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At least 109 records · Page 6

Simple Hamiltonian for quantum simulation of strongly coupled $(2+1)D$ SU(2) lattice gauge theory on a honeycomb lattice

Here, we find a simple spin Hamiltonian to describe physical states of $(2+1)$-dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge theory on a honeycomb lattice with a truncation of the electric field representation at $j_{max}=\frac{1}{2}$. The simple spin Hamiltonian contains only local products of Pauli matrices, even though Gauss’s law has been completely integrated out.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

State preparation and measurement in a quantum simulation of the $O(\mathrm{3})$ sigma model

Recently, Singh and Chandrasekharan [Phys. Rev. D 100, 054505 (2019)] showed that fixed points of the nonlinear O ( 3 ) sigma model can be reproduced near a quantum phase transition of a spin model with just two qubits per lattice site. In a paper by the NuQS Collaboration [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 090501 (2019)], the proposal is made to simulate such field theories on a quantum computer using the universal properties of a similar model. In this paper, following that direction, we demonstrate how to prepare the ground state of the model from Singh and Chandrasekharan and measure a dynamical quantity of interest, the O ( 3 ) Noether charge, on a quantum computer. In particular, we apply Trotter methods to obtain results for the complexity of adiabatic ground state preparation in both the weak-coupling and quantum-critical regimes and use shadow tomography to measure the dynamics of local observables. Finally, we then present and analyze a quantum algorithm based on nonunitary randomized simulation methods that may yield an approach suitable for intermediate-term noisy quantum devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Simulation of Inelastic Neutron Scattering Spectra Directly from Molecular Dynamics Trajectories

Inelastic neutron scattering (INS) is a widely used technique to study atomic and molecular vibrations. With the increasing complexity of materials and thus the INS spectra, being able to simulate the spectra from various atomistic models becomes an essential step and also a major bottleneck for INS data analysis. The conventional approach using density functional theory and lattice dynamics often falls short when the materials of interest are complex (e.g., defective, disordered, heterogeneous, amorphous, large-scale), for which molecular dynamics driven by an interatomic force field is a more common approach. In this paper, we demonstrate a method to directly convert molecular dynamics trajectories into simulated INS spectra, including not only fundamental but also higher order excitations. In this work, the results are compared with data collected on various representative samples from different neutron spectrometers. This development will open great opportunities by providing the key tool to perform in-depth analysis of INS data and to validate and optimize computer models.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Trigonometric continuous-variable gates and hybrid quantum simulations of the sine-Gordon model

Hybrid qubit-qumode quantum computing platforms provide a natural setting for simulating interacting bosonic quantum field theories. However, existing continuous-variable gate constructions rely predominantly on polynomial functions of canonical quadratures. In this work, we introduce a complementary universality paradigm based on trigonometric continuous-variable gates, which enable a Fourier-like representation of bosonic operators and are particularly well suited for periodic and non-perturbative interactions. We present an ancilla-based framework for implementing trigonometric gates with arguments given by arbitrary Hermitian functions of qumode quadratures. The protocol yields unitary gates deterministically, and non-unitary gates through probabilistic post-selection. As a concrete application, we develop a hybrid qubit-qumode quantum simulation of the lattice sine-Gordon model. Using these gates, we prepare ground states via quantum imaginary-time evolution, simulate real-time dynamics, compute time-dependent vertex two-point correlation functions, and extract quantum kink profiles under topological boundary conditions. Our results demonstrate that trigonometric continuous-variable gates provide a physically natural framework for simulating interacting field theories on near-term hybrid quantum hardware, while establishing a parallel route to universality beyond polynomial gate constructions. We expect that the trigonometric gates introduced here to find broader applications, including quantum simulations of condensed matter systems, quantum chemistry, and biological models.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Exploiting 20 Ne Isotopes for Precision Characterizations of Collectivity in Small Systems

