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arXiv:2508.09095

Simulating single-photon experiments with a quantum computer

Prasad, Priyasheel, Marco Russo, Bartolomeo Montrucchio

Published Aug 12, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

In this work, we simulate the behavior of photons in a laboratory experiment using a quantum computer and examine how the simulation results compare with the theoretical predictions. The experiment involves both protective and non-protective measurements. While the latter involves complete wavefunction collapse, the former combines weak interactions with a protective mechanism thereby preserving the photon wave function coherence until its final detection. The simulation gives insights as to how efficient quantum computers can be in simulating actual physical systems as the amount of computation increases.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2508.09095

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In this work, we simulate the behavior of photons in a laboratory experiment using a quantum computer and examine how the simulation results compare with the theoretical predictions. The experiment involves both protective and non-protective measurements. While the latter involves complete wavefunction collapse, the former combines weak interactions with a protective mechanism thereby preserving the photon wave function coherence until its final detection. The simulation gives insights as to how efficient quantum computers can be in simulating actual physical systems as the amount of computation increases.
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Mach–Zehnder interferometers are commonly introduced in quantum mechanics instruction because they can be represented as two-state systems. With the availability of quantum computers in the cloud, we show how one can also simulate these experiments as perfect single-photon experiments, via quantum computer circuits. This simulation provides a great opportunity to bring quantum computation and single-quantum experiments into the physics classroom and to teach quantum computing via simulation rather than computer science-based algorithms.
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