arXiv subjects

Itai Arad

Publications and source records attributed to Itai Arad.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Resolving Structure in Prethermal Floquet Dynamics with Precision Quantum Computation

Periodically driven interacting quantum many-body systems can exhibit long-lived prethermal dynamics, where local observables retain coherent structure even as entanglement and operator complexity grow. Accessing this regime at the system sizes and times needed to determine physical properties of the prethermal state remains a central challenge: state-of-the-art classical methods become unreliable, while noise in quantum hardware degrades observable expectation values. Here we overcome these limitations for a Floquet Ising magnet realized on a heavy-hex lattice. Using the advanced error mitigation software QESEM on an IBM Heron r3 superconducting quantum processor, we measure magnetization dynamics with percent-level precision and resolve long-lived subharmonic prethermal oscillations in systems of up to 74 qubits. These experiments reach regimes for which leading tensor-network simulations fail to converge, while sparse Pauli-path simulations remain strongly truncation dependent despite extensive computations on advanced GPUs and the Fugaku supercomputer. Leveraging this quantum-accessible regime, we extend finite-size scaling to larger systems and find an unexpectedly slow decrease of the oscillation amplitude with system size, providing strong evidence that this oscillatory response persists in the thermodynamic limit of heavy-hex ladders. A hierarchy of mitigation and validation tests, including unbiased error mitigation, agreement between independent mitigation estimators, noise-model validation on the superconducting hardware, and cross-platform corroboration at selected Floquet cycles on Quantinuum System Model H2 and Quantinuum Helios trapped-ion hardware, supports the reliability of these findings. Our work establishes error-mitigated quantum processors as quantitative scientific instruments for discovering new physics in non-equilibrium quantum matter.

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arXiv2026

Near-Optimal Learning of Local Lindbladians

We study the problem of learning local Lindbladians from black-box access to the physical evolution, where the goal is to estimate all Hamiltonian and dissipative coefficients. For local Lindbladians with low-intersection dissipators and local dynamical strength at most $\Lambda$, we design an algorithm that learns the coefficients to target accuracy $\varepsilon$, whose number of channel uses and total evolution time scale as $\widetilde{O}(\Lambda^2/\varepsilon^2)$ and $\widetilde{O}(\Lambda/\varepsilon^2)$, respectively, with only logarithmic dependence on the number of qubits. The algorithm is built directly from finite-time channel probes. It runs the unknown evolution for short times, estimates the corresponding Pauli transfer matrices from classical shadows, and converts these estimates into Lindbladian coefficients by stable local Fourier inversions. The algorithm is non-adaptive, uses no ancillas, and requires only random product states as inputs followed by random Pauli measurements. The method does not require knowing the structure of the Lindbladian in advance. We prove matching lower bounds that establish the near-optimality of the algorithm in both resources. By constructing a family of single-qubit dephasing Lindbladians, we show that any algorithm, even an adaptive one with arbitrary ancillas and measurements, requires $\Omega(\Lambda^2/\varepsilon^2)$ channel uses and $\Omega(\Lambda/\varepsilon^2)$ total evolution time. In particular, the lower bounds imply that the Heisenberg-limited scaling achievable for Hamiltonian learning is information-theoretically impossible once dissipative coefficients must be estimated.

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arXiv2025

Exploring the performance of superposition of product states: from 1D to 3D quantum spin systems

Tensor networks (TNs) are one of the best available tools to study many-body quantum systems. TNs are particularly suitable for one-dimensional local Hamiltonians, while their performance for generic geometries is mainly limited by two aspects: the limitation in expressive power and the approximate extraction of information. Here we investigate the performance of superposition-of-product-states (SPS) ansatz, a variational framework structurally related to canonical polyadic tensor decomposition. The ansatz does not compress information as effectively as tensor networks, but it has the advantages (i) of allowing accurate extraction of information, (ii) of being structurally independent of the geometry of the system, (iii) of being readily parallelizable, and (iv) of allowing analytical shortcuts. We first study the typical properties of the SPS ansatz for spin-$1/2$ systems, including its entanglement entropy, and its trainability. We then use this ansatz for ground state search in tilted Ising models -- including one-dimensional and three-dimensional with short- and long-range interaction, and a random network -- demonstrating that SPS can attain high accuracy.

