operator Averaging is usually preferred as it can be performed using N=O(1/ϵ2) measurements and no additional gates besides those needed for the state preparation. In this work we use a simple but realistic model to describe the bound state of a neutron and a proton (the deuteron) and show that the latter strategy can require an overly large number of measurement in order to achieve a reasonably small relative target accuracy ϵr. We propose to overcome this problem using a single step of QPE and classical post-processing. This approach leads to a circuit depth C=O(ϵm) (with m≥0) and to a number of measurements N=O(1/ϵ2+n) for 0<n≤1. We provide detailed descriptions of two implementations of our strategy for n=1 and n≈0.5 and derive appropriate conditions that a particular problem instance has to satisfy in order for our method to provide an advantage.
Initializing a single site of a lattice scalar field theory into an arbitrary state requires O(2nQ) entangling gates on a quantum computer with nQ qubits per site. It is conceivable that, instead, initializing to functions that are good approximations to states may have utility in reducing the number of required entangling gates. In the case of a single site of a non-interacting scalar field theory, initializing to a symmetric exponential wavefunction requires nQ − 1 entangling gates, compared with the 2nQ−1 + nQ − 3 + δnQ,1 required for a symmetric Gaussian wavefunction. In this work, we explore the initialization of 1-site (nQ = 4), 2-site (nQ = 3) and 3-site (nQ = 3) non- interacting scalar field theories with symmetric exponential wavefunctions using IBM’s quantum simulators and quantum devices (Poughkeepsie and Tokyo). With the digitizations obtainable with nQ = 3, 4, these tensor-product wavefunctions are found to have large overlap with a Gaussian wavefunction, and provide a suitable low-noise initialization for subsequent quantum simulations. In performing these simulations, we have employed a workflow that interleaves calibrations to mitigate systematic errors in production. The calibrations allow tolerance cuts on gate performance including the fidelity of the symmetrizing Hadamard gate, both in vacuum (|0⟩⊗nQ ) and in medium (nQ − 1 qubits initialized to an exponential function). The results obtained in this work are relevant to systems beyond scalar field theories, such as the deuteron radial wavefunction, 2- and 3-dimensional cartesian-space wavefunctions, and non-relativistic multi-nucleon systems built on a localized eigenbasis.
We show that using the loop-string-hadron (LSH) formulation of SU(2) lattice gauge theory (arXiv:1912.06133) as a basis for digital quantum computation easily solves an important problem of fundamental interest: implementing gauge invariance (or Gauss's law) exactly. We first discuss the structure of the LSH Hilbert space in d spatial dimensions, its truncation, and its digitization with qubits. Error detection and mitigation in gauge theory simulations would benefit from physicality "oracles," so we decompose circuits that flag gauge invariant wavefunctions. We then analyze the logical qubit costs and entangling gate counts involved with the protocols. The LSH basis could save or cost more qubits than a Kogut-Susskind-type representation basis, depending on how that is digitized as well as the spatial dimension. The numerous other clear benefits encourage future studies into applying this framework.
Entanglement suppression in the strong interaction S-matrix is shown to be correlated with approximate spin-flavor symmetries that are observed in low-energy baryon interactions, the Wigner SU(4) symmetry for two flavors and an SU(16) symmetry for three flavors. We conjecture that dynamical entanglement suppression is a property of the strong interactions in the infrared, giving rise to these emergent symmetries and providing powerful constraints on the nature of nuclear and hypernuclear forces in dense matter.
Formulating a lattice gauge theory using only physical degrees of freedom generically leads to non-local interactions. A local Hamiltonian is desirable for quantum simulation, and this is possible by treating the Hilbert space as a subspace of a much larger Hilbert space in which Gauss's law is not automatic. Digital quantum simulations of this local formulation will wander into unphysical sectors due to errors from Trotterization or from quantum noise. In this work, oracles are constructed that use local Gauss law constraints to projectively distinguish physical and unphysical wave functions in Abelian lattice gauge theories. Such oracles can be used to detect errors that break Gauss's law.
Simulating complex many-body quantum phenomena is a major scientific impetus behind the development of quantum computing, and a range of technologies are being explored to address such systems. We present the results of the largest photonics-based simulation to date, applied in the context of subatomic physics. Using an all-optical quantum frequency processor, the ground-state energies of light nuclei including the triton (3H), 3He, and the alpha particle (4He) are computed. Complementing these calculations and utilizing a 68-dimensional Hilbert space, our photonic simulator is used to perform sub-nucleon calculations of the two-body and three-body forces between heavy mesons in the Schwinger model. This work is a first step in simulating subatomic many-body physics on quantum frequency processors---augmenting classical computations that bridge scales from quarks to nuclei.[Image (left) was created by Pavel Lougovski.]
