Hamiltonian estimation in trapped ion quantum simulators

Analog quantum simulators use native interactions between effective spins (qubits) to study complicated Hamiltonians. Characterizing a Hamiltonian's parameters is essential to have faith in the results of a quantum simulation. However, efficient full characterization of a general many-body Hamiltonian is challenging. Here, we explore new strategies for estimating Hamiltonian parameters by implementing the quantum-quench protocol [1] on our trapped Yb+ ion system with intrinsic long-range interactions. We also develop a new experimental tool for shelving a subset of our hyperfine qubits into an auxiliary Zeeman level within the detection manifold, preserving Hamiltonian terms on the remaining subsystem. We investigate the quench protocol and its interplay with our shelving tool to improve overall efficiency of a Hamiltonian estimation procedure.

[1] Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 160502 (2020)