Simulating ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ Lattice Gauge Theory with the Variational Quantum Thermalizer

Abstract

The properties of strongly-coupled lattice gauge theories at finite density as well as in real time have largely eluded first-principles studies on the lattice. This is due to the failure of importance sampling for systems with a complex action. An alternative to evade the sign problem is quantum simulation. Although still in its infancy, a lot of progress has been made in devising algorithms to address these problems. In particular, recent efforts have addressed the question of how to produce thermal Gibbs states on a quantum computer. In this study, we apply a variational quantum algorithm to a low-dimensional model which has a local abelian gauge symmetry. We demonstrate how this approach can be applied to obtain information regarding the phase diagram as well as unequal-time correlation functions at non-zero temperature.

9 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (3)

• A Formulation of Lattice Gauge Theories for Quantum Simulations
• How many quantum gates do gauge theories require?
• Local Manipulation and Measurement of Nonlocal Many-Body Operators in Lattice Gauge Theory Quantum Simulators

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• Toward hybrid quantum simulations with qubits and qumodes on trapped-ion platforms
• State preparation of lattice field theories using quantum optimal control
• Quantum computation in fermionic thermal field theories
• Probing Confinement Through Dynamical Quantum Phase Transitions: From Quantum Spin Models to Lattice Gauge Theories
• Exploring thermal equilibria of the Fermi-Hubbard model with variational quantum algorithms
• Mass-Assisted Local Deconfinement in a Confined ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ Lattice Gauge Theory