Quantum Simulation of Z2 Lattice Gauge theory with minimal resources

TL;DR

This paper proposes optimized quantum simulation methods for fermionic Z2 gauge theories in (2+1)D, focusing on minimal qubit use and circuit depth to enable efficient NISQ-era quantum computations.

Contribution

It introduces a new quantum circuit for simulating Z2 gauge theories with minimal qubits and depth, suitable for NISQ devices, and explores variational approaches for further optimization.

Findings

Developed a minimal-qubit quantum circuit for Z2 gauge theory simulation.

Achieved comparable results with fewer 2-qubit gates.

Demonstrated potential of variational methods to reduce circuit depth.

Abstract

The quantum simulation of fermionic gauge field theories is one of the anticipated uses of quantum computers in the NISQ era. Recently work has been done to simulate properties of the fermionic Z2 gauge field theory in (1+1) D and the pure gauge theory in (2+1) D. In this work, we investigate various options for simulating the fermionic Z2 gauge field theory in (2+1) D. To simulate the theory on a NISQ device it is vital to minimize both the number of qubits used and the circuit depth. In this work we propose ways to optimize both criteria for simulating time dynamics. In particular, we develop a new way to simulate this theory on a quantum computer, with minimal qubit requirements. We provide a quantum circuit, simulating a single first order Trotter step, that minimizes the number of 2-qubit gates needed and gives comparable results to methods requiring more qubits. Furthermore, variational approaches are investigated that allow to further decrease the circuit depth.