Variational Real-Time Dynamics on Reduced Operator Manifolds

Abstract

Accurate real-time simulation of correlated quantum systems remains challenging for both classical methods and near-term quantum hardware. We introduce operator-projected variational quantum real-time evolution (OVQRTE), which updates a parameterized circuit by enforcing the Ehrenfest equations for a selected set of observables. OVQRTE requires only expectation-value measurements, while the choice of operator set enables a systematic trade-off between accuracy and measurement cost, substantially reducing quantum-resource requirements relative to existing variational real-time-evolution algorithms. After implementing OVQRTE dynamics of Heisenberg model on a simulator, we benchmark the algorithm for the Anderson impurity models on the IQM Emerald superconducting processor using up to 24 qubits. We further use OVQRTE to sample computational-basis states for quantum-selected configuration interaction (QSCI), enabling the calculation of the ground-state energy and density of states within a self-consistent ghost-Gutzwiller Ansatz (gGut) embedding loop. Our results establish OVQRTE as a promising approach for investigating correlated condensed-matter systems on near-term quantum hardware.