Can a Quantum Computer Simulate Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra Better than a Classical One?

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fratus, Keith R., Enenkel, Nicklas, Zanker, Sebastian, Reiner, Jan-Michael, Marthaler, Michael, Schmitteckert, Peter
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910041981845504
author Fratus, Keith R.
Enenkel, Nicklas
Zanker, Sebastian
Reiner, Jan-Michael
Marthaler, Michael
Schmitteckert, Peter
author_facet Fratus, Keith R.
Enenkel, Nicklas
Zanker, Sebastian
Reiner, Jan-Michael
Marthaler, Michael
Schmitteckert, Peter
contents The simulation of the spectra measured in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy experiments is a computationally non-trivial problem which, due to its natural interpretation as a quantum spin problem, maps in a straightforward way to a quantum computer. As such, it represents a problem for which such a device may provide some practical advantage over traditional computing methods. In order to understand the extent to which such problems may indeed provide examples of useful quantum advantage, it is important to understand the limitations of existing classical simulation methods. In this work, we benchmark our own classical solver designed to study such problems. This solver uses a clustering approximation to achieve a resource scaling which is linear in the total number of nuclear spins in a given molecule, for a fixed cluster size. The success of such an approximation would present a stark repudiation to the common claim that such problems require an exponential scaling of resources, the very claim which makes simulating an NMR spectra a candidate for quantum advantage. Our benchmarking results indicate that our approximation performs well throughout, and even somewhat beyond, the more typical experimental regimes. We discuss what implications this may have for future efforts to demonstrate quantum advantage in the context of NMR.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_06448
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Can a Quantum Computer Simulate Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra Better than a Classical One?
Fratus, Keith R.
Enenkel, Nicklas
Zanker, Sebastian
Reiner, Jan-Michael
Marthaler, Michael
Schmitteckert, Peter
Quantum Physics
Chemical Physics
The simulation of the spectra measured in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy experiments is a computationally non-trivial problem which, due to its natural interpretation as a quantum spin problem, maps in a straightforward way to a quantum computer. As such, it represents a problem for which such a device may provide some practical advantage over traditional computing methods. In order to understand the extent to which such problems may indeed provide examples of useful quantum advantage, it is important to understand the limitations of existing classical simulation methods. In this work, we benchmark our own classical solver designed to study such problems. This solver uses a clustering approximation to achieve a resource scaling which is linear in the total number of nuclear spins in a given molecule, for a fixed cluster size. The success of such an approximation would present a stark repudiation to the common claim that such problems require an exponential scaling of resources, the very claim which makes simulating an NMR spectra a candidate for quantum advantage. Our benchmarking results indicate that our approximation performs well throughout, and even somewhat beyond, the more typical experimental regimes. We discuss what implications this may have for future efforts to demonstrate quantum advantage in the context of NMR.
title Can a Quantum Computer Simulate Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra Better than a Classical One?
topic Quantum Physics
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06448