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arXiv:2506.10945 · Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

Non-Abelian dynamics on a cube: Improving quantum compilation through qudit-based simulations

Jacky Jiang, Natalie Klco, Olivia Di Matteo

Published Sep 9, 2025• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recent developments in mapping lattice gauge theories relevant to the Standard Model onto digital quantum computers identify scalable paths with well-defined quantum compilation challenges toward the continuum. As an entry point to these challenges, we address the simulation of SU(2) lattice gauge theory. Using qudit registers to encode the digitized gauge field, we provide quantum resource estimates, in terms of elementary qudit gates, for arbitrarily high local gauge field truncations. We then demonstrate an end-to-end simulation of real-time, qutrit-digitized SU(2) dynamics on a cube. Through optimizing the simulation, we improved circuit decompositions for uniformly controlled qudit rotations, an algorithmic primitive for general applications of quantum computing. The decompositions also apply to mixed-dimensional qudit systems, which we found advantageous for compiling lattice gauge theory simulations. Furthermore, we parallelize the evolution of opposite faces in anticipation of similar opportunities arising in three-dimensional lattice volumes. This work details an ambitious executable for future qudit hardware and attests to the value of codesign strategies between lattice gauge theory simulation and quantum compilation.

DOI
10.1103/rrmd-fqx6

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Recent developments in mapping lattice gauge theories relevant to the Standard Model onto digital quantum computers identify scalable paths with well-defined quantum compilation challenges toward the continuum. As an entry point to these challenges, we address the simulation of SU(2) lattice gauge theory. Using qudit registers to encode the digitized gauge field, we provide quantum resource estimates, in terms of elementary qudit gates, for arbitrarily high local gauge field truncations. We then demonstrate an end-to-end simulation of real-time, qutrit-digitized SU(2) dynamics on a cube. Through optimizing the simulation, we improved circuit decompositions for uniformly controlled qudit rotations, an algorithmic primitive for general applications of quantum computing. The decompositions also apply to mixed-dimensional qudit systems, which we found advantageous for compiling lattice gauge theory simulations. Furthermore, we parallelize the evolution of opposite faces in anticipation of similar opportunities arising in three-dimensional lattice volumes. This work details an ambitious executable for future qudit hardware and attests to the value of codesign strategies between lattice gauge theory simulation and quantum compilation.
We present a quantum simulation strategy for a (1+1)-dimensional SU(2) non-Abelian lattice gauge theory with dynamical matter, a hardcore-gluon Hamiltonian Yang-Mills, tailored to a six-level trapped-ion-qudit quantum processor, as recently experimentally realized [Nat. Phys. 18, 1053 (2022)]. We employ a qudit encoding fulfilling gauge invariance, an SU(2) Gauss’s law. We discuss the experimental feasibility of generalized Mølmer-Sørensen gates used to efficiently simulate the dynamics. We illustrate how a shallow circuit with these resources is sufficient to implement scalable digital quantum simulation of the model. We also numerically show that this model, albeit simple, can dynamically manifest physically relevant properties specific to non-Abelian field theories, such as baryon excitations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories (LGTs) provides a powerful framework for understanding nonperturbative phenomena. However, to realize the hope of answering challenging physics questions on near-term devices it is crucial to develop resource-efficient formulations, in particular for non-Abelian LGTs and beyond (1+1) dimensions. In this work, we address this issue by focusing on the difficulty of simulating fermionic degrees of freedom and on mitigating the Hilbert space redundancy, i.e., the presence of exponentially many nonphysical states that do not obey gauge invariance. First, we show a procedure that removes the matter and improves the hardware-resource efficiency. We demonstrate it for the simplest non-Abelian group addressable with this procedure, D 8 , in the cases of both one and two spatial dimensions. Then, with the objective of running a variational quantum simulation on real quantum hardware, we map the D 8 LGT onto qudit systems with local interactions. We propose a variational scheme for the qudit system with a local Hamiltonian, which can be implemented on a universal qudit quantum device. Our results show the effectiveness of the matter-removing procedure, solving the redundancy problem, and reducing the amount of quantum resources. This approach can serve as a way of simulating LGTs in high spatial dimensions, with non-Abelian gauge groups, and including dynamical fermions.
