The HALO Engine: $\mathcal{O}(1)$-Step Compilation and Localized String Rupture for Lattice Gauge Theories on Quantum Hardware

Quantum Physics arXiv:2608.19243 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 14 Aug 2026] Title:The HALO Engine: $\mathcal{O}(1)$-Step Compilation and Localized String Rupture for Lattice Gauge Theories on Quantum Hardware Authors:Abhiroop Gohar View a PDF of the paper titled The HALO Engine: $\mathcal{O}(1)$-Step Compilation and Localized String Rupture for Lattice Gauge Theories on Quantum Hardware, by Abhiroop Gohar View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Simulating the real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theories (LGTs) represents a challenge for near-term quantum computing. Standard digital simulations rely on Trotterization schemes where circuit depth scales proportionally with lattice size, inevitably colliding with the coherence limits of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware. To deal with this depth-scaling bottleneck, we introduce the Hardware-Aware Lattice Optimization (HALO) compiler, an architecture that executes global time-evolution steps in an immutable $\mathcal{O}(1)$ circuit depth per Trotter step. Leveraging this framework, we elevate the digital simulation of the Quantum Link Model (QLM) truncation of the Schwinger model to the mesoscopic scale, utilizing a composite multi-qubit gauge link representation to support non-trivial electric field dynamics. We initialize and execute the non-perturbative dynamics of a heavily stretched $L=15$ meson string on a 16-qubit superconducting transmon processor. By coupling the $\mathcal{O}(1)$ compilation with Zero-Noise Extrapolation (ZNE), we suppress physical hardware decoherence to extract the precise dynamical crossover of localized pair creation, identifying the topological transition at $t \approx 0.790$ lattice units with an $18.3 \pm 2.2\%$ rupture probability. Furthermore, we empirically map the dynamical phase diagram of the mesoscopic lattice, pinpointing the effective confinement phase boundary at precisely $g_c = 1.0$. Finally, we extend the mathematical principles of the HALO engine to higher dimensions, presenting a scalable, constant-depth 2D unit-cell blueprint that eliminates the routing overhead of magnetic plaquettes, paving a direct algorithmic pathway toward the fault-tolerant simulation of two-dimensional Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat) Cite as: arXiv:2608.19243 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2608.19243v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.19243 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Abhiroop Gohar [view email] [v1] Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:07:47 UTC (2,162 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled The HALO Engine: $\mathcal{O}(1)$-Step Compilation and Localized String Rupture for Lattice Gauge Theories on Quantum Hardware, by Abhiroop GoharView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: hep-lat References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)