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Updated: Jan 15, 2026

Gradient Echo Quantum Memory in Warm Atomic Vapor
Published on: November 11, 2013
Variational quantum simulation of time-local quantum master equations via quantum jump
Zhihao Lan1, Jie Liu2, Zhenyu Li2
1State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, and Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Strong coupling and environmental memory render many open quantum systems intractable to classical computation. To overcome this barrier, we present a variational quantum algorithm capable of solving generalized form time-local quantum master equations directly on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) processors. Our approach combines four key innovations: (1) a pair-vector stochastic Schrödinger equation to unravel time-local quantum master equations, (2) deterministic evolution projected onto parameterized circuits via McLachlan's principle and stochastic jump implementation via singular-value decomposition, (3) using Hadamard tests circuits to measure the jump rates and the element of reduced density matrices, and (4) using no-evolution sampling to sample trajectories. The resulting protocol remains resilient under realistic hardware noise. We validate it on both classical simulators and a 66-qubit superconducting processor for solving the Redfield master equation and fourth-order time-local non-Markovian master equation and find that it can successfully capture key features of complex open quantum dynamics-including non-Markovian oscillations and strong-coupling effects. Our approach establishes a practical pathway toward scalable simulations of open quantum systems in the NISQ era.
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