arXiv · 2603.06325
Preparing 100-qubit symmetry-protected topological order on a digital quantum computer
Abstract
Symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases extend the Landau paradigm of quantum matter by admitting distinct symmetry-preserving phases that lack any local order parameter. Demonstrating these phases at scale on programmable quantum processors is a key milestone in using quantum hardware to probe emergent many-body phenomena, yet it is impeded by the circuit depth normally required to capture non-trivial entanglement. Here we use a tensor network based approximate quantum compiling (AQC) protocol to construct shallow quantum circuits (18-39 CNOT depth), which prepare 100-site ground states of the spin-1/2 bond-alternating Heisenberg chain in both SPT phases, to 97.9-99.0% fidelity. Upon executing the circuits on IBM quantum hardware, the resulting states exhibit all defining signatures of SPT order including non-local string order for strings of up to length 20, characteristic degeneracies in the entanglement spectrum and clear evidence of symmetry-protected edge modes. The simultaneous observation of these independent diagnostics establishes current quantum computers as versatile platforms for large-scale studies of symmetry-protected quantum matter. More broadly, our results establish a practical foundation for probing non-equilibrium quench dynamics of such systems in regimes that challenge classical computational methods.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
George Pennington, Kevin C. Smith, James R. Garrison, Lachlan P. Lindoy, Jason Crain, Ben Jaderberg. 2026-03-06. Preparing 100-qubit symmetry-protected topological order on a digital quantum computer. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06325
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.