Simulating Three-Flavor Neutrino Oscillations on an NMR Quantum Processor

Abstract

Neutrino oscillations can be efficiently simulated on a quantum computer using the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) theory in close analogy to the physical processes realized in experiments. We simulate three-flavor neutrino oscillations on a two-qubit NMR quantum information processor. The three-flavor neutrino states were encoded into the two-qubit system, leaving one redundant basis state (representing an unphysical sterile neutrino). We simulated the neutrino oscillations in different scenarios, including propagation in vacuum and through surrounding matter, and both with and without a CP violating phase $\delta$ at a Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) baseline distance of L = 1285 km. The oscillation probabilities were obtained after unitarily time evolving the initial flavor state and and comparisons were performed between different scenarios. Further, we design and implement an optimized quantum circuit encoding all four parameters (three mixing angles-$\theta_{12},\theta_{23},\theta_{13}$ and one complex phase $\delta$) to implement the PMNS unitary matrix, which relates the flavor and mass eigenstates. The interaction with matter is considered as a perturbation to the vacuum Hamiltonian, and the same quantum circuit is employed with an approximation of two mixing angles ($\theta_{12}$ and $\theta_{13}$ ) and mass eigenvalues. Our experimental results match well with numerical simulations and highlight the potential of quantum computers for exploring the physics of neutrino oscillations.