Determining quantum phase diagrams of topological Kitaev-inspired models
  on NISQ quantum hardware
Topological protection is employed in fault-tolerant error correction and in
developing quantum algorithms with topological qubits. But, topological
protection intrinsic to models being simulated, also robustly protects
calculations, even on NISQ hardware. We leverage it by simulating
Kitaev-inspired models on IBM quantum computers and accurately determining
their phase diagrams. This requires constructing conventional quantum circuits
for Majorana braiding to prepare the ground states of Kitaev-inspired models.
The entanglement entropy is then measured to calculate the quantum phase
boundaries. We show how maintaining particle-hole symmetry when sampling
through the Brillouin zone is critical to obtaining high accuracy. This work
illustrates how topological protection intrinsic to a quantum model can be
employed to perform robust calculations on NISQ hardware, when one measures the
appropriate protected quantum properties. It opens the door for further
simulation of topological quantum models on quantum hardware available today.
Xiao Xiao J. K. Freericks A. F. Kemper