A near-term quantum simulation of the transverse field Ising model hints at glassy dynamics

Abstract We demonstrate quantum circuit simulations of the transverse field Ising model with longitudinal fields, displaying salient features of glassy dynamics. The energy landscape and spin configurations of toy models are considered, using the Variational Quantum Eigensolver to obtain the ground-state energies and corresponding eigenstates for a 6 $$\times$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> </mml:math> 6 Ising lattice using 36 qubits and a 1-D Ising chain of length 25 using 25 qubits. The former showed disordered spin configurations for a specific mixture of values of the two fields. These insights mirror catalytic processes, where disorder within a catalyst can lead to inefficient reaction mechanisms. Results obtained from our proof-of-principle implementation make the case for kick-starting more concentrated efforts in harnessing existing quantum computational tools for computationally probing complex dynamical behavior arising in quantum matter. Our aim is to leverage tools from quantum information processing to bring about a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics and structure of glassy systems, ultimately informing the development of novel materials and technology.