Toward Quantum Computing Phase Diagrams of Gauge Theories with Thermal Pure Quantum States

Abstract: The phase diagram of strong interactions in nature at finite temperature and chemical potential remains largely unexplored theoretically due to inadequacy of Monte-Carlo-based computational techniques in overcoming a sign problem. Quantum computing offers a sign-problem-free approach but evaluating thermal expectation values is generally resource intensive on quantum computers. To facilitate thermodynamic studies of gauge theories, we propose a generalization of thermal-pure-quantum-state formulation of statistical mechanics applied to constrained gauge-theory dynamics, and numerically demonstrate that the phase diagram of a simple low-dimensional gauge theory is robustly determined using this approach, including mapping a chiral phase transition in the model at finite temperature and chemical potential. Quantum algorithms, resource requirements, and algorithmic and hardware error analysis are further discussed to motivate future implementations. Thermal pure quantum states, therefore, may present a suitable candidate for efficient thermal-state preparation in gauge theories in the era of quantum computing.