To apply today’s quantum hardware to challenging problems, we need to efficiently use the available hardware while minimizing the effects of noise. I will present two target applications of individually-addressed long trapped-ion chains: studying the thermalization of a Z2 lattice gauge theory and demonstrating continuous symmetry breaking in near-ground states of the long-range 1D XY model [1]. The main noise in these experiments stems from axial motion of the ions [2]. I will discuss several ways to mitigate this, including tailored logical encoding [3], faster computation using a new expressive multi-qubit trapped-ion gate [4], sympathetic cooling [2], and optical trapping of ions.
[1] Feng et al., Nature, 623, 713-717 (2023)
[2] Cetina et al., PRX Quantum 3, 010334 (2022)
[3] Huang, Brown and Cetina, arXiv:2312.10851 (2023)
[4] Katz et al., Nat. Phys. 19, 1452 (2023)