Continuous-variable-discrete-variable (CV-DV) quantum simulators offer a natural route to simulating bosonic dynamics relevant to many branches of physics and chemistry. However, programmable simulation of arbitrary dynamics is an outstanding challenge. In particular, simulating anharmonic dynamics, which is ubiquitous across the physical sciences, is challenging due to the highly harmonic nature of oscillators used in CV-DV simulators. Here, we experimentally demonstrate programmable CV-DV quantum simulation of anharmonic dynamics in a range of double-well potentials, implemented in a trapped-ion system. We synthesise the time-evolution operators using a bosonic-quantum-signal-processing subroutine, which allows the potential to be tuned between experiments by controlling classical experimental parameters. We observe coherent dynamics in various double-well potentials, where a wavepacket tunnels through the potential barrier, and we suppress this effect by programmatically introducing asymmetry.
@article{arxiv.2603.04744,
title = {Programmable quantum simulation of anharmonic dynamics},
author = {Cameron McGarry and Teerawat Chalermpusitarak and Kai Schwennicke and Frank Scuccimarra and Maverick J. Millican and Vassili G. Matsos and Christophe H. Valahu and Prachi Nagpal and Hon-Kwan Chan and Henry L. Nourse and Ivan Kassal and Ting Rei Tan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.04744},
year = {2026}
}