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arXiv:2601.05161

Quantum Elastic Network Models and their Application to Graphene

Ioannis Kolotouros, Adithya Sireesh, Stuart Ferguson, Sean Thrasher, Petros Wallden, Julien Michel

quant-phcond-mat.mtrl-sciphysics.comp-phSubmitted Jan 8, 2026• Announced Jan 9, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Jan 8, 2026v2 · Jun 16, 2026
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Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations are a central computational methodology in materials design for relating atomic composition to mechanical properties. However, simulating materials with atomic-level resolution on a macroscopic scale is infeasible on current classical hardware, even when using the simplest elastic network models (ENMs) that represent molecular vibrations as a network of coupled oscillators. To address this issue, we introduce Quantum Elastic Network Models (QENMs) and utilize the quantum algorithm of Babbush et al. (PRX, 2023), which offers an exponential advantage when simulating systems of coupled oscillators under some specific conditions and assumptions. Here, we demonstrate how our method enables the efficient simulation of planar materials. As an example, we apply our algorithm to the task of simulating a 2D graphene sheet. We analyze the exact complexity for initial-state preparation, Hamiltonian simulation, and measurement of this material, and provide two real-world applications: heat transfer and the out-of-plane rippling effect. We estimate that an atomistic simulation of a graphene sheet on the centimeter scale, classically requiring hundreds of petabytes of memory and prohibitive runtimes, could be encoded and simulated with as few as $\sim 160$ logical qubits.

