Simulating Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics Using Variational Quantum Algorithms

Abstract

The study of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking (SSB) on the lattice is obstructed by a severe sign problem. Quantum computing provides a promising alternative approach. In particular, properties of supersymmetry relate SSB to the ground-state energy, which can be probed using hybrid quantum--classical algorithms such as the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE). In this work we present VQE analyses for supersymmetric quantum mechanics with various superpotentials. A key new feature is an adaptive ansatz construction algorithm that reduces the number of variational parameters within our ansätze. This lowers the resource burden on both the classical optimizer and the noisy quantum processor, thereby improving the feasibility of these calculations in the NISQ era. Additionally, we present preliminary VQE results obtained from real IBM quantum devices, highlighting accuracy, resource constraints, and computational cost, both with and without the application of error mitigation techniques.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: AVQE energies at each step of the algorithm for each superpotential and increasing values of $\Lambda$, using PennyLane's default.qubit statevector simulation and the COBYQA optimizer. Dashed lines indicate the minimum eigenvalue from exact diagonalization.