Aspects of Symmetry in Nuclear Quantum Computing Variational Algorithms
Abstract
Variational Quantum Eigensolvers (VQEs) have become a standard tool for use in preparing eigenstates in quantum simulations of many-body systems. In the case of the nuclear shell model, various adaptations of the VQE have been shown to be able to produce ground and excited states of nuclei. The VQE algorithm works by seeking minima in a cost function, which is often the expectation value of the energy. For a well-formulated problem, symmetries that are respected by the Hamiltonian should appear in the final converged solution provided by the VQE, even if those symmetries are broken by the wave function ansatz. We demonstrate explicit appearance of the particle–hole symmetry, and explicit recovery of angular momentum conservation due to rotational symmetry, during VQE runs in the case of the nuclear shell model. We conduct analyses of how the symmetry convergence appears in different ansatz formulations, and suggest that information obtained could be used in future VQE design.
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BibTeX
@article{stevenson2026aspects,
title = {{Aspects of Symmetry in Nuclear Quantum Computing Variational Algorithms}},
author = {Paul Stevenson and Chandan Sarma and Lloyd La Ronde and Serkan Akkoyun and Bhoomika Maheshwari and Piet van Isacker},
journal = {Symmetry},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.3390/sym18101716},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05850067v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Aspects of Symmetry in Nuclear Quantum Computing Variational Algorithms
AU - Paul Stevenson
AU - Chandan Sarma
AU - Lloyd La Ronde
AU - Serkan Akkoyun
AU - Bhoomika Maheshwari
AU - Piet van Isacker
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
JO - Symmetry
DO - 10.3390/sym18101716
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05850067v1
AB - Variational Quantum Eigensolvers (VQEs) have become a standard tool for use in preparing eigenstates in quantum simulations of many-body systems. In the case of the nuclear shell model, various adaptations of the VQE have been shown to be able to produce ground and excited states of nuclei. The VQE algorithm works by seeking minima in a cost function, which is often the expectation value of the energy. For a well-formulated problem, symmetries that are respected by the Hamiltonian should appear in the final converged solution provided by the VQE, even if those symmetries are broken by the wave function ansatz. We demonstrate explicit appearance of the particle–hole symmetry, and explicit recovery of angular momentum conservation due to rotational symmetry, during VQE runs in the case of the nuclear shell model. We conduct analyses of how the symmetry convergence appears in different ansatz formulations, and suggest that information obtained could be used in future VQE design.
SN - 2073-8994
ER -