Quantum-Classical Embedding via Ghost Gutzwiller Approximation for Enhanced Simulations of Correlated Electron Systems

ORAL

Abstract

Simulating correlated materials on present-day quantum hardware remains challenging due to limited quantum resources. Quantum embedding methods offer a promising route by reducing computational complexity through the mapping of bulk systems onto effective impurity models, allowing more feasible simulations on pre- and early-fault-tolerant quantum devices. This work develops a quantum-classical embedding framework based on the ghost Gutzwiller approximation to enable quantum-enhanced simulations of ground-state properties and spectral functions of correlated electron systems. Circuit complexity is analyzed using an adaptive variational quantum algorithm on a statevector simulator, applied to the infinite-dimensional Hubbard model with increasing ghost mode numbers from 3 to 5, resulting in circuit depths growing from 16 to 104. Noise effects are examined using a realistic error model, revealing significant impact on the spectral weight of the Hubbard bands. To mitigate these effects, the Iceberg quantum error detection code is employed, achieving up to 40\% error reduction in simulations. Finally, the accuracy of the density matrix estimation and the derived spectral function is benchmarked on IBM and Quantinuum quantum hardware, featuring distinct qubit-connectivity and employing multiple levels of error mitigation techniques.

*This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division, including the grant of computer time at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in Berkeley, California. The research was performed at the Ames National Laboratory, which is operated for the U.S. DOE by Iowa State University under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11358. Calculations on quantum hardware were partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) under contract number DE-SC0012704 (Y.-X.Y.), and partially supported by IBM-HBCU Quantum Center and Southern University group (C.S. and H.M.B.). C.S. is grateful to the DOE for the assistantship and opportunity to participate in the SULI program. H.M.B. is grateful to the DOE for the assistantship and opportunity to participate in the VFP program. G.H. was supported by Ames National Laboratory under Strategic Partnership Program 2024-01 with Iowa State University. N.L. gratefully acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation under Award No. DMR-2532771 and from the Simons Foundation (Grant No. 00010910).

Publication: I.-C. Chen, A. Khindanov, C. Salazar, H. M. Barona, F. Zhang, C.-Z. Wang, T. Iadecola, N. Lanatà, and Y.-X. Yao, Quantum-Classical Embedding via Ghost Gutzwiller Approximation for Enhanced Simulations of Correlated Electron Systems, arXiv:2506.01204 (2025).

Presenters

  • Yongxin Yao

    • Ames National Laboratory
    • Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University

Authors

  • Yongxin Yao

    • Ames National Laboratory
    • Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University
  • I Chi Chen

    • Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University
    • LANL
    • Los Alamos National Lab
  • Aleksei Khindanov

    • Ames National Laboratory
    • Q-Ctrl
  • Carlos Munoz Salazar

    • Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
  • Humberto Munoz Barona

    • Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA
  • Ghaidaa Harrabi

    • Iowa State University
  • Feng Zhang

    • Ames Lab
  • Cai-Zhuang Wang

    • Iowa State University
  • Thomas P Iadecola

    • Iowa State University
    • Penn State University
  • Nicola Lanata

    • Rochester Institute of Technology