An unreviewed preprint posted to arXiv proposes a quantum computing framework for simulating the evolution of open quantum systems relevant to heavy-ion collision physics—specifically the dynamics of hard probes such as jets, heavy quarks, and quarkonia interacting with a surrounding thermal medium.
The central technical contribution is the introduction of an auxiliary two-level 'pseudomode' that encodes bath memory effects within a quantum circuit. By coupling this pseudomode to both the subsystem of interest and a residual Markovian bath, the authors claim that tracing out the pseudomode exactly reproduces non-Markovian evolution governed by a specified memory kernel. They further argue that in the appropriate time-scale limit, the same circuit construction smoothly recovers standard Markovian (memoryless) dynamics, providing a unified treatment of both regimes.
The work does not yet report results from physical quantum hardware, but establishes the theoretical and circuit-level scaffolding the authors say makes such simulations feasible. As with all arXiv preprints, these claims have not been peer-reviewed, and independent validation of the pseudomode construction and its convergence properties remains to be carried out.