TY - JOUR AU - Lively, Kevin AU - Bode, Tim AU - Szangolies, Jochen AU - Zhu, Jian-Xin AU - Fauseweh, Benedikt TI - Noise robust detection of quantum phase transitions JO - Physical review research VL - 6 IS - 4 SN - 2643-1564 CY - College Park, MD PB - APS M1 - FZJ-2025-04051 SP - 043254 PY - 2024 AB - Quantum computing allows for the manipulation of highly correlated states whose properties quickly go beyond the capacity of any classical method to calculate. Thus one natural problem which could lend itself to quantum advantage is the study of ground-states of condensed matter models, and the transitions between them. However, current levels of hardware noise can require extensive application of error-mitigation techniques to achieve reliable computations. In this work, we use several IBM devices to explore a finite-size spin model with multiple “phaselike” regions characterized by distinct ground-state configurations. Using preoptimized Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) solutions, we demonstrate that in contrast to calculating the energy, where zero-noise extrapolation is required in order to obtain qualitatively accurate yet still unreliable results, calculations of the energy derivative, two-site spin correlation functions, and the fidelity susceptibility yield accurate behavior across multiple regions, even with minimal or no application of error-mitigation approaches. Taken together, these sets of observables could be used to identify level crossings in a simple, noise-robust manner which is agnostic to the method of ground state preparation. This work shows promising potential for near-term application to identifying quantum phase transitions, including avoided crossings and nonadiabatic conical intersections in electronic structure calculations. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 DO - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.043254 UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1046983 ER -