Encoding Compact U(1) Gauge Fields in Bosonic Modes with GKP Stabilization

Abstract

Compact lattice gauge theories are formulated in terms of angular variables and integer electric fluxes, while bosonic quantum hardware provides oscillator modes with continuous, unbounded quadratures. We bridge this gap with a one-to-one encoding. After Gauss's law is solved, each remaining gauge degree of freedom is carried by a single oscillator mode, with its interactions built from trigonometric gates, and a Gottesman--Kitaev--Preskill (GKP)-type stabilizer provides the compactness that the hardware does not. The encoding becomes exact in the limit of infinite squeezing, and at finite squeezing, the leading imperfections act as small, computable shifts of physical observables rather than uncontrolled leakage. We apply the construction to compact QED$_3$ and derive the error budget at finite squeezing, characterizing the leading errors in closed form, and showing that they can be corrected, subtracted, or extrapolated away. We construct syndrome-extraction protocols that detect and remove the displacement component of photon loss, delimit the noise it does not reach, compare two choices of dynamical variables, and collect the scaling of mode count, gate count, and measurement cost. A one-plaquette example reproduces the exact compact-rotor dynamics, and real-time spectroscopy with controlled extrapolations recovers the exponentially small energy splitting between charge sectors, the seed of the monopole physics of the theory, at the percent level against its exact value.