Gauge theories form the foundation of the Standard Model of particle physics. These theories can exhibit confinement, where charged particles only occur in bound states, connected by flux strings whose energy grows linearly with separation. Simulating the real-time dynamics of such strings, including their breaking, remains a major challenge for classical computations and a promising target for quantum simulations. While recent quantum simulation experiments explored string-breaking dynamics in abelian lattice gauge theories, non-abelian theories are qualitatively distinct because gauge fields themselves carry charge. Here, we report the first quantum simulation of genuine non-abelian string-breaking dynamics in a pure SU(222) lattice gauge theory, where gauge-field self-interactions drive string breaking even in the absence of dynamical matter. Our results are obtained on a trapped-ion quantum computer, using native qudit Hilbert spaces to encode truncated gauge fields on a ladder geometry and implement digital Trotter dynamics. We experimentally study unbreakable and breakable strings generated by fundamental and adjoint static charges, respectively. We locally resolve string oscillations and coherent string breaking through the creation of gluonic excitations driven by non-abelian plaquette interactions. Our work establishes hardware-efficient, problem-tailored qudit simulations as a promising route for accessing non-perturbative dynamics relevant to high-energy physics.
Simulating the real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theories, underlying the Standard Model of particle physics, is a notoriously difficult problem where quantum simulators can provide a practical advantage over classical approaches. In this work, we present a complete Rydberg-based architecture, co-designed to digitally simulate the dynamics of general gauge theories coupled to matter fields in a hardware-efficient manner. Ref. \cite{Gonzalez_2022} showed how a qudit processor, where non-abelian gauge fields are locally encoded and time-evolved, considerably reduces the required simulation resources compared to standard qubit-based quantum computers. Here we integrate the latter with a recently introduced fermionic quantum processor \cite{Gonzalez_2023}, where fermionic statistics are accounted for at the hardware level, allowing us to construct quantum circuits that preserve the locality of the gauge-matter interactions. We exemplify the flexibility of such a fermion-qudit processor by focusing on two paradigmatic high-energy phenomena. First, we present a resource-efficient protocol to simulate the Abelian-Higgs model, where the dynamics of confinement and string breaking can be investigated. Then, we show how to prepare hadrons made up of fermionic matter constituents bound by non-abelian gauge fields, and show how to extract the corresponding hadronic tensor. In both cases, we estimate the required resources, showing how quantum devices can be used to calculate experimentally-relevant quantities in particle physics.
A dynamical quantum simulation of SU(2) non-Abelian gauge field theory on a digital quantum computer is presented. This was enabled on current quantum hardware by introducing a mapping of the field onto a register of qubits that utilizes local gauge symmetry while preserving local constraints on the fields, reducing the dimensionality of the calculation. Controlled plaquette operators and gauge-variant completions in the unphysical part of the Hilbert space were designed and used to implement time evolution. The new techniques developed in this work generalize to quantum simulations of higher dimensional gauge field theories.
Matter under extreme conditions behaves as a non-equilibrium, strongly-interacting quantum system. Such systems are in the non-perturbative regime of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), where their time evolution is classically intractable. Quantum computing offers a promising alternative, but present-day devices are limited in qubit count and circuit depth, so efficient formulations and algorithms are key to scaling toward experimentally relevant QCD simulations. A scalable framework is established for simulating energy loss and hadronization in 1+1-dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge theory, in which a heavy quark traverses a lattice of light quarks. Classical lattice QCD methods are translated into physics-informed circuits to prepare the interacting ground state. The evolution is run on IBM's quantum processor ibm_pittsburgh, where the charge distribution and energy loss are measured. A further study develops the quantum simulation of the fully gauge-fixed SU(2) Hamiltonian in a mixed basis, a formulation that is expected to remain efficient at all gauge couplings. Digitizing the continuous gauge fields with as few as three qubits per plaquette reproduces low-energy observables with 10−310^{-3}10−3 precision. Scaling to larger systems is limited by resource overhead, which motivates truncations that preserve the relevant observables. Sequency Hierarchy Truncation (SeqHT) exploits the hierarchy in basis-operator contributions. Demonstrated on the adiabatic preparation of the λφ4λφ^4λφ4 ground state on ibm_sherbrooke, SeqHT reduces circuit depth by ~30%, suppressing hardware noise in the extracted observables. All simulations in this dissertation are validated on quantum hardware against classical benchmarks. These studies advance quantum simulations of real-time QCD dynamics.