Simulating the Femtouniverse on a Quantum Computer

Abstract

We compute the low-lying spectrum of 4D SU(2) Yang-Mills in a finite volume using quantum simulations. In contrast to small-volume lattice truncations of the Hilbert space, we employ toroidal dimensional reduction to the ``femtouniverse" matrix quantum mechanics model. In this limit the theory is equivalent to the quantum mechanics of three interacting particles moving inside a 3-ball with certain boundary conditions. We use the variational quantum eigensolver and quantum subspace expansion techniques to compute the string tension to glueball mass ratio near the small/large-volume transition point, finding qualitatively good agreement with large volume Euclidean lattice simulations.