Dynamical simulations of many-body quantum chaos on a quantum computer - Nature

Nature Physics (2026)Cite this article Quantum circuits with local unitaries offer a platform to explore many-body quantum dynamics in discrete time. Their locality makes them suitable for current processors, but verification at scale is difficult for non-integrable systems. Here we study dual-unitary circuits, which are maximally chaotic yet permit exact analytical solutions for certain correlation functions. Using improved noise-learning and error-mitigation methods, we show that a superconducting quantum processor with 91 qubits is able to accurately simulate these correlators. We then perturb the circuits away from the dual-unitary point and benchmark the dynamics against tensor-network simulations. These results establish error-mitigated digital quantum simulation on pre-fault-tolerant processors as a reliable tool to explore emergent quantum many-body phases.This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any timeSubscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access $259.00 per yearonly $21.58 per issueBuy this articleUSD 39.95Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkoutThe datasets generated and analysed during this study are available via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29069759 (ref. 60).Code for tensor-network simulations of the noiseless quantum circuits is available via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29069759 (ref. 60).Miessen, A., Ollitrault, P. J., Tacchino, F. & Tavernelli, I. Quantum algorithms for quantum dynamics. Nat. Comput. Sci. 3, 25–37 (2023).Article Google Scholar Fisher, M. P. A., Khemani, V., Nahum, A. & Vijay, S. Random quantum circuits. Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 14, 335–379 (2023).Article ADS Google Scholar Hangleiter, D. & Eisert, J. Computational advantage of quantum random sampling. Rev. Modern Phys. 95, 035001 (2023).Article ADS MathSciNet Google Scholar Li, Y., Chen, X. & Fisher, M. P. A. Quantum zeno effect and the many-body entanglement transition. Phys. Rev. B 98, 205136 (2018).Article ADS Google Scholar Skinner, B., Ruhman, J. & Nahum, A. Measurement-induced phase transitions in the dynamics of entanglement. Phys. Rev. X 9, 031009 (2019).

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Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USAYoungseok Kim, Andre He & Abhinav KandalaHUN-REN Wigner RCP, Budapest, HungaryZoltán ZimborásSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarThe Algorithmiq team (M.L., D.F., M.A.C.R., F.P., B.S., Z.Z., S.M., J.G., G.G.P. and S.N.F.) led the design and implementation of TEM and TN simulations. The IBM Quantum team (L.E.F., A.E., N.K., Y.K., A.H., F.T., I.T. and A.K.) led the experimental implementation, noise characterization and the hardware calibrations. L.E.F. performed the experiments with support from the IBM team. M.L. implemented the TEM with support from the Algorithmiq team, D.F. implemented the tensor-network simulations with support from the Algorithmiq team. S.N.F. and G.G.-P. conceived TEM. The Algorithmiq, TCD (M.L., N.K., S.D. and J.G.) and IBM teams contributed to the design of the experiments, circuits and tensor-network simulations, as well as data analysis and paper writing.Correspondence to John Goold, Guillermo García-Pérez or Ivano Tavernelli.The authors declare no competing interests.Nature Physics thanks Bruno Bertini and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Supplementay Discussion, with Supplementary Figs. 1–19 and Table 1.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Reprints and permissionsFischer, L.E., Leahy, M., Eddins, A. et al. Dynamical simulations of many-body quantum chaos on a quantum computer. Nat. Phys. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03144-9Download citationReceived: 14 February 2025Accepted: 21 November 2025Published: 20 January 2026Version of record: 20 January 2026DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03144-9Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative