Gauge theory is the framework of the Standard Model of particle physics and is also important in condensed matter physics. As its major non-perturbative approach, lattice gauge theory is traditionally implemented using Monte Carlo simulation, consequently it usually suffers such problems as the Fermion sign problem and the lack of real-time dynamics. Hopefully they can be avoided by using quantum simulation, which simulates quantum systems by using controllable true quantum processes. The field of quantum simulation is under rapid development. Here we present a circuit-based digital scheme of quantum simulation of quantum $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theory in $2+1$ and $3+1$ dimensions, using quantum adiabatic algorithms implemented in terms of universal quantum gates. Our algorithm generalizes the Trotter and symmetric decompositions to the case that the Hamiltonian varies at each step in the decomposition. Furthermore, we carry through a complete demonstration of this scheme in classical GPU simulator, and obtain key features of quantum $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theory, including quantum phase transitions, topological properties, gauge invariance and duality. Hereby dubbed pseudoquantum simulation, classical demonstration of quantum simulation in state-of-art fast computers not only facilitates the development of schemes and algorithms of real quantum simulation, but also represents a new approach of practical computation.
We present a quantum algorithm for digital quantum simulation of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge-Higgs model on a $3\times 3$ lattice, which is based on Trotter decomposition, the quantum adiabatic algorithm and its circuit realization. Then we perform a classical demonstration, dubbed a pseudoquantum simulation, on a GPU simulator. We obtain useful results on this model, which suggest the topological properties of the deconfined phase and help to clarify the phase diagram. It is suggested that the tricitical point, where the second-order critical lines of deconfinement-confinement transition and of …
Trotter decomposition is the basis of the digital quantum simulation. Asymmetric and symmetric decompositions are used in our GPU demonstration of the digital adiabatic quantum simulations of $2+1$ dimensional quantum $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theory. The actual errors in Trotter decompositions are investigated as functions of the coupling parameter and the number of Trotter substeps in each step of the variation of coupling parameter. The relative error of energy is shown to be closely related to the Trotter error usually defined defined in terms of the evolution operators. They are much s…
We perform a digital quantum simulation of a gauge theory with a topological term in Minkowski spacetime, which is practically inaccessible by standard lattice Monte Carlo simulations. We focus on $1+1$ dimensional quantum electrodynamics with the $θ$-term known as the Schwinger model. We construct the true vacuum state of a lattice Schwinger model using adiabatic state preparation which, in turn, allows us to compute an expectation value of the fermion mass operator with respect to the vacuum. Upon taking a continuum limit we find that our result in massless case agrees with the known exact r…
We explore protocols for three-state adiabatic passage where the tunnel matrix elements are varied digitally, rather than smoothly as is the case with conventional adiabatic passage. In particular, we focus on the STIRAP and related three-state schemes where the control is applied stepwise, with either equal spaced levels for the tunnel matrix elements or uniform pulse lengths. Our results show that the evolution typically shows the hallmarks of conventional adiabatic passage, although with additional resonances exhibiting no state transfer.
The simulation of adiabatic evolution has deep connections with Adiabatic Quantum Computation, the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm and adiabatic state preparation. Here we address the error analysis problem in quantum simulation of adiabatic process using Trotter formulas. We show that with additional conditions, the circuit depth can be linear in simulation time $T$. The improvement comes from the observation that the fidelity error here can't be estimated by the norm distance between evolution operators. This phenomenon is termed as the robustness of discretization in digital adia…
Spatial adiabatic passage represents a new way to design integrated photonic devices. In conventional adiabatic passage designs require smoothly varying waveguide separations. Here we show modelling of adiabatic passage devices where the waveguide separation is varied digitally. Despite digitisation, our designs show robustness against variations in the input wavelength and refractive index contrast of the waveguides relative to the cladding. This approach to spatial adiabatic passage opens new design strategies and hence the potential for new photonics devices.