Whether or not femto-scale droplets of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) are formed in so-called small systems at high-energy colliders is a pressing question in the phenomenology of the strong interaction. For proton-proton or proton-nucleus collisions the answer is inconclusive due to the large theoretical uncertainties plaguing the description of these processes. While upcoming data on collisions of 16 O nuclei may mitigate these uncertainties in the near future, here we demonstrate the unique possibilities offered by complementing 16 O + 16 O data with collisions of 20 Ne ions. We couple both nuclear lattice effective field theory (NLEFT) and projected generator coordinate method (PGCM) ab initio descriptions of the structure of 20 Ne and 16 O to hydrodynamic simulations of 16 O + 16 O and 20 Ne + 20 Ne collisions at high energy. We isolate the imprints of the bowling-pin shape of 20 Ne on the collective flow of hadrons, which can be used to perform quantitative tests of the hydrodynamic QGP paradigm. In particular, we predict that the elliptic flow of 20 Ne + 20 Ne collisions is enhanced by as much as 1.174⁢(8) stat ⁢(31) syst for NLEFT and 1.139⁢(6) stat ⁢(39) syst for PGCM relative to 16 O + 16 O collisions for the 1% most central events. At the same time, theoretical uncertainties largely cancel when studying relative variations of observables between two systems. This demonstrates a method based on experiments with two light-ion species for precision characterizations of the collective dynamics and its emergence in a small system.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Systematically localizable operators for quantum simulations of quantum field theories

Correlations and measures of entanglement in ground-state wave functions of relativistic quantum field theories are spatially localized over length scales set by the mass of the field. We utilize this localization to design digital quantum circuits for preparing the ground states of lattice scalar quantum field theories. Controlled rotations that are exponentially localized in their position-space extent are found to provide exponentially convergent wave function fidelity. These angles scale with the correlation between sites and the classical two-point correlation function, as opposed to the more localized mutual information or the hyperlocalized (1×1)-site 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.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Quasiparton distributions in massive QED2: Toward quantum computation

We analyze the quasiparton distributions of the lightest 𝜂′ meson in massive two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED2) by exact diagonalization. The Hamiltonian and boost operators are mapped onto spin qubits in a spatial lattice with open boundary conditions. The lowest excited state in the exact diagonalization is shown to interpolate continuously between an anomalous 𝜂′ state at strong coupling, and a nonanomalous heavy meson at weak coupling, with a cusp at the critical point. The boosted 𝜂′ state follows relativistic kinematics but with large deviations in the luminal limit. The spatial quasiparton distribution function and amplitude for the 𝜂′ state are computed numerically for increasing rapidity both at strong and weak coupling, and compared to the exact light front results. The numerical results from the boosted form of the spatial parton distributions, compare fairly with the inverse Fourier transformation of the luminal parton distributions, derived in the lowest Fock space approximation. Our analysis points out some of the limitations facing the current lattice program for the parton distributions.

Lattice field theory↗

Provably accurate simulation of gauge theories and bosonic systems

Quantum many-body systems involving bosonic modes or gauge fields have infinite-dimensional local Hilbert spaces which must be truncated to perform simulations of real-time dynamics on classical or quantum computers. To analyze the truncation error, we develop methods for bounding the rate of growth of local quantum numbers such as the occupation number of a mode at a lattice site, or the electric field at a lattice link. Our approach applies to various models of bosons interacting with spins or fermions, and also to both abelian and non-abelian gauge theories. We show that if states in these models are truncated by imposing an upper limit Λ on each local quantum number, and if the initial state has low local quantum numbers, then an error at most ϵ can be achieved by choosing Λ to scale polylogarithmically with ϵ − 1 , an exponential improvement over previous bounds based on energy conservation. For the Hubbard-Holstein model, we numerically compute a bound on Λ that achieves accuracy ϵ , obtaining significantly improved estimates in various parameter regimes. We also establish a criterion for truncating the Hamiltonian with a provable guarantee on the accuracy of time evolution. Building on that result, we formulate quantum algorithms for dynamical simulation of lattice gauge theories and of models with bosonic modes; the gate complexity depends almost linearly on spacetime volume in the former case, and almost quadratically on time in the latter case. We establish a lower bound showing that there are systems involving bosons for which this quadratic scaling with time cannot be improved. By applying our result on the truncation error in time evolution, we also prove that spectrally isolated energy eigenstates can be approximated with accuracy ϵ by truncating local quantum numbers at Λ = polylog ( ϵ − 1 ) .

