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Algorithms · Hamiltonian simulation · product formula

Transverse-field Ising simulation

A compact Hamiltonian-simulation pattern for spin chains: alternate local field rotations with entangling ZZ evolution.

Strong empiricalUpdated

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A small worked example, computed in your browser. It is not a result from this record's papers.

2 Trotter steps of a transverse-field Ising chain

4 qubits starting at |0000⟩, J=1, h=0.5, dt=0.3, 2 first-order Trotter steps.

q0q1q2q3Step 1 of 2 · Ising Trotter step(4)Ising Trotter step(4)Step 2 of 2 · Ising Trotter step(4)Ising Trotter step(4)

Step 1 of 2 · Ising Trotter step(4)

Probability of each outcome after this step

  • 000091%
  • 00012%
  • 00102%
  • 01002%
  • 10002%
  • 00110%
  • 01010%
  • 01100%
  • 8 more outcomes0%
Amplitude and phase after this step
OutcomeProbabilityRelative phase
000091.4%0
00012.1%3π/2
00102.1%3π/2
01002.1%3π/2
10002.1%3π/2
00110.0%π
01010.0%π
01100.0%π

8 more outcomes (0.1% between them)

Phases are measured against the largest amplitude. A global phase is not observable, so only the differences carry meaning.

  1. First Trotter step: RZZ(2*J*dt) couples each neighbouring pair on the line, then RX(2*h*dt) applies the transverse field to every qubit.

    Probability spreads from 1 outcome to 16.

  2. Second Trotter step, identical to the first. Together the two steps approximate exp(−i·H·2·dt) for this chain's Hamiltonian.

    Probability moves between the same 16 outcomes. Up: 0001 2.1% → 6.4%, 1000 2.1% → 6.4%. Down: 0000 91.4% → 75.2%. This is the step that entangles the qubits: from here on no single qubit has a state of its own, only the register as a whole does.

Readout The state spreads from |0000⟩ across several nearby basis states. The exact split is a regression value from this file's own simulator, not a claim about a real material.

Open in Studio
  • Steps3
  • Wires2
  • Qubits2 shown · chain generalizes to n
  • Step depth1 RZZ + 2 RX rotations
  • ApproximationFirst-order product formula
  • Papers1
Native
ising_trotter_step.py
from qiskit import QuantumCircuit

J, h, dt = 1.0, 0.5, 0.1
qc = QuantumCircuit(2)
qc.rzz(2 * J * dt, 0, 1)
qc.rx(2 * h * dt, 0)
qc.rx(2 * h * dt, 1)

FINAL_CIRCUIT = qc

References

Strong empirical
  • Verified by construction
  • Small-instance agreement
  • Sub-block verification
  • Peer-reviewed paper
Method
The transverse-field Ising Hamiltonian is decomposed into commuting ZZ and single-qubit X terms for one short time step. The RZZ and RX blocks are checked against the corresponding exponentials and the two-qubit instance is compared with direct matrix evolution.
Result
Pass · the low-depth two-qubit step has the expected 4×4 unitary to first-order Trotter accuracy and preserves the two-qubit register size.
Caveat
The Trotter error grows with total time, coupling strength, and non-commuting term count; this record does not claim a large-system or hardware result.
Efficient quantum algorithms for simulating sparse Hamiltonians ↗
Kind
curated reference
Reviewed by
Leona Quantum curation pass
License
CC BY 4.0-compatible reference metadata
hamiltonian simulationising modeltrotterspin system
  • Spin-chain and condensed-matter toy models
  • Benchmarking product-formula compilation on quantum hardware
  • Building blocks for chemistry and materials simulation

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