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arXiv2025

Reliable high-accuracy error mitigation for utility-scale quantum circuits

Error mitigation is essential for unlocking the full potential of quantum algorithms and accelerating the timeline toward quantum advantage. As quantum hardware progresses to push the boundaries of classical simulation, efficient and robust error mitigation methods are becoming increasingly important for producing accurate and reliable outputs. However, existing error-mitigation approaches face a fundamental tradeoff between practical performance and reliability: heuristic methods such as zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE) enjoy faster runtime but lack accuracy guarantees, while rigorous techniques such as probabilistic error cancellation (PEC) provide unbiased estimates at prohibitive computational cost. We introduce a characterization-based, rigorously-grounded quantum error mitigation and error suppression framework (QESEM) that resolves this tradeoff by leveraging the accuracy guarantees of quasi-probabilistic mitigation with dramatically reduced overhead. We explain the innovative methods underlying QESEM and demonstrate its capabilities in the largest utility-scale error mitigation experiment based on an unbiased method. This experiment simulates the kicked transverse field Ising model with far-from-Clifford parameters on an IBM Heron device. We further validate QESEM's versatility across arbitrary quantum circuits and devices through high-accuracy error-mitigated molecular VQE circuits executed on IBM Heron and IonQ trapped-ion devices. Compared with multiple variants of the widely used zero-noise extrapolation method, QESEM consistently achieves higher accuracy while avoiding the prohibitive runtime overhead associated with PEC. These results mark a significant step forward in accuracy and reliability for running quantum circuits on current devices across diverse applications. Finally, we provide projections of QESEM's performance on near-term devices toward quantum advantage.

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arXiv2025

Area laws and tensor networks for maximally mixed ground states

We show an area law in the mutual information for the maximally-mixed state $Ω$ in the ground space of general Hamiltonians, which is independent of the underlying ground space degeneracy. Our result assumes the existence of a `good' approximation to the ground state projector (a good AGSP), a crucial ingredient in previous area-law proofs. Such approximations have been explicitly derived for 1D gapped local Hamiltonians and 2D frustration-free locally-gapped Hamiltonians. As a corollary, we show that in 1D gapped local Hamiltonians, for any $\varepsilon>0$ and any bi-partition $L\cup L^c$ of the system, \begin{align*} \mathrm I_{\max}^\varepsilon (L:L^c)_Ω \le \mathrm O \big( \log (|L|\log(d))+\log(1/\varepsilon)\big), \end{align*} where $|L|$ represents the number of sites in $L$, $d$ is the dimension of a site and $ \mathrm I_{\max}^\varepsilon (L:L^c)_Ω $ represents the $\varepsilon$-\emph{smoothed maximum mutual information} with respect to the $L:L^c$ partition in $Ω$. From this bound we then conclude $\mathrm I (L:L^c)_Ω \le \mathrm O\big(\log(|L|\log(d))\big)$ -- an area law for the mutual information in 1D systems with a logarithmic correction. In addition, we show that $Ω$ can be approximated in trace norm up to $\varepsilon$ with a state of Schmidt rank of at most $\mathrm{poly}(|L|/\varepsilon)$, leading to a good MPO approximation for $Ω$ with polynomial bond dimension. Similar corollaries are derived for the mutual information of 2D frustration-free and locally-gapped local Hamiltonians.

