Quantum walks and Dirac cellular automata on a programmable trapped-ion quantum computer
Abstract
The quantum walk formalism is a widely used and highly successful framework for modeling quantum systems, such as simulations of the Dirac equation, different dynamics in both the low and high energy regime, and for developing a wide range of quantum algorithms. Here we present the circuit-based implementation of a discrete-time quantum walk in position space on a five-qubit trapped-ion quantum processor. We encode the space of walker positions in particular multi-qubit states and program the system to operate with different quantum walk parameters, experimentally realizing a Dirac cellular automaton with tunable mass parameter. The quantum walk circuits and position state mapping scale favorably to a larger model and physical systems, allowing the implementation of any algorithm based on discrete-time quantum walks algorithm and the dynamics associated with the discretized version of the Dirac equation.
- Publication:
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Nature Communications
- Pub Date:
- July 2020
- DOI:
- 10.1038/s41467-020-17519-4
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2002.02537
- Bibcode:
- 2020NatCo..11.3720H
- Keywords:
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- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 6 figures