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Title: On the Trotter Error in Many-body Quantum Dynamics with Coulomb Potentials
Efficient simulation of many-body quantum systems is central to advances in physics, chemistry, and quantum computing, with a key question being whether the simulation cost scales polynomially with the system size. In this work, we analyze many-body quantum systems with Coulomb interactions, which are fundamental to electronic and molecular systems. We prove that Trotterization for such unbounded Hamiltonians achieves a 1/4-order convergence rate, with explicit polynomial dependence on the number of particles. The result holds for all initial wavefunctions in the domain of the Hamiltonian, and the 1/4-order convergence rate is optimal, as previous work has numerically demonstrated that it can be saturated by a specific initial ground state. The main challenges arise from the many-body structure and the singular nature of the Coulomb potential. Our proof strategy differs from prior state-of-the-art Trotter analyses, addressing both difficulties in a unified framework. Our analysis treats the Coulomb potential as an unbounded operator without modification or regularization, and does not rely on spatial discretization, making it compatible with both first- and second-quantized circuit constructions.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2438074 2347791
PAR ID:
10681647
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Springer Nature
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Communications in Mathematical Physics
Volume:
407
Issue:
4
ISSN:
0010-3616
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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