A Quantum Simulation Approach to Implementing Nuclear Density Functional Theory via Imaginary Time Evolution

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how the quantum imaginary time evolution algorithm can be applied to nuclear density functional theory, specifically for the helium-4 nucleus, showing it reproduces classical results on a simulated quantum computer.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum simulation method for nuclear density functional theory using QITE, bridging classical nuclear physics and quantum computing techniques.

Findings

QITE reproduces classical results for helium-4 nucleus

Quantum implementation matches classical imaginary time evolution

Demonstrates feasibility of quantum algorithms in nuclear physics

Abstract

The quantum imaginary time evolution (QITE) algorithm is a direct implementation of the classical imaginary time evolution algorithm on quantum computer. We implement the QITE algorithm for the case of nuclear Hartree-Fock equations in a formalism equivalent to nuclear density functional theory. We demonstrate the algorithm in the case of the helium-4 nucleus with a simplified effective interaction of the Skyrme kind and demonstrate that the QITE, as implemented on simulated quantum computer, gives identical results to the classical algorithm.