Three-flavor supernova neutrino simulation using a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm with qutrits

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a hybrid quantum-classical simulation of a three-flavor neutrino system in a supernova, using qutrits and a quantum-assisted algorithm to efficiently compute time evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid quantum-classical algorithm employing qutrits to simulate complex neutrino interactions in supernovae, improving over traditional Trotterization methods.

Findings

Hybrid algorithm yields results comparable to exact solutions up to t ≈ 30 ω₀⁻¹.

Qutrit Hadamard tests effectively compute expectation values of Hamiltonian operators.

Simulation demonstrates advantages of hybrid approach over purely quantum Trotterization.

Abstract

We simulate a self-interacting three-flavor neutrino system within a core-collapse supernova using a hybrid classical-quantum algorithm on a qutrit computer. Based on the Dirac-Frenkel evolution equations, we employ a variation of the quantum-assisted simulator (QAS) to calculate the system's time evolution operator by performing qutrit Hadamard tests to find expectation values of unitary operators in the Hamiltonian. The time evolution simulation is then done classically. We find that the hybrid algorithm produces results comparable to an exact numerical integration out to times of $t \approx 30 \,\omega_0^{-1}$ with time step $\delta t = 0.005 \,\omega_0^{-1}$, where $\omega_0$ is the energy scale of the single neutrino vacuum oscillations. We discuss the lessons learned in simulating neutrino systems using this hybrid quantum-classical algorithm, along with the advantages it offers over quantum Trotterization.