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Excited-State Quantum Chemistry on Qumode-Based Processors via Variational Quantum Deflation

Quantum Physics 2026-04-21 v2 Chemical Physics

Abstract

Variational quantum algorithms on bosonic quantum processors are an emerging paradigm for quantum chemistry calculations, exploiting the natural alignment between molecular structure and harmonic oscillator-based hardware. We introduce the qumode-based variational quantum deflation framework (QumVQD) for finding both electronic and vibrational excited state energies on qumode-based architectures. For electronic structure, we incorporated particle number conservation constraints via Fock basis Hamming weight filtering. This symmetry enforcement achieves a significant reduction in computational overhead, scaling the Hilbert space dimension as O(Mne)M \choose n_e rather than O(2M)(2^M) for MM spin orbitals and nen_e electrons. We validate the approach through electronic structure calculations on H2_{\text{2}}, achieving agreement with full configuration interaction (FCI) using the STO-3G basis within chemical accuracy across potential energy surfaces. Extending to vibrational structure, we combine QumVQD with Hamiltonian fragmentation based on Bogoliubov transforms, computing CO2_{\text{2}} and H2_{\text{2}}S vibrational eigenstates to spectroscopic accuracy with entangling gate counts 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than analogous qubit-based algorithms. We performed noise characterization using amplitude-damping models and gate-fidelity analysis, which demonstrates enhanced error resilience due to reduced circuit depth compared to qubit-based algorithms. Together, these results highlight the potential of bosonic quantum devices for advancing computational chemistry, particularly in areas where qubit-based devices struggle.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.13457,
  title  = {Excited-State Quantum Chemistry on Qumode-Based Processors via Variational Quantum Deflation},
  author = {Marlon F. Jost and Sijia S. Dong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.13457},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T12:10:04.918Z