Suzuki-Trotter Decompositions and other Methods for Quantum Time Evolution

Quantum Physics arXiv:2609.19184 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 15 Sep 2026] Title:Suzuki-Trotter Decompositions and other Methods for Quantum Time Evolution Authors:Johann Ostmeyer View a PDF of the paper titled Suzuki-Trotter Decompositions and other Methods for Quantum Time Evolution, by Johann Ostmeyer View PDF Abstract:(Suzuki-)Trotter decompositions, splitting methods, (Lie) product formulae... The most common numerical methods for the time evolution of quantum systems come with many names. And they are used practically everywhere with applications ranging from the solution of classical equations of motion and various Monte Carlo simulations to the real and imaginary time evolution on classical as well as quantum computers. Here we review the state of the art of said methods, focussing especially on the progress made over the last few years. We highlight recently discovered efficient time evolution algorithms and explain how best to use them in practice. A central part of this work is the estimation of error bounds that has improved greatly within the past decade. The relevance of time evolution methods for quantum computing is discussed with a focus on noisy hardware. Finally, a comprehensive overview of generalisations, related methods and alternatives to Trotterization is provided. This includes time-dependent Hamiltonian dynamics, processed methods, multi-product formulae, symplectic integrators, TDVP for tensor networks, quantum signal processing, Crouch-Grossman methods and more. The overall perspective in this work is that of a theoretical physicist. All mathematical proofs as well as some technical details are omitted for easier readability. Instead, this review serves as a hands-on guide and, of course, as a starting point for references that provide further details. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el); High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat); Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2609.19184 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2609.19184v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.19184 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Johann Ostmeyer [view email] [v1] Tue, 15 Sep 2026 15:51:45 UTC (1,950 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Suzuki-Trotter Decompositions and other Methods for Quantum Time Evolution, by Johann OstmeyerView PDFTeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-09 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.str-el hep-lat physics physics.comp-ph 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?)