Using a femtosecond laser writing technique, we fabricate and characterise three-waveguide digital adiabatic passage devices, with the central waveguide digitised into five discrete waveguidelets. Strongly asymmetric behaviour was observed, devices operated with high fidelity in the counter-intuitive scheme while strongly suppressing transmission in the intuitive. The low differential loss of the digital adiabatic passage designs potentially offers additional functionality for adiabatic passage based devices. These devices operate with a high contrast ($>\!90\%$) over a 60nm bandwidth, centere…
In the era of digital quantum computing, optimal digitized pulses are requisite for efficient quantum control. This goal is translated into dynamic programming, in which a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) agent is gifted. As a reference, shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) provide analytical approaches to adiabatic speed up by pulse control. Here, we select single-component control of qubits, resembling the ubiquitous two-level Landau-Zener problem for gate operation. We aim at obtaining fast and robust digital pulses by combining STA and DRL algorithm. In particular, we find that DRL leads to ro…
We present a quantum algorithm for adiabatic state preparation on a gate-based quantum computer, with complexity polylogarithmic in the inverse error. Our algorithm digitally simulates the adiabatic evolution between two self-adjoint operators $H_0$ and $H_1$, exponentially suppressing the diabatic error by harnessing the theoretical concept of quasi-adiabatic continuation as an algorithmic tool. Given an upper bound $α$ on $\|H_0\|$ and $\|H_1\|$ along with the promise that the $k$th eigenstate $|ψ_k(s)\rangle$ of $H(s) \equiv (1-s)H_0 + sH_1$ is separated from the rest of the spectrum by a g…
According to the quantum adiabatic theorem, we can in principle obtain a true vacuum of a quantum system starting from a trivial vacuum of a simple Hamiltonian. In actual adiabatic digital quantum simulation with finite time length and non-infinitesimal time steps, we can only obtain an approximate vacuum that is supposed to be a superposition of a true vacuum and excited states. We propose a procedure to improve the approximate vacuum.
We perform digital quantum simulation, using a classical simulator, to study screening and confinement in a gauge theory with a topological term, focusing on ($1+1$)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (Schwinger model) with a theta term. We compute the ground state energy in the presence of probe charges to estimate the potential between them, via adiabatic state preparation. We compare our simulation results and analytical predictions for a finite volume, finding good agreements. In particular our result in the massive case shows a linear behavior for non-integer charges and a non-linear beh…
In classical computing, analog approaches have sometimes appeared to be more powerful than they really are. This occurs when resources, particularly precision, are not appropriately taken into account. While the same should also hold for analog quantum computing, precision issues are often neglected from the analysis. In this work we present a classical analog algorithm for unstructured search that can be viewed as analogous to the quantum adiabatic unstructured search algorithm devised by Roland and Cerf [Phys. Rev. A 65, 042308 (2002)]. We show that similarly to its quantum counterpart, the …
We study some properties of generalized global symmetry for the charge-$q$ Schwinger model in the Hamiltonian formalism, which is the $(1+1)$-dimensional quantum electrodynamics with a charge-$q$ Dirac fermion. This model has the $\mathbb{Z}_q$ $1$-form symmetry, which is a remnant of the electric $U(1)$ $1$-form symmetry in the pure Maxwell theory. It is known that if we put the theory on closed space, then the Hilbert space is decomposed into $q$ distinct sectors, called universes and some states with higher energy density do not decay to the ground state due to the selection rule of the $1$…
One of the key applications for the emerging quantum simulators is to emulate the ground state of many-body systems, as it is of great interest in various fields from condensed matter physics to material science. Traditionally, in an analog sense, adiabatic evolution has been proposed to slowly evolve a simple Hamiltonian, initialized in its ground state, to the Hamiltonian of interest such that the final state becomes the desired ground state. Recently, variational methods have also been proposed and realized in quantum simulators for emulating the ground state of many-body systems. Here, we …
We have designed, fabricated and operated a scalable system for applying independently programmable time-independent, and limited time-dependent flux biases to control superconducting devices in an integrated circuit. Here we report on the operation of a system designed to supply 64 flux biases to devices in a circuit designed to be a unit cell for a superconducting adiabatic quantum optimization system. The system requires six digital address lines, two power lines, and a handful of global analog lines.
With progress in quantum technology more sophisticated quantum annealing devices are becoming available. While they offer new possibilities for solving optimization problems, their true potential is still an open question. As the optimal design of adiabatic algorithms plays an important role in their assessment, we illustrate the aspects and challenges to consider when implementing optimization problems on quantum annealing hardware based on the example of the traveling salesman problem (TSP). We demonstrate that tunneling between local minima can be exponentially suppressed if the quantum dyn…
Robust and high-precision quantum control is crucial but challenging for scalable quantum computation and quantum information processing. Traditional adiabatic control suffers severe limitations on gate performance imposed by environmentally induced noise because of a quantum system's limited coherence time. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate an alternative approach {to quantum control} based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) on a trapped $^{171}\mathrm{Yb}^{+}$ ion. In particular, we find that DRL leads to fast and robust {digital quantum operations with running time bounded by sh…
