Scaling Up Dynamics Simulation of Open Quantum Systems on NISQ computers

Kurzfassung

We analyse the performance of noisy, gate-based, digital quantum computers in simulating the dynamics of open quantum systems with electronic-vibrational (vibronic) interactions [1], where simulating large systems with local, vibrational environments remains a fundamental challenge [2]. We simulated a microscopic model of electron-transfer with a single donor and many acceptor sites (Figure 1), as relevant for electrochemical reactions and solar cells. Our approach takes advantage of the intrinsic dissipation in the quantum processor to simulate the nonequilibrium dynamics of the target physical system [3]. Our results reveal a probability of ET that is well aligned with numerically exact calculations where electronic and vibronic resonances can be identified at the expected driving forces (Figure 2). To access various regimes of electron transfer in quantum simulations, we discuss strategies to engineer the lifetime of vibrational motion and lay out the hardware requirements for scaling up simulations on NISQ computers.