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Two-Dimensional Z2 Lattice Gauge Theory on a Near-Term Quantum Simulator: Variational Quantum Optimization, Confinement, and Topological Order

Luca Lumia, Pietro Torta, Glen Bigan Mbeng, Giuseppe E. Santoro, Elisa Ercolessi, Michele Burrello, Matteo M. Wauters

Published Apr 28, 2022• 33 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum approximate optimization algorithms can efficiently initialize the ground states of two-dimensional lattice gauge theory in different phases, showing signatures of topological order in systems sizes comparable to modern quantum computing platforms.
DOI
10.1103/prxquantum.3.020320

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Two-dimensional Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ lattice gauge theory on a near-term quantum simulator: variational quantum optimization, confinement, and topological order
We propose an implementation of a two-dimensional Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ lattice gauge theory model on a shallow quantum circuit, involving a number of single and two-qubits gates comparable to what can be achieved with present-day and near-future technologies. The ground state preparation is numerically analyzed on a small lattice with a variational quantum algorithm, which requires a small number of parameters to reach high fidelities and can be efficiently scaled up on larger systems. Despite the reduced size of the lattice we consider, a transition between confined and deconfined regimes can be detected by measuring expectation values of Wilson loop operators or the topological entropy. Moreover, if periodic boundary conditions are implemented, the same optimal solution is transferable among all four different topological sectors, without any need for further optimization on the variational parameters. Our work shows that variational quantum algorithms provide a useful technique to be added in the growing toolbox for digital simulations of lattice gauge theories.
Gauge theories and topological phases play a fundamental role in different areas of physics. The first ones are at the basis of the Standard Model in the field of particle physics, describing the electroweak and strong interactions through a non-Abelian gauge theory. In condensed matter and statistical physics, gauge theories arise as low-energy effective descriptions of strongly correlated phenomena, such as quantum spin liquids and quantum Hall effect. In this realm there is a strong connection with topological phases and order, as emergent gauge fermions and bosons often describe collective excitations of new exotic states of matter of spin models. The discretization on a lattice is a possible way of dealing with the strongly coupled nature of these theories, due to the fact that this formulation at finite volume provides natural regularizing cut-offs, i.e. the lattice size and spacing. This allows for the investigation of different non-perturbative properties both numerically and analytically. Despite the success of these methods, there are various aspects which remain intractable due to the sign or complex action problems, like the out of equilibrium real time evolution or the analysis of quantum chromodynamics with finite chemical potential. In this respect, quantum simulators of many-body systems to simulate high energy physics arise as promising alternatives to face these problems in the near future. They are quantum systems that can be controlled and used to simulate more complicated systems, whose properties could not be analysed with classical computational, experimental or theoretical tools. In the last decades, there has been a huge development in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics, allowing for the realization highly precise and controllable platforms by means of trapped ions, superconducting circuits, Rydberg atoms and ultracold atoms in optical lattices. This work of Thesis is part of these fields and has different purposes, all of them connected with the study of gauge theories and topological phases. Firstly, we want to develop a reformulation of lattice gauge theories in terms of gauge invariant fields, in a way to deal solely with physical variables directly in the action. Among several possible advantages, a crucial point is that this can be particularly helpful for the construction of consistent approximation schemes, such as mean-field theories, in order to understand and capture some of the physical features of the theory and make the mean-field approximation consistent with the Elitzur theorem, stating that a local gauge symmetry can not be spontaneously broken. As a second point, we face the problem of simulating higher dimensional gauge theories with ultracold atoms. One of the challenges in more than one dimension is indeed the realization of plaquette interaction terms in the Hamiltonian of lattice gauge theories: these can be engineered through four correlated hoppings in perturbation theory, or by means of constrained hoppings in the dual formulation. In this respect, our main target is to set up an ultracold atomic platform generating the plaquette term in two dimensions using only two correlated hoppings, and protecting gauge invariance through angular momentum conservation. The last point we address in the Thesis is related to the analysis of particles