Digital quantum simulation of bosonic systems and quantum complementarity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates digital quantum simulation of bosonic systems and optical experiments on IBM quantum computers, exploring quantum complementarity and potential violations in complex setups.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism for simulating bosonic systems using Pauli operators and applies it to optical experiments, including Afshar's experiment, on real quantum hardware.

Findings

Simulated interferometric experiments on IBM quantum computers.

Analyzed quantum complementarity in complex optical setups.

Explored potential violations of Bohr's principle in specific configurations.

Abstract

Digital quantum simulation (DQS) has emerged as a powerful approach to investigate complex quantum systems using digital quantum computers. Such systems, like many-particle bosonic systems and intricate optical experimental setups, pose significant challenges for classical simulation methods. In this paper, we utilize a general formalism for the DQS of bosonic systems, which consists of mapping bosonic operators to Pauli operators using the Gray code, in order to simulate interferometric variants of Afshar's experiment -- an intricate optical experiment -- on IBM's quantum computers. We investigated experiments analogous to Afshar's double-slit experiment performed by Unruh and Pessoa J\'unior, exploring discussions on the apparent violation of Bohr's complementarity principle when considering the entire experimental setup. Based on the aforementioned experiments, we construct a variation of a delayed-choice setup. We also explore another experiment starting with a two-photon initial state. Finally, we analyze these experiments within the framework of an updated quantum complementarity principle, which applies to specific quantum state preparations and remains consistent with the foundational principles of Quantum Mechanics.