Error resilience in digital quantum simulations for controlled electron dynamics

A longstanding goal is to use laser fields to coherently control the dynamics of quantum systems, such as atoms and molecules. In pursuit of this goal, simulations are essential for designing laser fields that achieve a desired control outcome. In this talk, we investigate the viability of quantum computers for performing these simulations in the presence of a variety of errors. We specifically consider simulating controlled electron dynamics on quantum computers using Trotterized, time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation algorithms within a grid-based, first-quantized representation. We discuss the optimization algorithm formulation, its asymptotic costs, and its decomposition into Clifford + T gates. We then present numerical results of the resilience of the algorithm to Trotter error, shot noise, and depolarizing noise. These results demonstrate a tradeoff between the solution quality for an optimization problem and the resource costs of fault-tolerant quantum simulation.