Resource assessment of classical and quantum hardware for post-quench dynamics

TL;DR

This paper compares the performance and energy efficiency of neutral atom quantum computers with classical methods for simulating non-equilibrium dynamics, showing quantum devices are already competitive.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of quantum and classical simulation methods, including experimental data and scaling laws, highlighting the energy efficiency of neutral atom quantum hardware.

Findings

Quantum hardware achieves comparable or better performance than classical methods.

Neutral atom devices consume significantly less energy.

Results suggest potential for energy-efficient quantum simulations.

Abstract

We estimate the run-time and energy consumption of simulating non-equilibrium dynamics on neutral atom quantum computers in analog mode, directly comparing their performance to state-of-the-art classical methods, namely Matrix Product States and Neural Quantum States. By collecting both experimental data from a quantum processing unit (QPU) in analog mode and numerical benchmarks, we enable accurate predictions of run-time and energy consumption for large-scale simulations on both QPUs and classical systems through fitting of theoretical scaling laws. Our analysis shows that neutral atom devices are already operating in a competitive regime, achieving comparable or superior performance to classical approaches while consuming significantly less energy. These results demonstrate the potential of analog neutral atom quantum computing for energy-efficient simulation and highlight a viable path toward sustainable computational strategies.