Trapped ion simulation of molecular spectrum

Boson sampling had been suggested as a classically intractable and quantum mechanically manageable problem via computational complexity theory arguments [1]. Recently, Huh and co-workers [2] proposed theoretically a modified version of boson sampling, which is designed to simulate a molecular problem, as a practical application. Here, we report the experimental implementation of the theoretical proposal with a trapped ion system. As a first demonstration, we perform the quantum simulation of molecular vibronic profile of SO2, which incorporates squeezing, rotation and coherent displacement\sout{s} operations, and the collective projection measurement on phonon modes. [1] S. Aaronson, A. Arkhipov,~STOC 11, 333 (2011). [2] Joonsuk Huh. et al. Nature Photon. 9, 615 (2015).