Finite-temperature properties of strongly correlated quantum matter are central to condensed matter, chemistry, and high-energy physics, yet are often inaccessible to classical methods such as quantum Monte Carlo (QMC). Here, we investigate dissipative thermal state preparation of frustrated spin systems using digital quantum computers. We focus on two paradigmatic models on the kagome lattice: the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model (AFHM), whose finite-temperature properties are inaccessible to QMC due to a severe sign problem, and the antiferromagnetic Ising model (AFIM), which serves as a sign-problem-free benchmark. Using IBM quantum processors, we prepare approximate thermal states of the AFIM on kagome lattices with up to 79 spins coupled to 60 environment qubits. We observe the emergence of a robust steady state with an adjustable effective temperature that persists in circuits with over 1000 layers of two-qubit gates. We further study the scalability of the dissipative protocol through classical statevector simulations of the AFIM and AFHM. On lattices with up to 27 sites, we find that the circuit depth to reach thermal equilibrium is independent of system size and grows at most linearly with inverse temperature. These results establish engineered dissipation as a promising approach to finite-temperature quantum simulation of frustrated matter, and point toward regimes where quantum devices may outperform classical methods.
Models of interacting many-body quantum systems that may realize new exotic phases of matter, notably quantum spin liquids, are challenging to study using even state-of-the-art classical methods such as tensor network simulations. Quantum computing provides a promising route for overcoming these difficulties to find ground states, dynamics, and more. In this paper, we argue that recently developed hybrid quantum-classical algorithms based on real-time evolution are promising methods for solving a particularly important model in the search for spin liquids, the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the two-dimensional kagome lattice. We show how to construct efficient quantum circuits to implement time evolution for the model and to evaluate key observables on the quantum computer, and we argue that the method has favorable scaling with increasing system size. We then restrict to a 12-spin star plaquette from the kagome lattice and a related 8-spin system, and we give an empirical demonstration on these small systems that the hybrid algorithms can efficiently find the ground state energy and the magnetization curve. For these demonstrations, we use four levels of approximation: exact state vectors, exact state vectors with statistical noise from sampling, noisy classical emulators, and (for the 8-spin system only) real quantum hardware, specifically the Quantinuum H1-1 processor; for the noisy simulations and hardware demonstration, we also employ error mitigation strategies based on the symmetries of the Hamiltonian. Our results strongly suggest that these hybrid algorithms present a promising direction for studying quantum spin liquids and more generally for resolving important unsolved problems in condensed matter theory and beyond.
Quantum spin simulations of frustrated lattices remain challenging for both classical and quantum algorithms, particularly in parameter regimes relevant to quantum spin liquid (QSL) phases. In this work, we apply Sample-based Krylov Quantum Diagonalization (SKQD) to estimate the ground state of the antiferromagnetic XXZ Heisenberg model on the
J1--
J2 square lattice, the Kagome lattice, and a 1D chain, studying system sizes from 12 to 72 spins. In our application of SKQD, we identify a ZZ deformation of
Δ=2 as a sufficiently sparse Hamiltonian and introduce two modifications to the SKQD framework tailored to spin models: a canonical bitstring compression scheme that preserves the effectiveness of configuration recovery under spin-flip degeneracy, and the use of multiple Krylov subspaces to improve ground state coverage without any increase in quantum resources. For the 1D chain and Kagome lattice, SKQD achieves sub-percent ground-state energy errors at system sizes up to 24 spins, including a relative error of
0.002% on the 12-site Kagome lattice, surpassing the best prior VQE result of
0.01% on the same system while requiring no variational optimization. SKQD further extends to system sizes well beyond the reach of prior quantum algorithm studies, reaching 72 spins across all three geometries. Beyond 24 spins, accuracy degrades to relative errors of
19%--
36% at 72 sites, but the gradual scaling of error with system size suggests these limits are set by available shot budgets and circuit depth rather than fundamental algorithmic constraints. Although classical tensor network methods remain state-of-the-art for these models, this work establishes a new benchmark for quantum simulation of the frustrated Heisenberg model and demonstrates SKQD as a scalable, hardware-compatible approach for studying strongly correlated spin systems.
