Improved quasiparticle nuclear Hamiltonians for quantum computing
Phys. Rev. C 114, 024339 – Published 25 August, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yl3n-3tbf
Abstract
Quantum computing is increasingly offering concrete solutions toward the simulation of nuclear structure, with the potential to overcome the exponential scaling that limits classical diagonalization methods in large spaces. A particularly efficient encoding scheme, based on collective like-nucleon pairing modes, reduces the qubit requirements by half and avoids the nonlocal operator strings of standard fermion-to-qubit mappings. While this quasiparticle framework provides accurate results for semimagic nuclei, it does not adequately describe open-shell systems where proton-neutron correlations become important. In this work, we apply Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory to systematically improve the quasiparticle description of open-shell nuclei in the shell, reaching an energy relative error below compared with the nuclear shell model. Furthermore, to make the effective Hamiltonian suitable for quantum simulation, we introduce a mean-field Hartree-Fock approximation of the nonquasiparticle resolvent, achieving ground-state energies typically within of the exact shell-model result. This represents a systematic improvement over the bare quasiparticle Hamiltonian while remaining within the reach of near-term quantum devices.