moving in static background gauge potentials, i.e. when the considered gauge field has no dynamical term in the action of the system. Indeed, the dynamics of quantum particles in the presence of static gauge fields gives rise to intriguing physical phenomena. In particular, using ultracold atom setups, the realization of artificial gauge potentials can be used to investigate the physics of topological semimetals, such as Weyl or Dirac type. In the last ten years, a lot of attention has been paid to their characterization, due to the appearence of clear theoretical predictions and very well-controlled experimental techniques. We investigate here the relation between topological phase transitions and van Hove singularities, i.e. the discontinuities in the energy derivative of the density of states, in three-dimensional gapless systems. In such materials, topological phase transitions can be defined by changes of the topological invariants of the Fermi sheets, happening at specific singular points. Moreover, Fermi surface singularities result in the presence of the so-called van Hove points. We then present a general argument to relate topological phase transitions and van Hove singularities, and show observable consequences that are related to the transport properties of the system. We exemplify our argument in Weyl systems by analyzing the three-dimensional Hofstadter model for various commensurate fluxes, which offers the opportunity to consider different kinds of Weyl metals and to understand the features of their density of states.
Wegner duality is essential for Z2 lattice gauge theory, yet the duality on non-trivial topologies has remained implicit. We extend Wegner duality to arbitrary topology and dimension, obtaining a new class of Ising models, in which topology is encoded in non-local domain-wall patterns. Without the overhead of gauge constraints, simulating this model on an L*L torus requires only L*L qubits with two-body couplings, halving the conventional four-body coupled 2L*L qubits, enabling full experimental realization of Z2 lattice gauge theory on near-term devices.
Abstract Simulating lattice gauge theory (LGT) Hamiltonian and its nontrivial states by programmable quantum devices has attracted numerous attention in recent years. Rydberg atom arrays constitute one of the most rapidly developing arenas for quantum simulation and quantum computing. The Z2 LGT and topological order has been realized in experiments while the U(1) LGT is being worked hard on the way. States of LGT have local constraint and are fragmented into several winding sectors with topological protection. It is therefore difficult to prepare a state in certain sector for experiments, and it is also an important task for quantum topological memory. Here, we propose a protocol of sweeping quantum annealing (SQA) for searching the state within target topological sector. With the Monte Carlo method, we show that this SQA has linear time complexity of size with applications to the antiferromagnetic transverse field Ising model, which has emergent U(1) gauge fields. This SQA protocol can be realized easily on quantum simulation platforms such as Rydberg atoms and superconducting circuits. We expect this approach would provide a generic recipe for resolving the topological hindrances in quantum optimization and the preparation of quantum topological state.
Speedup of high-order unconstrained binary optimization using quantum Z2{{\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}Z2​ lattice gauge theory
An important and difficult problem in optimization is the high-order unconstrained binary optimization, which can represent many optimization problems more efficiently than quadratic unconstrained binary optimization, but how to quickly solve it has remained difficult. Here, we present an approach by mapping the high-order unconstrained binary optimization to quantum Z2{{\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}Z2​ lattice gauge theory and propose the gauged local quantum annealing, which is the local quantum annealing protected by the gauge symmetry. We present the quantum algorithm and its corresponding quantum-inspired classical algorithm for this problem and achieve algorithmic speedup by using gauge symmetry. By running the quantum-inspired classical algorithm, we demonstrate that the gauged local quantum annealing reduces the computational time by one order of magnitude from that of the local quantum annealing. The authors propose a quantum annealing scheme for solving a higher-order unconstrained binary optimization problem by mapping it to a quantum Z2 lattice gauge theory on a dual graph. This scheme is shown to achieve a speed-up of at least one order of magnitude in finding the ground state compared to other methods.
Here, the authors use gauge-invariant neural network quantum states (NNQS) to study \ensuremath{\mathbb{Z}}N{}_{N}N​ lattice gauge theories. They compute ground states and map out phase transitions, identifying a continuous transition in \ensuremath{\mathbb{Z}}2{}_{2}2​ with Ising critical exponents and a weakly first-order transition in \ensuremath{\mathbb{Z}}3{}_{3}3​. Their work demonstrates how deep learning can overcome challenges in traditional lattice simulations, providing a novel approach for exploring complex quantum phases and topological order in condensed matter systems.