2024/08/12 by Nazlı Uğur Köylüoğlu, Swarndeep Majumder, Köylüoğlu, Nazlı Uğur +13 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum and electron transport phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2408.06342
openalex publication_date 2024/08/12 · openalex created_date 2024/09/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Central charge is a fundamental quantity in conformal field theories (CFT), and plays a crucial role in determining universality classes of critical points in two-dimensional systems. Despite its significance, the measurement of central charge has remained elusive thus far. In this work, we present the first experimental determination of the central charge using a universal quantum processor. Using a classically optimized variational quantum circuit and employing advanced error mitigation techniques, we successfully prepare ground states of various 1+1D quantum spin chain models at their critical point. Leveraging the heavy-hex structure of IBM quantum processors, we are able to implement periodic boundary conditions and mitigate boundary effects. We then extract the central charge from the scaling behavior of the sub-leading term of Rényi generalizations of classical Shannon entropy, computed for local Pauli measurements in the conformal bases (σz and σx). The experimental results are consistent with the known central charge values for the transverse field Ising (TFI) chain (c=0.5) and the XXZ chain (c=1), achieving relative errors as low as 5 percent.