Tong, Yu↗

Quantum Simulation of Field Theories Without State Preparation

We propose an algorithm for computing real-time observables using a quantum processor while avoiding the need to prepare the full quantum state. This reduction in quantum resources is achieved by classically sampling configurations in imaginary-time using standard lattice field theory. These configurations can then be passed to quantum processor for time-evolution. This method encounters a signal-to-noise problem which we characterize, and we demonstrate the application of standard lattice QCD methods to mitigate it.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Quantum simulations in effective model spaces: Hamiltonian-learning variational quantum eigensolver using digital quantum computers and application to the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model

Quantum simulations offer the potential to predict the structure and dynamics of nuclear many-body systems that are beyond the capabilities of classical computing. Generally, preparing the ground state of strongly-interacting many-body systems relevant to nuclear physics is however inefficient, even using ideal quantum computers. In addition, currently available NISQ-era quantum devices possess modest numbers of qubits, limiting the size of quantum many-body systems that can be simulated. In this context, a reformulation of the quantum many-body problems using truncated model spaces and Hamiltonians is desirable to make them more amenable to near-term quantum computers. The importance of symmetries in low-energy theories, including effective field theories (EFTs), lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and effective model spaces for nuclear systems, in particular their interplay with the reduction of active Hilbert spaces, is well known. Lesser known is the fact that the non-commutivity of some symmetries and truncations of the model space can be profitably combined with variational calculations to rearrange the entanglement into localized structures and enable more efficient simulations. Here, the goal of the present study is to explore and utilize the non-commutivity of symmetries and model-space truncations of quantum many-body systems important to nuclear physics, particularly in combination with variational algorithms for quantum simulations and effective Hamiltonian learning. We introduce an iterative hybrid classical-quantum algorithm, Hamiltonian learning variational quantum eigensolver (HL-VQE), that simultaneously optimizes an effective Hamiltonian, thereby rearranging entanglement into the effective model space, and the associated ground-state wavefunction. Quantum simulations, using classical computers and IBM's superconducting-qubit quantum computers, are performed to demonstrate the HL-VQE algorithm, in the context of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model of interacting fermions, where the Hamiltonian transformation corresponds to an orbital rotation. We use a mapping where the number of qubits scales with the $\log$ of the size of the effective model space, rather than the particle number. HL-VQE is found to provide an exponential improvement in LMG-model calculations of the ground-state energy and wavefunction, compared to naive truncations without Hamiltonian learning, throughout a significant fraction of the Hilbert space. In the context of EFT, this corresponds to counterterms scaling exponentially with the cut-off as opposed to power law. Implementations on IBM's QExperience quantum computers and simulators for 1- and 2-qubit effective model spaces are shown to provide accurate and precise results, reproducing classical predictions. For a range of parameters defining the LMG model, the HL-VQE algorithm is found to have better scaling of quantum resources requirements than previously explored algorithms. In particular, the HL-VQE scales efficiently over a large fraction of the model space, in contrast to VQE alone. This work constitutes a step in the development of entanglement-driven quantum algorithms for descriptions of nuclear many-body systems. This, in part, leverages the potential of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. The exponential scaling of counterterms observed in this study suggests the possibility of more general applicability to other non-perturbative EFTs.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Gluon transverse-momentum-dependent distributions from large-momentum effective theory

We demonstrate that gluon transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution functions (TMDPDFs) can be extracted from lattice calculations of appropriate Euclidean correlations in large-momentum effective theory (LaMET). Based on perturbative calculations of gluon unpolarized and helicity TMDPDFs, we present a matching formula connecting them and their LaMET counterparts, where the latter are renormalized in a scheme facilitating lattice calculations and converted to the $\overline{MS}$ scheme. The hard matching kernel is given up to one-loop level. We also show that the perturbative result is independent of the prescription used for the pinch-pole singularity in the relevant correlations. Our results offer a guidance for the extraction of gluon TMDPDFs from lattice simulations, and have the potential to greatly facilitate perturbative calculations of the hard matching kernel.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Quantum simulation of nonequilibrium dynamics and thermalization in the Schwinger model

In this work, we present simulations of nonequilibrium dynamics of quantum field theories on digital quantum computers. As a representative example, we consider the Schwinger model, a (1+1)-dimensional U(1) gauge theory, coupled through a Yukawa-type interaction to a thermal environment described by a scalar field theory. We use the Hamiltonian formulation of the Schwinger model discretized on a spatial lattice. With the thermal scalar fields traced out, the Schwinger model can be treated as an open quantum system and its real-time dynamics are governed by a Lindblad equation in the Markovian limit. The interaction with the environment ultimately drives the system to thermal equilibrium. In the quantum Brownian motion limit, the Lindblad equation is related to a field theoretical Caldeira-Leggett equation. By using the Stinespring dilation theorem with ancillary qubits, we perform studies of both the nonequilibrium dynamics and the preparation of a thermal state in the Schwinger model using IBM's simulator and quantum devices. The real-time dynamics of field theories as open quantum systems and the thermal state preparation studied here are relevant for a variety of applications in nuclear and particle physics, quantum information and cosmology.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Complex Oxides under Simulated Electric Field: Determinants of Defect Polarization in AB O 3 Perovskites

