Simulation of far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics - SimQuDyn

30.03.2026, 08:00 → 02.04.2026, 20:00 Europe/Berlin

H030 (Main LMU Physics Building)

Simulation of far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics (SimQuDyn) is a conference bringing together researchers and students in the fields of classical and quantum simulation of far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics, as well as analytical approaches to the latter. The goal of this conference is the discussion and exchange of ideas related to the latest advances in these fields and to chart a path forward that includes collaborative efforts between them. A main point of discussion will be using far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics as a venue to achieve practical quantum advantage.

 

Confirmed Speakers:

• Dima Abanin (Princeton)
• Alvaro Alhambra (IFT Madrid)
• Nikita Astrakhantsev (Google Quantum AI)
• Immanuel Bloch (LMU Munich)
• Umberto Borla (MPQ)
• Antoine Browaeys (Institute d’Optique, Paris)
• Giovanni Cataldi (MPQ)
• Jake Covey (University of Illinois)
• Henrik Dreyer (Quantinuum)
• Andreas Elben (Paul Scherrer Institute)
• Roland Farrell (Caltech)
• Sasha Geim (Harvard)
• Ana Hudomal (University of Belgrade)
• Michael Knap (TUM)
• Richard Kueng (JKU Linz)
• Ethan Lake (UC Berkeley)
• Florian Marquardt (MPL)
• Sebastian Paeckel (LMU Munich)
• Hannes Pichler (University of Innsbruck)
• Benedikt Placke (Oxford)
• Philipp Preiss (MPQ)
• Uli Schneider (University of Cambridge)
• Julian Schuhmacher (IBM Quantum)
• Dries Sels (NYU)
• Federica Surace (Trinity College Dublin)
• Leticia Tarruell (ICFO)
• Rahul Trivedi (MPQ)
• Ruben Verresen (University of Chicago)
• Lev Vidmar (JSI and University of Ljubljana)
• Sebastian Will (Columbia University)
• Johannes Zeiher (LMU Munich)
• Hongzheng Zhao (PKU)

Organizers:

Jad C. Halimeh (LMU Munich, MPQ)
Pablo Sala (UC Berkeley, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing)

Monika Aidelsburger (MPQ, LMU Munich)

 

 

 

Mo., 30. März

08:00 → 09:15 Registration, name-tag and MCQST merch pickup

09:15 → 09:30 SimQuDyn opening statement by organizers

09:30 → 10:00 Quantum Simulation and Quantum Computing with Ultracold Fermionic Atoms in Optical Lattices

Sprecher: Immanuel Bloch

10:00 → 10:30 Talk

Sprecher: Michael Knap

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 11:30 Spin-resolved microscopy of strontium SU(N) Fermi-Hubbard systems

Sprecher: Leticia Tarruell

11:30 → 12:00 Quantum and classical algorithms for many-body Gibbs states

Sprecher: Dima Abanin

12:00 → 13:30 Lunch

13:30 → 14:00 Simulating particle collisions using quantum computers

Sprecher: Roland Farrell

14:00 → 14:30 Observation of hadron scattering in a lattice gauge theory on a quantum computer

Sprecher: Julian Schuhmacher

14:30 → 15:00 Coffee break

15:00 → 15:30 Hybrid Analog-Digital Quantum Simulation with Ultracold Fermions

Understanding strongly correlated many-fermion systems remains one of the central open challenges in condensed matter physics. Quantum gas microscopes have enabled major advances in this direction by providing analog quantum simulators with single-site- and single-atom-resolved control and detection. However, compared to digital quantum information processors, analog platforms remain limited in local control and programmability.

A promising route forward is provided by hybrid approaches that combine analog simulation with digital quantum control. These paradigms aim to unite the scalability and intrinsic entanglement of analog systems with the programmability and flexibility of gate-based operations, enabling improved capabilities for state preparation and readout.

In this talk, I will present novel approaches that integrate optical lattice implementations of Fermi–Hubbard systems with programmable methods for state initialization and gate-based manipulation and readout. I will show how hybrid tweezer/lattice architectures enable the initialization of fully programmable Hubbard states in their motional ground states [1]. I will further discuss recently developed schemes based on optical superlattices that allow the construction of arbitrary single-particle unitaries [2] and provide a route toward implementing variational eigensolver protocols for molecular structure problems from quantum chemistry [3]. As a first experimental step toward gate-based manipulation of correlated fermionic states, we have recently demonstrated high-fidelity collisional gates in optical superlattices [4].

