Analog quantum simulation of chemical dynamics

Ultrafast chemical reactions are difficult to simulate because they involve entangled, many-body wavefunctions whose computational complexity grows rapidly with molecular size. In photochemistry, the breakdown of Born-Oppenheimer approximation further complicates problem by entangling nuclear and electronic degrees freedom. Here, we show that analog quantum simulators can efficiently dynamics using commonly available bosonic modes represent vibrations. Our approach be implemented in any device a qudit controllably coupled oscillators hardware resources scale linearly size, offers significant resource savings compared digital simulation algorithms. Advantages our include time resolution orders magnitude better than ultrafast spectroscopy, ability large molecules limited Suzuki-Trotter expansion, implement realistic system-bath interactions only one additional interaction per mode. current technology; e.g., conical intersection pyrazine simulated single trapped ion. Therefore, expect method will enable classically intractable simulations near term.