Abstract Polarization of ionic and electronic defects in response to high electric fields plays an essential role in determining properties of materials in applications such as memristive devices. However, isolating the polarization response of individual defects has been challenging for both models and measurements. Here the authors quantify the nonlinear dielectric response of neutral oxygen vacancies, comprised of strongly localized electrons at an oxygen vacancy site, in perovskite oxides of the form AB O 3 . Their approach implements a computationally efficient local Hubbard U correction in density functional theory simulations. These calculations indicate that the electric dipole moment of this defect is correlated positively with the lattice volume, which they varied by elastic strain and by A‐site cation species. In addition, the dipole of the neutral oxygen vacancy under electric field increases with increasing reducibility of the B‐site cation. The predicted relationship among point defect polarization, mechanical strain, and transition metal chemistry provides insights for the properties of memristive materials and devices under high electric fields.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Machine-learning modeling of magnetization dynamics in quasi-equilibrium and driven metallic spin systems

Here, we present a perspective on recent progress in machine-learning (ML) force-field approaches for large-scale Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert (LLG) simulations of metallic spin systems. Building on a generalization of the Behler–Parrinello (BP) architecture originally developed for quantum molecular dynamics, we develop scalable and transferable ML models that faithfully capture the complex, environment-dependent electron-mediated exchange fields characteristic of itinerant magnets. A central ingredient of this framework is the implementation of symmetry-aware magnetic descriptors based on group-theoretical bispectrum formalisms. Leveraging these ML force fields, LLG simulations faithfully reproduce hallmark non-collinear magnetic orders—such as the 120° and tetrahedral states—on the triangular lattice, and successfully capture the complex spin textures emerging in the mixed-phase states of a square-lattice double-exchange model under thermal quench. We further discuss a generalized potential theory that extends the BP formalism to incorporate both conservative and nonconservative electronic torques, thereby enabling ML models to learn nonequilibrium exchange fields from computationally demanding microscopic approaches such as nonequilibrium Green’s-function techniques. This extension yields quantitatively accurate predictions of voltage-driven domain-wall motion and establishes a foundation for quantum-accurate, multiscale modeling of nonequilibrium spin dynamics and spintronic functionalities.

Descriptors↗

Probing celestial energy and charge correlations through real-time quantum simulations: Insights from the Schwinger model

Motivated by recent developments in the application of light-ray operators (LROs) in high energy physics, we propose a new strategy to study correlation functions of LROs through real-time quantum simulations. We argue that quantum simulators provide an ideal laboratory to explore the properties LROs in lower-dimensional quantum field theories. This is exemplified in the 1 + 1 -d Schwinger model, employing tensor network methods, focusing on the calculation of energy and charge correlators. Despite some challenges in extracting the necessary correlation functions from the lattice, the methodology used can be extended to real quantum devices. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Revealing the Defect‐Driven Ferroelectric Mechanisms of Aluminum Nitride

Wurtzite III-nitride compounds are CMOS-compatible with widespread industrial interest to exercise ferroelectricity, despite their polar structure being highly resistant to polarization reversal. Here, we induce and tune ferroelectric properties in w-AlN via direct-write ion-beam processing, using nanoscale patterned defect engineering as a post-growth alternative to conventional cation substitution. Nanometric piezoresponse spectroscopy of the focused He + beam patterned defect concentrations in ferroelectric Al 0.92 B 0.08 N measures a localized 10x enhancement in effective piezoresponse and 40% reduction in switching barrier. The irradiation-induced point defects convert piezoelectric AlN into a ferroelectric system with site-saturated nucleation and raise the dielectric susceptibility, switched polarization, and effective piezoelectric coefficient. Enhanced defect-lattice interactions in AlN increase carrier conduction and phonon scattering loss but preserve long-range crystallinity. Here, based on atomistic analysis of nudged elastic band density functional theory calculations and reactive force field simulations, both nitrogen vacancies and defect complexes disrupt bond ordering, facilitating a line-by-line low-barrier switching of pristine AlN.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