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arXiv2025

Local quantum channels giving rise to quasi-local Gibbs states

We study the steady-state properties of quantum channels with local Kraus operators. We consider a large family that consists of general ergodic 1-local (non-interacting) terms and general 2-local (interacting) terms. Physically, a repeated application of these channels can be seen as a simple model for the thermalization process of a many-body system. We study its steady state perturbatively, by interpolating between the 1-local and 2-local channels with a perturbation parameter $ε$. We prove that under very general conditions, these states are Gibbs states of a quasi-local Hamiltonian. Expanding this Hamiltonian as a series in $ε$, we show that the $k$'th order term corresponds to a $(k+1)$-local interaction term in the Hamiltonian, which follows the same interaction graph as the Kraus channel. We also prove a complementary result suggesting the existence of an interaction strength threshold, under which the total weight of the high-order terms in the Hamiltonian decays exponentially fast. For sufficiently small $ε$, this implies both exponential decay of local correlation functions and a classical algorithm for computing expectation value of local observables in such steady states. Finally, we present numerical simulations of various channels that support our theoretical results.

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arXiv2025

On the Importance of Error Mitigation for Quantum Computation

Quantum error mitigation (EM) is a family of hybrid quantum-classical methods for eliminating or reducing the effect of noise and decoherence on quantum algorithms run on quantum hardware, without applying quantum error correction (EC). While EM has many benefits compared to EC, specifically that it requires no (or little) qubit overhead, this benefit comes with a painful price: EM seems to necessitate an overhead in quantum run time which grows as a (mild) exponent. Accordingly, recent results show that EM alone cannot enable exponential quantum advantages (QAs), for an average variant of the expectation value estimation problem. These works raised concerns regarding the role of EM in the road map towards QAs. We aim to demystify the discussion and provide a clear picture of the role of EM in achieving QAs, both in the near and long term. We first propose a clear distinction between finite QA and asymptotic QA, which is crucial to the understanding of the question, and present the notion of circuit volume boost, which we claim is an adequate way to quantify the benefits of EM. Using these notions, we can argue straightforwardly that EM is expected to have a significant role in achieving QAs. Specifically, that EM is likely to be the first error reduction method for useful finite QAs, before EC; that the first such QAs are expected to be achieved using EM in the very near future; and that EM is expected to maintain its important role in quantum computation even when EC will be routinely used - for as long as high-quality qubits remain a scarce resource.

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arXiv2025

Quasi-quantum states and the quasi-quantum PCP theorem

We introduce $k$-local quasi-quantum states: a superset of the regular quantum states, defined by relaxing the positivity constraint. We show that a $k$-local quasi-quantum state on $n$ qubits can be 1-1 mapped to a distribution of assignments over $n$ variables with an alphabet of size $4$, which is subject to non-linear constraints over its $k$-local marginals. Therefore, solving the $k$-local Hamiltonian over the quasi-quantum states is equivalent to optimizing a distribution of assignment over a classical $k$-local CSP. We show that this optimization problem is essentially classical by proving it is NP-complete. Crucially, just as ordinary quantum states, these distributions lack a simple tensor-product structure and are therefore not determined straightforwardly by their local marginals. Consequently, our classical optimization problem shares some unique aspects of Hamiltonian complexity: it lacks an easy search-to-decision reduction, and it is not clear that its 1D version can be solved with dynamical programming (i.e., it could remain NP-hard). Our main result is a PCP theorem for the $k$-local Hamiltonian over the quasi-quantum states in the form of a hardness-of-approximation result. The proof suggests the existence of a subtle promise-gap amplification procedure in a model that shares many similarities with the quantum local Hamiltonian problem, thereby providing insights on the quantum PCP conjecture.

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arXiv2024

Dissipative variational quantum algorithms for Gibbs state preparation

In recent years, variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) have gained significant attention due to their adaptability and efficiency on near-term quantum hardware. They have shown potential in a variety of tasks, including linear algebra, search problems, Gibbs and ground state preparation. Nevertheless, the presence of noise in current day quantum hardware, severely limits their performance. In this work, we introduce dissipative variational quantum algorithms (D-VQAs) by incorporating dissipative operations, such as qubit RESET and stochastic gates, as an intrinsic part of a variational quantum circuit. We argue that such dissipative variational algorithms posses some natural resilience to dissipative noise. We demonstrate how such algorithms can prepare Gibbs states over a wide range of quantum many-body Hamiltonians and temperatures, while significantly reducing errors due to both coherent and non-coherent noise. An additional advantage of our approach is that no ancilla qubits are need. Our results highlight the potential of D-VQAs to enhance the robustness and accuracy of variational quantum computations on NISQ devices.