A major challenge in quantum computing is to solve general problems with limited physical hardware. Here, we implement digitized adiabatic quantum computing, combining the generality of the adiabatic algorithm with the universality of the digital approach, using a superconducting circuit with nine qubits. We probe the adiabatic evolutions, and quantify the success of the algorithm for random spin problems. We find that the system can approximate the solutions to both frustrated Ising problems and problems with more complex interactions, with a performance that is comparable. The presented appr…
The ferromagnetic state of an Ising chain can represent a two-fold degenerate subspace or equivalently a logical qubit which is protected from excitations by an energy gap. We study a a braiding-like exchange operation through the movement of the state in the qubit subspace which resembles that of the localized edge modes in a Kitaev chain. The system consists of two Ising chains in a 1D geometry where the operation is simulated through the adiabatic time evolution of the ground state. The time evolution is implemented via the Suzuki-Trotter expansion on basic single- and two-qubit quantum gat…
Many interesting problems in physics, chemistry, and computer science are equivalent to problems of interacting spins. However, most of these problems require computational resources that are out of reach by classical computers. A promising solution to overcome this challenge is to exploit the laws of quantum mechanics to perform simulation. Several "analog" quantum simulations of interacting spin systems have been realized experimentally. However, relying on adiabatic techniques, these simulations are limited to preparing ground states only. Here we report the first experimental results on a …
Consider a path of non-degenerate eigenstates of unitary operators or Hamiltonians with minimum eigenvalue gap G. The eigenpath traversal problem is to transform one or more copies of the initial to the final eigenstate. Solutions to this problem have applications ranging from quantum physics simulation to optimization. For Hamiltonians, the conventional way of doing this is by applying the adiabatic theorem. We give ``digital'' methods for performing the transformation that require no assumption on path continuity or differentiability other than the absence of large jumps. Given sufficient in…
In digital circuits, a Flip-Flop (FF) is a circuit element that has two stable states which can be used to store and remember state information. The state of the circuit can be changed by applying signals to the control input. FFs are the basic building blocks of sequential logic circuits, as logic gates AND,OR, NOT are the basic building block for combinational logic circuits, and are therefore necessary for any computations involving memory. Consequently, the design and implementation of FFs can be considered as a pre-requisite for memory machine design. Here we present the design of an opti…
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) captures the essential physics of nonequilibrium quantum phase transitions with symmetry breaking. KZM predicts a universal scaling power law for the defect density which is fully determined by the system's critical exponents at equilibrium and the quenching rate. We experimentally tested the KZM for the simplest quantum case, a single qubit under the Landau-Zener evolution, on an open access IBM quantum computer (IBM-Q). We find that for this simple one-qubit model, experimental data validates the central KZM assumption of the adiabatic-impulse approximation f…
We establish and discuss a number of connections between a digitized version of Quantum Annealing (QA) with the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) introduced by Farhi et al. (arXiv:1411.4028) as an alternative hybrid quantum-classical variational scheme for quantum-state preparation and optimization. We introduce a technique that allows to prove, for instance, a rigorous bound concerning the performance of QAOA for MaxCut on a $2$-regular graph, equivalent to an unfrustrated antiferromagnetic Ising chain. The bound shows that the optimal variational error of a depth-$\mathrm{P}$…
Center for Quantum Information Physics, Department of Physics, New York University（纽约大学物理系量子信息物理中心）；The Department of Physics, The James Franck Institute, and The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago（芝加哥大学物理系、詹姆斯·弗兰克研究所和普里茨克分子工程学院）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University（莱斯大学物理与天文学系）；Smalley-Curl Institute, Rice University（莱斯大学斯莫利-柯尔研究所）；The Department of Physics, Stanford University（斯坦福大学物理系）；The Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University（斯坦福大学应用物理系）
Transformer-Based Neural Quantum Digital Twins for Many-Body Spectral Reconstruction and Adaptive Quantum-Annealing Schedule Design
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学数学系）；Centre for Quantitative Finance, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学量化金融中心）；Risk Management Institute, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学风险管理研究所）
Gradient descent is a fundamental algorithm in both theory and practice for continuous optimization. Identifying its quantum counterpart would be appealing to both theoretical and practical quantum applications. A conventional approach to quantum speedups in optimization relies on the quantum acceleration of intermediate steps of classical algorithms, while keeping the overall algorithmic trajectory and solution quality unchanged. We propose Quantum Hamiltonian Descent (QHD), which is derived from the path integral of dynamical systems referring to the continuous-time limit of classical gradie…
We consider Hamiltonian simulation using the first order Lie-Trotter product formula under the assumption that the initial state has a high overlap with an energy eigenstate, or a collection of eigenstates in a narrow energy band. This assumption is motivated by quantum phase estimation (QPE) and digital adiabatic simulation (DAS). Treating the effective Hamiltonian that generates the Trotterized time evolution using rigorous perturbative methods, we show that the Trotter step size needed to estimate an energy eigenvalue within precision $ε$ using QPE can be improved in scaling from $ε$ to $ε^…
Many applications in automated auditing and the analysis and consistency check of financial documents can be formulated in part as the subset sum problem: Given a set of numbers and a target sum, find the subset of numbers that sums up to the target. The problem is NP-hard and classical solving algorithms are therefore not practical to use in many real applications. We tackle the problem as a QUBO (quadratic unconstrained binary optimization) problem and show how gradient descent on Hopfield Networks reliably finds solutions for both artificial and real data. We outline how this algorithm can …