References

[1] N. Jain et al., arXiv: 2512.09849 (2026)
[2] A. Roth et al., arXiv:2603.04210 (2026)
[3] F. Gkristis et al., PRX Quantum 6, 010318 (2025)
[4] P. Bojović et al., arXiv:2506.14711 (2025)

Sprecher: Philipp Preiss

15:30 → 16:00 Microscopic Dynamics of False Vacuum Decay in the 2+1D Quantum Ising Model

False vacuum decay is a prominent phenomenon relevant to elementary particle physics and early-universe cosmology. Understanding its microscopic dynamics is currently a major challenge and research thrust. Recent advances in numerical techniques allow for the extraction of related signatures in tractable systems in two spatial dimensions over intermediate timescales. Here, we focus on the 2 + 1D quantum Ising model, where a longitudinal field is used to energetically separate the two $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry-broken ferromagnetic ground states, turning them into a “true” and “false” vacuum. Using tree tensor networks, we simulate the microscopic dynamics of a spin-down domain in a spin-up background after a homogeneous quench, with parameters chosen so that the domain corresponds to a bubble of the true vacuum in a false-vacuum background. We identify how the ultimate fate of the bubble—indefinite expansion or collapse—depends on its geometrical features and on the microscopic parameters of the Ising Hamiltonian. We further provide a realistic quantum-simulation scheme, aimed at probing bubble dynamics on atomic Rydberg arrays.

Sprecher: Umberto Borla

16:00 → 16:30 Observation of constructive interference at the edge of quantum ergodicity

Sprecher: Nikita Astrakhantsev

16:30 → 16:45 Group photo

16:45 → 18:15 Poster Session

Di., 31. März

09:30 → 10:00 Studying doped magnet with a Rydberg quantum simulator

Sprecher: Antoine Browaeys

10:00 → 10:30 Talk

Sprecher: Hannes Pichler

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 11:30 New tools for resource-efficient digital simulation with atom arrays

Arrays of neutral atoms in optical tweezers are an excellent setting for simulating the dynamics of quantum matter. Programmable control over each atom and their interactions in the array offers new capabilities for compiling Hamiltonians that are not amenable to direct analog simulations with global control, and it offers the possibility to perform simulations at the logical level to obviate physical errors. I will present two platforms that offer new capabilities to enable such digital simulations in a resource-efficient manner. First, with ytterbium-171 atom arrays, I will present methods to (1) encode multiple qubits within each atom, and (2) overcome the bottleneck of atom transport via a novel “streaming” architecture where atoms move with constant velocity. Second, with metastable helium-3 atom arrays, I will present methods to utilize the fermionic quantum statistics in addition to the motion of atoms in harmonic tweezer traps to natively encode itinerant fermions and Fermi-Bose interactions in a programmable simulator.

Sprecher: Jake Covey

11:30 → 12:00 State preparation and detection for quantum simulation of particle collisions

Sprecher: Federica Surace

12:00 → 13:30 Lunch

13:30 → 14:00 Quantum computing with metastable atomic qubits

Sprecher: Johannes Zeiher

14:00 → 14:30 Superconducting Pairing Correlations on a 98-qubit Trapped-Ion Quantum Computer

Sprecher: Henrik Dreyer

14:30 → 15:00 Coffee break

15:00 → 15:30 What can AI agents do for quantum physics?

Sprecher: Florian Marquardt

15:30 → 16:00 Talk

Sprecher: Dries Sels

16:00 → 16:30 Ultra-high resolution spectral functions using complex-time Krylov spaces

Sprecher: Sebastian Paeckel

16:30 → 18:00 Poster session

Mi., 1. April

09:30 → 10:00 Quantum simulation with neutral atoms: from analog to digital

Sprecher: Sasha Geim

10:00 → 10:30 Emergent Gauge Theories and Universal Codes from Analog and Digital Quantum Dynamics

Sprecher: Ruben Verresen

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 11:30 An infinite hierarchy of multi-copy quantum learning advantages

Learning properties of quantum states from measurement data is a fundamental challenge in quantum information. The sample complexity of such tasks depends crucially on the measurement primitive. While shadow tomography achieves sample-efficient learning by allowing entangling measurements across many copies, it requires prohibitively deep circuits. At the other extreme, two-copy measurements already yield exponential advantages over single-copy strategies in tasks such as Pauli tomography. In this work we show that such sharp separations extend far beyond the two-copy regime: for every prime c we construct explicit learning tasks of degree c, which are exponentially hard with (c - 1)-copy measurements but efficiently solvable with c-copy measurements. Our protocols are not only sample-efficient but also realizable with shallow circuits. Extending further, we show that such finite-degree tasks exist for all square-free integers c, pointing toward a general principle underlying their existence. Together, our results reveal an infinite hierarchy of multi-copy learning problems, uncovering new phase transitions in sample complexity and underscoring the role of reliable quantum memory as a key resource for exponential quantum advantage.

