Conserved charges in the quantum simulation of integrable spin chains

Abstract

When simulating the time evolution of quantum many-body systems on a digital quantum computer, one faces the challenges of quantum noise and of the Trotter error due to time discretization. The Trotter error in integrable spin chains can be under control if the discrete time evolution preserves integrability. In this work we implement, on a real quantum computer and on classical simulators, the integrable Trotterization of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg XXX spin chain. We study how quantum noise affects the time evolution of several conserved charges, and observe the decay of the expectation values. We in addition study the early time behaviors of the time evolution, which can potentially be used to benchmark quantum devices and algorithms in the future. We also provide an efficient method to generate the conserved charges at higher orders.