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Title: Pathfinding quantum simulations of neutrinoless double-β decay

Journal Article · · Nature Communications

We present results from co-designed quantum simulations of the neutrinoless double-β decay of a simple nucleus in 1+1D quantum chromodynamics using IonQ’s Forte-generation trapped-ion quantum computers. Electrons, neutrinos, and up and down quarks are distributed across two lattice sites and mapped to 32 qubits, with an additional 4 qubits used for flag-based error mitigation. A four-fermion interaction is used to implement weak interactions, and lepton-number violation is induced by a neutrino Majorana mass. Quantum circuits that prepare the initial nucleus and time evolve with the Hamiltonian containing the strong and weak interactions are executed on IonQ Forte Enterprise. Enabled by tuned model parameters, lepton-number violation is observed in real time, providing a clear signal of neutrinoless double-β decay. This was made possible by co-designing the simulation to maximally utilize the all-to-all connectivity and native gate-set available on IonQ’s quantum computers. Quantum circuit compilation techniques and co-designed error-mitigation methods, informed from executing benchmarking circuits with up to 2,356 two-qubit gates, enabled observables to be extracted with high precision. We discuss the potential of future quantum simulations to provide yocto-second resolution of the reaction pathways in these, and other, nuclear processes.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
Contributing Organization:
University of Washington
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; SC0020970
OSTI ID:
3020223
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--25-23950; 10.1038/s41467-026-68536-8; 2041-1723
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 17; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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