Qubit, operator and gate resources required for the digitization of lattice λϕ4 scalar field theories onto quantum computers in the NISQ era are considered, building upon the foundational work by Jordan, Lee and Preskill. The Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, introduced in this context by Macridin, Spetzouris, Amundson and Harnik building on the work of Somma, provides a guide with which to evaluate the efficacy of two field-space bases, the eigenstates of the field operator, as used by Jordan, Lee and Preskill, and eigenstates of a harmonic oscillator, to describe 0+1- and 1+1-dimensional scalar field theory. We show how techniques associated with improved actions, which are heavily utilized in Lattice QCD calculations to systematically reduce lattice-spacing artifacts, can be used to reduce the impact of the field digitization in λϕ4, but are found to be inferior to a complete digitization-improvement of the Hamiltonian using a Quantum Fourier Transform. When the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem is satisfied, digitization errors scale as |log|log|ϵdig|||∼nQ (number of qubits describing the field at a given spatial site) for the low-lying states, leaving the familiar power-law lattice-spacing and finite-volume effects that scale as |log|ϵlatt||∼NQ (total number of qubits in the simulation). We find that fewer than nQ=10 qubits per spatial lattice site are sufficient to reduce digitization errors below noise levels expected in NISQ-era quantum devices for both localized and delocalized field-space wavefunctions. For localized wavefunctions, nQ=4 qubits are likely to be sufficient for calculations requiring modest precision.
David Kaplan and Jesse Stryker
Quantum computers have the potential to explore the vast Hilbert space of entangled states that play an important role in the behavior of strongly interacting matter. This opportunity motivates reconsidering the Hamiltonian formulation of gauge theories, with a suitable truncation scheme to render the Hilbert space finite-dimensional. Conventional formulations lead to a Hilbert space largely spanned by unphysical states; given the current inability to perform large scale quantum computations, we examine here how one might restrict wave function evolution entirely or mostly to the physical subspace. We consider such constructions for the simplest of these theories containing dynamical gauge bosons---U(1) lattice gauge theory without matter in d=2,3 spatial dimensions---and find that electric-magnetic duality naturally plays an important role. We conclude that this approach is likely to significantly reduce computational overhead in d=2 by a reduction of variables and by allowing one to regulate magnetic fluctuations instead of electric. The former advantage does not exist in d=3, but the latter might be important for asymptotically-free gauge theories.
The dynamic linear response of a quantum system is critical for understanding both the structure and dynamics of strongly-interacting quantum systems, including neutron scattering from materials, photon and electron scattering from atomic systems, and electron and neutrino scattering by nuclei. We present a general algorithm for quantum computers to calculate the dynamic linear response function with controlled errors and to obtain information about specific final states that can be directly compared to experimental observations.
We present a quantum-classical algorithm to study the dynamics of the two-spatial-site Schwinger model on IBM's quantum computers. Using rotational symmetries, total charge, and parity, the number of qubits needed to perform computation is reduced by a factor of ∼5, removing exponentially-large unphysical sectors from the Hilbert space. Our work opens an avenue for exploration of other lattice quantum field theories, such as quantum chromodynamics, where classical computation is used to find symmetry sectors in which the quantum computer evaluates the dynamics of quantum fluctuations.
David Kaplan, Natalie Klco and Alessandro Rogerro
A new method is proposed for determining the ground state wave function of a quantum many-body system on a quantum computer, without requiring an initial trial wave function that has good overlap with the true ground state. The technique of Spectral Combing involves entangling an arbitrary initial wave function with a set of auxiliary qubits governed by a time dependent Hamiltonian, resonantly transferring energy out of the initial state through a plethora of avoided level crossings into the auxiliary system. The number of avoided level crossings grows exponentially with the number of qubits required to represent the Hamiltonian, so that the efficiency of the algorithm does not rely on any particular energy gap being large. We give an explicit construction of the quantum gates required for the realization of this procedure and explore the results of classical simulations of the algorithm on a small quantum computer with up to 8 qubits. We show that for certain systems and comparable results, Spectral Combing requires fewer quantum gates to realize than the Quantum Adiabatic Algorithm.
Header image: © Can Stock Photo / aleksandarnako