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arXiv · 2508.18141

Simulating Electron Transfer on Noisy Quantum Computers

Marvin Gajewski·Alejandro D. Somoza·Gary Schmiedinghoff·Pascal Stadler·Michael Marthaler·Birger Horstmann
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Abstract

While simple spin-boson models have been realized on quantum hardware, simulating extended electronic networks with local vibrational environments remains a fundamental challenge in the presence of non-equilibrium, long-lived electronic-vibrational (vibronic) coherence. We present a framework for the digital-analog simulation of open quantum systems governed by Hamiltonians with linear-vibronic coupling (LVC) and structured vibrational environments. Our approach exploits the intrinsic dissipation of qubits in near-term quantum hardware as a resource to emulate vibrational relaxation, combined with a model-specific error mitigation scheme to filter out noise sources incompatible with the target open system. We validate our strategy by resolving the vibronic transfer spectra of a one-dimensional donor-acceptor chain on IBM superconducting processors, reproducing non-Markovian dynamics and scaling the chain length up to 10 electronic sites, an unprecedented scale for chemical dynamics on quantum computers. Our model of vibronic electron transfer offers a portable, application-oriented benchmark for simulating long-lived entangled states on NISQ computers.

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Marvin Gajewski, Alejandro D. Somoza, Gary Schmiedinghoff, Pascal Stadler, Michael Marthaler, Birger Horstmann. 2026-05-28. Simulating Electron Transfer on Noisy Quantum Computers. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73700-1

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