Digital Quantum Simulations of a Non-Stoquastic 2-Qubit Hamiltonian

We study digital quantum simulations of a 2-qubit system evolving according to a time-dependent Hamiltonian. Depending on the choice of parameters, the Hamiltonian can be made stoquastic or non-stoquastic, which for our Hamiltonian can trigger a change from a symmetric to an antisymmetric ground state at the end of the interpolation. This change in the ground state as a function of the Hamiltonian parameters can be detected using a SWAP test with an ancilla qubit or by measuring the suppression of one of the computational basis states. We compare two techniques to simulate the evolution, namely Trotterization and `Continuous qDRIFT'. We plan on implementing these protocols on the Quantum Scientific Computing Open User Testbed (QSCOUT), a trapped-ion quantum information processor.