Observation of a non-Hermitian supersonic mode on a trapped-ion quantum computer.

Authors

Yuxuan Zhang, Juan Carrasquilla, Yong Baek Kim

Published in

Nature communications. Volume 16. Issue 1. Pages 3286. Apr 06, 2025. Epub Apr 06, 2025.

Abstract

Quantum computers have long been anticipated to excel in simulating quantum many-body physics. In this work, we demonstrate the power of variational quantum circuits for resource-efficient simulations of dynamical and equilibrium physics in non-Hermitian systems. Using a variational quantum compilation scheme for fermionic systems, we reduce gate count, save qubits, and eliminate the need for postselection, a major challenge in simulating non-Hermitian dynamics via standard Trotterization. On the Quantinuum H1 trapped-ion processor, we experimentally observed a supersonic mode on an n = 18 fermionic chain after a non-Hermitian, nearest-neighbor interacting quench, which would otherwise be forbidden in a Hermitian system. Additionally, we investigate sequential quantum circuits generated by tensor networks for ground-state preparation using a variance minimization scheme, accurately capturing correlation functions and energies across an exceptional point on a dissipative spin chain up to length n = 20 using only 3 qubits. On the other hand, we provide an analytical example demonstrating that simulating single-qubit non-Hermitian dynamics for $\Theta \left(\log \left(n\right)\right)$ time from certain initial states is exponentially hard on a quantum computer. Our work raises many intriguing questions about the intrinsic properties of non-Hermitian systems that permit efficient quantum simulation.

PMID:
40189594
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Apr 2025.

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