Experimental Simulation of Open Quantum System Dynamics via Trotterization

Digital quantum simulators provide a diversified tool for solving the evolution of quantum systems with complicated Hamiltonians and hold great potential for a wide range of applications. Although much attention is paid to the unitary evolution of closed quantum systems, dissipation and noise are vital in understanding the dynamics of practical quantum systems. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a digital simulation of an open quantum system in a controllable Markovian environment with the assistance of a single ancillary qubit. By Trotterizing the quantum Liouvillians, the continuous evolution of an open quantum system is effectively realized, and its application in error mitigation is demonstrated by adjusting the simulated noise intensities. High-order Trotter for open quantum dynamics is also experimentally investigated and shows higher accuracy. Our results represent a significant step toward hardware-efficient simulation of open quantum systems and error mitigation in quantum algorithms in noisy intermediate-scale quantum systems.