Sprecher: Richard Kueng

11:30 → 12:00 Probing Complex Quantum Dynamics with Pauli Path Spectroscopy

Sprecher: Andreas Elben

12:00 → 13:30 Lunch

13:30 → 15:00 Panel discussion

15:00 → 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 → 16:00 Open quantum many-body systems: thermalization and efficient mixing

Sprecher: Álvaro Alhambra

16:00 → 16:30 Many-body memories

Sprecher: Ethan Lake

16:30 → 18:00 Poster session

Do., 2. April

09:30 → 10:00 Quenches across the Bose Glass transition

Sprecher: Ulrich Schneider

10:00 → 10:30 Fading ergodicity

Sprecher: Lev Vidmar

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 11:30 Creating and Exploring Bose-Einstein Condensates of Dipolar Molecules

Sprecher: Sebastian Will

11:30 → 12:00 Ergodicity breaking meets criticality in a gauge-theory quantum simulator

Sprecher: Ana Hudomal

12:00 → 13:30 Lunch

13:30 → 14:00 Preparing injective PEPs with gapped parent Hamiltonians.

Projected entangled pair states (PEPs) describe area law states that are believed to be ground states of gapped Hamiltonians in 2 and higher dimension. I will present a few results concerning a class of PEPs which additionally satisfy an injectivity condition - these PEPs can describe states that are not topologically ordered but are still ground states of gapped local Hamiltonians. First, I will show that all such PEPs can be prepared with polylog(N) depth geometrically local circuits from a trivial product state: In addition to providing a state-preparation algorithm, this provides the first formal proof that injective PEPs with gapped parent Hamiltonian are in the same phase as a product state. Next, I will consider certain simple dissipative strategies to prepare these PEPs and provide results on how a rapid-mixing dissipative algorithm with several rigorous guarantees can be devised to prepare these PEPs.

Sprecher: Rahul Trivedi

14:00 → 14:30 Running Quantum Computers in Discovery Mode

We propose using quantum computers in conjunction with classical machine learning to discover instances of interesting quantum many-body dynamics. Concretely, an “interest function” is defined for a given circuit (family) instance that can be evaluated on a quantum computer. The circuit is then adapted by a classical learning agent to maximize interest. We illustrate this approach using two examples and show numerically that, within a sufficiently general circuit family, two simple interest functions based on (i) classifiability of evolved states and (ii) spectral properties of the unitary circuit, are maximized by discrete time crystals (DTCs) and dual-unitary circuits, respectively. For (i), we simulate the adaptive optimization and show that it indeed finds DTCs with high probability, and we evaluate the interest function on a quantum device beyond the (easily) classically simulable regime. Our results show substantial gradients even at large system size and hence provide evidence showing that the interest function is indeed amenable to numerical optimization. This suggests that learning agents with access to quantum-computing resources can discover new phenomena in many-body quantum dynamics, and establishes the design of good interest functions as a future research paradigm for quantum many-body physics.

Sprecher: Benedikt Placke

14:30 → 15:00 Coffee break

15:00 → 15:30 Floquet superheating

Sprecher: Hongzheng Zhao

15:30 → 16:00 Non-ergodic dynamics in SU(2) lattice gauge theory: scars, fragmentation, and disorder-free localization

Non-Abelian lattice gauge theories provide a setting where local constraints reshape far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics and can obstruct thermalization.
In a (1+1)D SU(2) lattice gauge theory with dynamical matter, three non-ergodic phenomena are identified, each with a different origin. In regimes where the gauge-invariant dynamics is otherwise ergodic, low-overhead product-state quenches exhibit robust quantum many-body scarring, seen as long-lived coherent oscillations in local observables and pronounced fidelity revivals enabled by non-Abelian meson and baryon–antibaryon excitations. In a separate region of parameters, the gauge-invariant model becomes nonthermal yet delocalized due to Hilbert-space fragmentation into disconnected Krylov subsectors. Finally, when static SU(2) background charges are introduced to encode gauge superselection sectors, and the system is initialized in a coherent superposition of these sectors, disorder-free localization emerges even where a fixed sector is ergodic: spatial matter inhomogeneities persist at long times, and entanglement exhibits MBL-like (logarithmic) growth. These results provide a unified benchmark suite for non-ergodic far-from-equilibrium dynamics in non-Abelian constrained systems and are compatible with digital quantum simulation on existing qudit platforms.

Sprecher: Giovanni Cataldi

16:00 → 16:30 Poster prize talk