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arXiv2024

Quantum landscape tomography for efficient single-gate optimization on quantum computers

Circuit optimization is a fundamental task for practical applications of near-term quantum computers. In this work we address this challenge through the powerful lenses of tensor network theory. Our approach involves the full characterization of the influence of individual gates on the entire circuit, a process we call quantum landscape tomography. We derive the necessary and sufficient requirements of this process and propose two implementations, respectively based on 2-unitary design and Clifford tableaux. The latter implementation strikes a convenient balance between the number of shots and the number of circuits needed for the tomography. Numerical simulations based on a realistic noise model demonstrate the advantage of our approach with respect to both gradient-free and gradient-based methods. Overall, our findings highlight the potential of quantum landscape tomography to enhance circuit optimization in near-term quantum computing applications.

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arXiv2024

Learning a quantum channel from its steady-state

We present a scalable method for learning local quantum channels using local expectation values measured on a single state -- their steady state. Our method is inspired by the algorithms for learning local Hamiltonians from their ground states. For it to succeed, the steady state must be non-trivial, and therefore the channel needs to be non-unital. Such non-unital channels are readily implementable on present day quantum computers using mid-circuit measurements or RESET gates. We demonstrate that the full structure of such channels is encoded in their steady states, and can be learned efficiently using only the expectation values of local observables on these states. We emphasize two immediate applications to illustrate our approach: (i) Using engineered dissipative dynamics, we offer a straightforward way to assess the accuracy of a given noise model in a regime where all qubits are actively utilized for a significant duration. (ii) Given a parameterized noise model for the entire system, our method can learn its underlying parameters. We demonstrate both applications using numerical simulations and experimental trials conducted on an IBMQ machine.

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arXiv2024

A blockBP decoder for the surface code

We present a new decoder for the surface code, which combines the accuracy of the tensor-network decoders with the efficiency and parallelism of the belief-propagation algorithm. Our main idea is to replace the expensive tensor-network contraction step in the tensor-network decoders with the blockBP algorithm - a recent approximate contraction algorithm, based on belief propagation. Our decoder is therefore a belief-propagation decoder that works in the degenerate maximal likelihood decoding framework. Unlike conventional tensor-network decoders, our algorithm can run efficiently in parallel, and may therefore be suitable for real-time decoding. We numerically test our decoder and show that for a large range of lattice sizes and noise levels it delivers a logical error probability that outperforms the Minimal-Weight-Perfect-Matching (MWPM) decoder, sometimes by more than an order of magnitude.

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arXiv2023

Block belief propagation algorithm for two-dimensional tensor networks

Belief propagation is a well-studied algorithm for approximating local marginals of multivariate probability distribution over complex networks, while tensor network states are powerful tools for quantum and classical many-body problems. Building on a recent connection between the belief propagation algorithm and the problem of tensor network contraction, we propose a block belief propagation algorithm for contracting two-dimensional tensor networks and approximating the ground state of $2D$ systems. The advantages of our method are three-fold: 1) the same algorithm works for both finite and infinite systems; 2) it allows natural and efficient parallelization; 3) given its flexibility it would allow to deal with different unit cells. As applications, we use our algorithm to study the $2D$ Heisenberg and transverse Ising models, and show that the accuracy of the method is on par with state-of-the-art results.

