Quantum Simulation of Inelastic Neutron Scattering

Inelastic neutron scattering (INS) enables access to study the microscopic dynamics of spins in materials. Dynamical structure factors (DSFs), which can be computed both via INS experiments and simulations of representative Hamiltonian models, form a critical bridge between theory and experiment. In this work, we compute DSFs for compounds commonly probed in INS, using up to 50 qubits on IBM's superconducting qubit-based quantum computer and perform a direct comparison of our results against experimental neutron scattering data. Classical simulations of DSFs often fall short in systems characterized by high entanglement, long-range interactions, or higher spatial dimensionality. In this context, our work sets the foundations for the quantum simulation of classically intractable DSFs, and their direct experimental verification with INS data.