Towards Chemically Accurate and Scalable Quantum Simulations on IQM Quantum Hardware: A Quantum-HPC Hybrid Approach

TL;DR

This study demonstrates scalable quantum molecular simulations on IQM hardware using hybrid quantum-classical methods, achieving chemical accuracy for various molecules and constructing potential energy surfaces.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid quantum-classical approach with novel ansatz variants and extends simulations to full 2D energy landscapes and embedded systems.

Findings

Quantum energies agree with FCI and DMET-CASCI within chemical accuracy.

Constructed a 2D potential energy surface for water on quantum hardware.

Hybrid methods extend quantum simulations to larger, more complex molecules.

Abstract

We present a large-scale experimental study of quantum-computing-based molecular simulation carried out on IQM's Sirius 24-qubit superconducting processor, utilizing up to 16 operational qubits. The work employs Sample-based Quantum Diagonalization (SQD) together with the Local Unitary Cluster Jastrow (LUCJ) ansatz to estimate ground-state energies for a set of benchmark molecules, including H$_2$, LiH, BeH$_2$, H$_2$O, and NH$_3$. In addition, we introduce a Linear-CNOT variant of the Unitary Coupled-Cluster Singles and Doubles (LCNot-UCCSD) ansatz within the SQD workflow, trading higher circuit depth for reduced classical preprocessing. A comparison between these ans\"atze is provided, clarifying their respective strengths, limitations, and suitability for near-term quantum hardware. We further explore potential energy landscapes through 1D scans for H$_2$ and HeH$^+$ using both STO-3G and 6-31G basis sets, and for LiH and BeH$_2$ in STO-3G. Extending beyond this, we demonstrate the experimental construction of a full 2D potential energy surface for the water molecule on quantum hardware, mapped over a 32 $\times$ 32 grid in bond length and bond angle. To move beyond small benchmark systems, we combine SQD(LUCJ) with Density Matrix Embedding Theory (DMET) to compute active-space energies for a set of ligand-like molecules, as well as the pharmacologically relevant amantadine system. Across all studies, the majority of quantum-computed energies agree with reference FCI results, as well as with DMET-CASCI energies for embedded systems, to within chemical accuracy for the chosen basis sets. These results demonstrate the reliability of sample-based diagonalization approaches and underscore the potential of hybrid embedding strategies for extending quantum simulations to increasingly complex molecular systems, while also highlighting their practicality on current IQM quantum hardware.