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arXiv2023

An area law for 2D frustration-free spin systems

We prove that the entanglement entropy of the ground state of a locally gapped frustration-free 2D lattice spin system satisfies an area law with respect to a vertical bipartition of the lattice into left and right regions. We first establish that the ground state projector of any locally gapped frustration-free 1D spin system can be approximated to within error $ε$ by a degree $O(\sqrt{n\log(ε^{-1})})$ multivariate polynomial in the interaction terms of the Hamiltonian. This generalizes the optimal bound on the approximate degree of the boolean AND function, which corresponds to the special case of commuting Hamiltonian terms. For 2D spin systems we then construct an approximate ground state projector (AGSP) that employs the optimal 1D approximation in the vicinity of the boundary of the bipartition of interest. This AGSP has sufficiently low entanglement and error to establish the area law using a known technique.

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arXiv2023

Practical Quantum State Tomography for Gibbs states

Quantum state tomography is an essential tool for the characterization and verification of quantum states. However, as it cannot be directly applied to systems with more than a few qubits, efficient tomography of larger states on mid-sized quantum devices remains an important challenge in quantum computing. We develop a tomography approach that requires moderate computational and quantum resources for the tomography of states that can be approximated by Gibbs states of local Hamiltonians. The proposed method, Hamiltonian Learning Tomography, uses a Hamiltonian learning algorithm to get a parametrized ansatz for the Gibbs Hamiltonian, and optimizes it with respect to the results of local measurements. We demonstrate the utility of this method with a high fidelity reconstruction of the density matrix of 4 to 10 qubits in a Gibbs state of the transverse-field Ising model, in numerical simulations as well as in experiments on IBM Quantum superconducting devices accessed via the cloud. Code implementation of the our method is freely available as an open source software in Python.

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arXiv2023

Area law for steady states of detailed-balance local Lindbladians

We study steady-states of quantum Markovian processes whose evolution is described by local Lindbladians. We assume that the Lindbladian is gapped and satisfies quantum detailed balance with respect to a unique full-rank steady state $σ$. We show that under mild assumptions on the Lindbladian terms, which can be checked efficiently, the Lindbladian can be mapped to a local Hamiltonian on a doubled Hilbert space that has the same spectrum, and a ground state that is the vectorization of $σ^{1/2}$. Consequently, we can use Hamiltonian complexity tools to study the steady states of such open systems. In particular, we show an area-law in the mutual information for the steady state of such 1D systems, together with a tensor-network representation that can be found efficiently.

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arXiv2020

Tensor Networks contraction and the Belief Propagation algorithm

Belief Propagation is a well-studied message-passing algorithm that runs over graphical models and can be used for approximate inference and approximation of local marginals. The resulting approximations are equivalent to the Bethe-Peierls approximation of statistical mechanics. Here we show how this algorithm can be adapted to the world of PEPS tensor networks and used as an approximate contraction scheme. We further show that the resultant approximation is equivalent to the ``mean field'' approximation that is used in the Simple-Update algorithm, thereby showing that the latter is a essentially the Bethe-Peierls approximation. This shows that one of the simplest approximate contraction algorithms for tensor networks is equivalent to one of the simplest schemes for approximating marginals in graphical models in general, and paves the way for using improvements of BP as tensor networks algorithms.

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arXiv2020

Learning the dynamics of open quantum systems from their steady states

Recent works have shown that generic local Hamiltonians can be efficiently inferred from local measurements performed on their eigenstates or thermal states. Realistic quantum systems are often affected by dissipation and decoherence due to coupling to an external environment. This raises the question whether the steady states of such open quantum systems contain sufficient information allowing for full and efficient reconstruction of the system's dynamics. We find that such a reconstruction is possible for generic local Markovian dynamics. We propose a recovery method that uses only local measurements; for systems with finite-range interactions, the method recovers the Lindbladian acting on each spatial domain using only observables within that domain. We numerically study the accuracy of the reconstruction as a function of the number of measurements, type of open-system dynamics and system size. Interestingly, we show that couplings to external environments can in fact facilitate the reconstruction of Hamiltonians composed of commuting terms.

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