The phase diagrams of highly frustrated quantum spin systems can exhibit first-order quantum phase transitions and thermal critical points even in the absence of any long-ranged magnetic order. However, all unbiased numerical techniques for investigating frustrated quantum magnets face significant challenges, and for generic quantum Monte Carlo methods the challenge is the sign problem. Here we report on a general quantum Monte Carlo approach with a loop-update scheme that operates in any basis, and we show that, with an appropriate choice of basis, it allows us to study a frustrated model of coupled spin-1/2 trimers: simulations of the trilayer Heisenberg antiferromagnet in the spin-trimer basis are sign-problem-free when the intertrimer couplings are fully frustrated. This model features a first-order quantum phase transition, from which a line of first-order transitions emerges at finite temperatures and terminates in a thermal critical point. The trimer unit cell hosts an internal degree of freedom that can be controlled to induce an extensive entropy jump at the quantum transition, which alters the shape of the first-order line. We explore the consequences for the thermal properties in the vicinity of the critical point, which include profound changes in the lines of maxima defined by the specific heat. Our findings reveal trimer quantum magnets as fundamental systems capturing in full the complex thermal physics of the strongly frustrated regime.
We report on a systematic study of two-dimensional, periodic, frustrated Ising models with quantum dynamics introduced via a transverse magnetic field. The systems studied are the triangular and kagom\'e lattice antiferromagnets, fully frustrated models on the square and hexagonal (honeycomb) lattices, a planar analog of the pyrochlore antiferromagnet, a pentagonal lattice antiferromagnet, as well as two quasi-one-dimensional lattices that have considerable pedagogical value. All of these exhibit a macroscopic degeneracy at
T=0 in the absence of the transverse field, which enters as a singular perturbation. We analyze these systems with a combination of a variational method at weak fields, a perturbative Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson approach from large fields, as well as quantum Monte Carlo simulations utilizing a cluster algorithm. Our results include instances of quantum order arising from classical criticality (triangular lattice) or classical disorder (pentagonal and probably hexagonal) as well as notable instances of quantum disorder arising from classical disorder (kagom\'e). We also discuss the effect of finite temperature, as well as the interplay between longitudinal and transverse fields---in the kagom\'e problem the latter gives rise to a nontrivial phase diagram with bond-ordered and bond-critical phases in addition to the disordered phase. We also note connections to quantum-dimer models and thereby to the physics of Heisenberg antiferromagnets in short-ranged resonating valence-bond phases that have been invoked in discussions of high-temperature superconductivity.
Aimed at a more realistic classical description of natural quantum systems, we present a two-dimensional tensor network algorithm to study finite temperature properties of frustrated model quantum systems and real quantum materials. For this purpose, we introduce the infinite projected entangled simplex operator ansatz to study thermodynamic properties. To obtain state-of-the-art benchmarking results, we explore the highly challenging spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the Kagome lattice, a system for which we investigate the melting of the magnetization plateaus at finite magnetic field and temperature. Making a close connection to actual experimental data of real quantum materials, we go on to studying the finite temperature properties of
Ca10Cr7O28. We compare the magnetization curve of this material in the presence of an external magnetic field at finite temperature with classically simulated data. As the first theoretical tool that incorporates both thermal fluctuations as well as quantum correlations in the study of this material, our work contributes to settling the existing controversy between the experimental data and previous theoretical works on the magnetization process.
A quantum many-body system coupled to an environment relaxes to a nonequilibrium steady state that can sustain order with no equilibrium counterpart. Computing such steady states is harder than closed-system dynamics as the density matrix problem squares the Hilbert-space dimension, and no free energy selects the steady state. The dissipative spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain is a benchmark example for nonequilibrium steady state physics; various methods have each calculated its phase diagram but do not agree, and a controlled determination at large system size has remained out of reach. Here we simulate the Lindblad dynamics of chains of up to 50 sites on the superconducting processor ibm_kingston -- 100 simultaneously active qubits at up to 1700 entangling-gate depths -- realizing the dissipation via Stinespring dilation. The system's dissipative evolution is a self-correcting mechanism that effectively erases errors, so hardware noise enters only as a weak competing dissipator. We measure static structure factors and resolve ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, spin-density-wave, and paramagnetic steady states, mapping the phase diagram with 117 quantum hardware data points across the
Jx--
Jy plane. We uncover a rich non-equilibrium phase diagram of ordered phases with only remnants of the mean-field order, and where sharp transitions give way to the crossovers expected in one dimension. We also find the existence of an incipient (Trotter-induced) spin density wave phase, highlighting the potential of controlled Trotterization as a tool to engineer various magnetic phases in dissipative spin systems. Our quantum simulations largely settle the lingering uncertainty regarding the correct phase diagram of this benchmark system. Moreover, they show that quantum computers are now a feasible tool for addressing scientific questions involving dissipative quantum systems.