experimental measurement of out-of-time-order correlators at finite temperature on a trapped ion quantum computer

ORAL

Abstract



Out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) are a key observable in the study of quantum scrambling dynamics and, by extension, for exploring the physics of black holes and many-body systems using quantum simulators [1]. Here we report the first experimental measurements of an OTOC at finite temperatures using a digital simulation of the transverse-field Ising model on a trapped-ion quantum computer. We efficiently measure the OTOC through local observables only, following separate Trotterized time evolution of each half of a variationally-prepared thermofield double state [2]. We use this technique to quantify the dependence of OTOC decay on the temperature using 6-qubit quantum circuits.

[1] Landsman et al. Nature 567, 61–65 (2019).

[2] Sundar, Bhuvanesh. arXiv:2006.15093.

*This work is partially supported by QuantERA via QTFLAG-2017 at the University of Innsbruck and NSF grant no. PHY-1430094 to the PFC at the Joint Quantum Institute.

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Presenters

  • Alaina Green

    • Joint Quantum Institute and Department of Physics, University of Maryland
    • JQI
    • University of Maryland, College Park

Authors

  • Alaina Green

    • Joint Quantum Institute and Department of Physics, University of Maryland
    • JQI
    • University of Maryland, College Park

  • Bhuvanesh Sundar

    • JILA Boulder
    • JILA
    • U Colorado
    • JILA, NIST, Department of Physics and Center for Theory of Quantum Matter, University of Colorado

  • Andreas Elben

    • University of Innsbruck
    • Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Innsbruck and Center for Quantum Physics, University of Innsbruck

  • Lata Kh Joshi

    • Center for Quantum Physics, University of Innsbruck

  • Torsten Zache

    • University of Innsbruck
    • Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Innsbruck and Center for Quantum Physics, University of Innsbruck

  • Norbert M Linke

    • JQI and QuICS and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Joint Quantum Institute and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park 20740, USA