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42 pages, 11 figures

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Molecular dynamics simulations are a central computational methodology in materials design for relating atomic composition to mechanical properties. However, simulating materials with atomic-level resolution on a macroscopic scale is infeasible on current classical hardware, even when using the simplest elastic network models (ENMs) that represent molecular vibrations as a network of coupled oscillators. To address this issue, we introduce Quantum Elastic Network Models (QENMs) and utilize the quantum algorithm of Babbush et al. (PRX, 2023), which offers an exponential advantage when simulating systems of coupled oscillators under some specific conditions and assumptions. Here, we demonstrate how our method enables the efficient simulation of planar materials. As an example, we apply our algorithm to the task of simulating a 2D graphene sheet. We analyze the exact complexity for initial-state preparation, Hamiltonian simulation, and measurement of this material, and provide two real-world applications: heat transfer and the out-of-plane rippling effect. We estimate that an atomistic simulation of a graphene sheet on the centimeter scale, classically requiring hundreds of petabytes of memory and prohibitive runtimes, could be encoded and simulated with as few as ∼160\sim 160∼160 logical qubits.
This paper explores the potential of quantum simulation for advancing molecular dynamics (MD) modeling, addressing limitations in current computational methods due to computational cost and inability to accurately represent quantum effects. We propose a novel quantum-enhanced MD algorithm that utilizes superposition and entanglement to simulate molecular dynamics, aiming to achieve accurate modeling of complex quantum phenomena and predict material properties. The paper details the algorithm's core principles, mechanism, and potential applications, highlighting the advantages over traditional MD simulations.
Quantum computing promises the ability to compute properties of quantum systems exponentially faster than classical computers. Quantum advantage is achieved when a practical problem is solved more efficiently on a quantum computer than on a classical computer. Demonstrating quantum advantage requires a powerful quantum computer with low error rates and an efficient quantum algorithm that has a useful application. Despite rapid progress in hardware development, we still lack useful applications that are feasible for the next generation of quantum computers. Here we argue that an exponential quantum advantage exists in producing numerical resource estimates of larger quantum algorithms by accurately measuring simulation errors. We provide a quantum algorithm for measuring simulation errors of Trotter-based algorithms. Our results indicate that this method will reduce runtimes of quantum algorithms by approximately three orders of magnitude for one-hundred qubit systems. We also predict that these reductions will increase with system size. The methods we propose require relatively few qubits and operations, meaning the next generation of quantum computers could compute simulation errors for classically intractable systems. Since the underlying computations that lead to reduced resource estimates are infeasible for classical computers, this task is a candidate for demonstrating practical quantum advantage.
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Quantum simulation offers a pathway to accurately model and understand complex molecular systems, a task often intractable using classical computational methods. However, the computational cost of simulating quantum systems, particularly those involving many particles and complex interactions, remains a significant barrier. This work presents a novel approach leveraging tensor network methods to achieve scalable quantum simulation of molecular dynamics. We demonstrate how tensor networks can efficiently represent the quantum state of a molecular system, allowing for the accurate calculation of its dynamics. The core idea is to utilize the tensor network representation to reduce the computational complexity associated with traditional quantum simulation algorithms. The presented method offers a promising route toward simulating larger and more realistic molecular systems, opening up new possibilities in fields such as drug discovery, materials science, and fundamental physics. This paper details the theoretical framework and provides a conceptual outline, emphasizing the scalability of the approach.
Introduction: Quantum computing has the potential to transform scientific computing by providing efficient algorithms for solving large-scale numerical problems that arise in engineering and materials science. However, integrating quantum algorithms into multiscale mechanics remains largely unexplored due to the complexity of coupling atomistic and continuum models and the nonlinear nature of molecular dynamics. In this work, we develop a unified hybrid classical–quantum framework for molecular dynamics and multiscale materials modeling based on the Variational Quantum Linear Solver (VQLS). Materials and methods: The proposed framework reformulates three representative mechanics problems as quantum-compatible linear systems: static atomistic–continuum coupling through reduced stiffness equations, dynamic atomistic–continuum coupling using a boundary-reduced Berry–Childs–Ostrander–Wang formulation, and nonlinear molecular dynamics through Carleman linearization. These systems are solved using shot-free quantum-circuit simulations within a common VQLS framework. Results: For the static problem with 1024 free displacement degrees of freedom, the VQLS solution achieves R 2 = 0.99784 and a relative L 2 error of 2.70 % . For the dynamic problem, the five-qubit restarted systems produce maximum final-time displacement and velocity differences of 1.39 × 10 − 4 nm and 6.74 × 10 − 5 nm/ps, respectively. For the nonlinear problem, comparison of the six-qubit VQLS trajectory with a high-accuracy integration of the full Lennard–Jones equations over 150 time steps gives maximum displacement and velocity differences of 4.09 × 10 − 4 nm and 2.87 × 10 − 3 nm/ps, respectively. The reported velocities are reconstructed from the displacement histories using a common backward-difference rule with the prescribed zero initial velocity. The numerical comparisons quantify agreement with classical reference trajectories and distinguish selected modeling, temporal-discretization, and variational-solution errors. Conclusions: By providing a unified quantum linear-system formulation for representative multiscale mechanics problems, this deterministic, shot-free, simulator-based study establishes a methodological proof of concept for integrating VQLS formulations with computational materials models, rather than demonstrating near-term hardware performance or scalable quantum computational advantage.
Optimally-shaped electromagnetic fields have the capacity to coherently control the dynamics of quantum systems and thus offer a promising means for controlling molecular transformations relevant to chemical, biological, and materials applications.Currently, advances in this area are hindered by the prohibitive cost of the quantum dynamics simulations needed to explore the principles and possibilities of molecular control.However, the emergence of nascent quantum-computing devices suggests that efficient simulations of quantum dynamics may be on the horizon.In this article, we study how quantum computers could be employed to design optimally-shaped fields to control molecular systems.We introduce a hybrid algorithm that utilizes a quantum computer for simulating the field-induced quantum dynamics of a molecular system in polynomial time, in combination with a classical optimization approach for updating the field.Qubit encoding methods relevant for molecular control problems are described, and procedures for simulating the quantum dynamics and obtaining the simulation results are discussed.Numerical illustrations are then presented that explicitly treat paradigmatic vibrational and rotational control problems, and also consider how optimally-shaped fields could be used to elucidate the mechanisms of energy transfer in light-harvesting complexes.Resource estimates, as well as a numerical assessment of the impact of hardware noise and the prospects of near-term hardware implementations, are provided for the latter task.