Research

Paper

TESTING March 04, 2026

Enhancing Variational Quantum Eigensolvers for SU(2) Lattice Gauge Theory via Systematic State Preparation

Authors

Klaus Liegener, Dominik Mattern, Alexander Korobov, Lisa Krüger, Manuel Geiger, Malay Singh, Longxiang Huang, Christian Schneider, Federico Roy, Stefan Filipp

Abstract

Computing the vacuum and energy spectrum in non-Abelian, interacting lattice gauge theories remains an open challenge, in part because approximating the continuum limit requires large lattices and huge Hilbert spaces. To address this difficulty with near-term quantum computing devices, we adapt the variational quantum eigensolver to non-Abelian gauge theories. We outline scaling advantages when using a spin-network basis to simulate the gauge-invariant Hilbert space and develop a systematic state preparation ansatz that creates gauge-invariant excitations while alleviating the barren plateau problem. We illustrate our method in the context of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory by testing it on a minimal toy model consisting of a single vertex in 3+1 dimensions. In this toy model, simulations allow us to investigate the impact of noise expected in current quantum devices.

Metadata

arXiv ID: 2603.03799
Provider: ARXIV
Primary Category: quant-ph
Published: 2026-03-04
Fetched: 2026-03-05 06:06

Related papers

Raw Data (Debug)
{
  "raw_xml": "<entry>\n    <id>http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.03799v1</id>\n    <title>Enhancing Variational Quantum Eigensolvers for SU(2) Lattice Gauge Theory via Systematic State Preparation</title>\n    <updated>2026-03-04T07:22:36Z</updated>\n    <link href='https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.03799v1' rel='alternate' type='text/html'/>\n    <link href='https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.03799v1' rel='related' title='pdf' type='application/pdf'/>\n    <summary>Computing the vacuum and energy spectrum in non-Abelian, interacting lattice gauge theories remains an open challenge, in part because approximating the continuum limit requires large lattices and huge Hilbert spaces. To address this difficulty with near-term quantum computing devices, we adapt the variational quantum eigensolver to non-Abelian gauge theories. We outline scaling advantages when using a spin-network basis to simulate the gauge-invariant Hilbert space and develop a systematic state preparation ansatz that creates gauge-invariant excitations while alleviating the barren plateau problem. We illustrate our method in the context of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory by testing it on a minimal toy model consisting of a single vertex in 3+1 dimensions. In this toy model, simulations allow us to investigate the impact of noise expected in current quantum devices.</summary>\n    <category scheme='http://arxiv.org/schemas/atom' term='quant-ph'/>\n    <category scheme='http://arxiv.org/schemas/atom' term='hep-lat'/>\n    <published>2026-03-04T07:22:36Z</published>\n    <arxiv:comment>8 pages, 15 figures</arxiv:comment>\n    <arxiv:primary_category term='quant-ph'/>\n    <author>\n      <name>Klaus Liegener</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Dominik Mattern</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Alexander Korobov</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Lisa Krüger</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Manuel Geiger</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Malay Singh</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Longxiang Huang</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Christian Schneider</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Federico Roy</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Stefan Filipp</name>\n    </author>\n  </entry>"
}