We report experimental digital quantum simulation of the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model on a superconducting quantum processor at a scale beyond the reach of exact statevector simulation and challenging for state-of-the-art tensor-network methods. We encode this problem using up to 120 qubits through an efficient mapping that reduces circuit complexity, and we improve accuracy through error suppression to simulate dynamical evolution using up to 90 Trotter steps. From a vacancy defect introduced in the middle of an
L=31-site (62-qubit) Néel initial state, we directly observe spin-charge separation to
t=9 in natural units and quantitatively extract velocities
vc,
vs, which match classical simulations across model parameters, and analytics in appropriate regimes. We then extend experiments to
L=60 fermions (120 qubits) and evolution times to
t=6 using 30 Trotter steps. Quantum-processor outputs agree quantitatively with approximate classical simulations performed using a time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) solver and we observe that increasing the TDVP bond dimension through
χ=4096 expands the range of evolution times within which agreement has RMSE
∼1% before the approaches diverge. Owing to the large scale of the simulation and the use of overhead-free error-suppression techniques, for simulated evolution times at the limit of quantum/classical agreement (
t≳5 in natural hopping units), the wall-clock runtime of the quantum processor is nearly three orders of magnitude faster than TDVP simulations with
χ=4096 and implemented using the ITensor and TeNPy packages. These results establish contemporary digital quantum processors as a versatile, quantitatively accurate, and competitive platform for the study of fermionic many-body dynamics in regimes where leading classical methods can become prohibitively expensive.
The Hubbard model is a challenging quantum many-body problem and serves as a benchmark for quantum computing research. Accurate computation of its ground and excited state energies is essential for understanding correlated electron systems. In this study, the ground, first, and second excited state energies of 4$\times
1and2\times$2 Hubbard lattices are obtained using a newly designed ansatz circuit. The ansatz is constructed by combining concepts from the Hamiltonian Variational Ansatz (HVA) and the Number-Preserving Ansatz (NPA). A hybrid optimization strategy is applied, where COBYLA is used for coarse convergence and L-BFGS for fine-tuning. The resulting energies are evaluated, and the corresponding physical properties of the systems are analyzed through phase diagrams of the energy excitation gaps for different charge and spin configurations.
Abstract The Hubbard model is a challenging quantum many-body problem and serves as a benchmark for quantum computing research. Accurate computation of its ground and excited state energies is essential for understanding correlated electron systems. In this study, the ground, first, and second excited state energies of 4$\times
1and2\times$2 Hubbard lattices are obtained using a newly designed ansatz circuit. The ansatz is constructed by combining concepts from the Hamiltonian Variational Ansatz (HVA) and the Number-Preserving Ansatz (NPA). A hybrid optimization strategy is applied, where COBYLA is used for coarse convergence and L-BFGS for fine-tuning. The resulting energies are evaluated, and the corresponding physical properties of the systems are analyzed through phase diagrams of the energy excitation gaps for different charge and spin configurations.
We investigate the utility of the locality-preserving Derby-Klassen (DK) fermion-to-qubit mapping [arXiv:2003.06939] for variational quantum simulation of two-dimensional
t-
V and Fermi-Hubbard models. The DK mapping preserves the locality of fermionic interactions with an enlarged Hilbert space, thereby requiring additional constraints that define the physical sector. We incorporate these constraints directly into a Hamiltonian Variational Ansätz (HVA) through Clifford-gate state preparation and use the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) to show that the low-energy properties of the resulting qubit Hamiltonian are accurately reproduced. We further exploit particle-number conservation inherent in the ansätz to resolve distinct symmetry sectors and reliably access degenerate states. Consequently, we benchmark the DK-HVA against Jordan-Wigner-based variational circuits at nonzero chemical potential, where particle-hole symmetry and the associated half-filled sign-free condition are absent. Finally, we demonstrate the advantage of locality-preserving mappings in higher-dimensional fermionic systems, where the conventional Jordan-Wigner (JW) transformation generates increasingly long Pauli strings and corresponding circuit overheads. We further extend the framework to the spinful Fermi-Hubbard model and identify a tradeoff between fermionic-mode placement and the locality of hopping and on-site interaction terms. These results establish a practical framework combining locality-preserving fermion-to-qubit mappings, constraint-preserving Clifford state preparation, and symmetry-preserving variational circuits, that trades auxiliary-qubit and stabilizer-preparation overhead for reduced operator nonlocality, providing a practical route toward resource-efficient quantum simulation of higher-dimensional interacting fermionic systems.
Fermionic atoms in optical lattices provide a native implementation of Fermi-Hubbard (FH) models that can be used as analog quantum simulators of many-body fermionic systems. Recent experimental advances include the time-dependent local control of chemical potentials and tunnelings, and thus enable us to operate this platform digitally as a programmable quantum simulator. Here, we explore these opportunities and develop ground-state preparation algorithms for different fermionic models, based on the ability to implement both single-particle and many-body high-fidelity fermionic gates, as provided by the native FH Hamiltonian. In particular, we first design variational precompiled quantum circuits to prepare the ground state of the natively implemented FH model, with significant speedups relative to competing adiabatic protocols. Besides, the versatility of this variational approach enables us to target extended FH models, i.e., including terms that are not natively realized on the platform. As an illustration, we include next-nearest-neighbor tunnelings at finite dopings, relevant in the context of d -wave superconductivity. Furthermore, we discuss how to approximate the imaginary-time evolution using variational fermionic circuits, both as an alternative state-preparation strategy and as a subroutine for the quantum Lanczos algorithm to further improve the energy estimation. We benchmark our protocols for ladder geometries, though they can be readily applied to two-dimensional experimental setups to address regimes beyond the capabilities of current classical methods. These results pave the way for more efficient and comprehensive explorations of relevant many-body phases with existing programmable fermionic quantum simulators.
We consider a generalized Hubbard model with on-site interaction U, nearest-neighbor repulsion V, and nearest-neighbor hopping for spin \ensuremath{\sigma}, which depends on the sum of particles ${\mathrm{m}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}\ensuremath{-}|\mathrm{A}\mathrm{m}}$ with opposite spin in the two sites involved. The hopping matrix elements are denoted by
tAA,
tAB,
tBB for ${\mathrm{m}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}\ensuremath{-}|\mathrm{A}\mathrm{m}}$=0,1,2, respectively. For 0
tABtAA=
tBB, we have determined the regions of parameters for which the ground-state (GS) of the one-dimensional system is a charge-density wave (CDW), a spin-density wave (SDW), or a metal (M), using Hartree-Fock, exact diagonalization of finite chains and quantum Monte Carlo. The results agree qualitatively with the exactly solvable limit of
tAB=0. For 0
tABtAA=
tBB, the GS is a M for sufficiently low values of U and V. In contrast, when
tAA+
tBB-
2tAB=0, our results suggest that the GS is either a CDW or a SDW, with the boundary between them lying near the line U=2V.