In this paper, we explore ( 2 + 1 ) D quantum electrodynamics at finite density on a quantum computer, including two fermion flavors. Our method employs an established gauge-invariant together with a quantum circuit structure that enforces Gauss’s law. As a proof of principle, we benchmark our simulation protocol on a small lattice system of 2 × 2 , demonstrating the identification of density-induced level crossings in terms of the particle number of the fermion flavors. Classical simulations are used to obtain optimized variational parameters, which are then deployed in inference runs on IBM quantum hardware. We conclude by discussing hardware limitations and prospects for scaling this method to larger systems.

We demonstrate that conditional Masked Autoregressive Flows constitute a flexible interpolation tool for lattice QCD observables, conditioned on bare lattice parameters. As a benchmark, we use the chiral phase structure of QCD with five degenerate light quark flavours, which on coarse lattices exhibits a region of first-order chiral transitions terminating in a critical quark mass. The method successfully reproduces standard reweighting in the gauge coupling, and naturally extends to interpolation in quark mass and spatial volume, for which reweighting is computationally prohibitive or inapplicable, respectively. Once trained, the model generates samples across the full parameter space in minutes, which can be used to obtain consistent first estimates of the critical quark mass without simulating all intermediate parameter values. This offers a concrete reduction in the number of lattice ensembles required. Precision on the critical mass from learned distributions is so far prohibited by the mode-covering effect inherent to maximum-likelihood-based training, which introduces a systematic bias near first-order transitions. At the current stage, the method is well-suited for a range of practical applications: localising phase boundaries, identifying the universal scaling axes at a critical point, and accelerating informed determinations of parameter values ahead of high-precision Monte Carlo campaigns.

A normalizing-flow-based implementation of the density-of-states approach has recently been used to successfully reconstruct the partition function of (1+1)D scalar lattice field theory. In this preliminary work, we extend this framework to a lattice gauge theory by employing gauge-equivariant normalizing flows to reconstruct the density of states of pure (1+1)D U(1) lattice gauge theory, both with and without a θ-term. In the absence of a θ-term, we first demonstrate that the normalizing-flow-based reconstruction of the density of states reproduces the known analytic results for this theory. We further show that, in the presence of a θ-term, this formulation enables the generation of gauge-field configurations at fixed values of the topological charge.

Quantum simulation offers a powerful approach to studying quantum field theories, particularly (2+1)D quantum electrodynamics (QED_3) with Wilson fermions, which hosts a rich landscape of physical phenomena. A key challenge in lattice formulations is the proper realization of topological phases and the Chern-Simons terms, where fermion discretization plays a crucial role. In this work, we highlight the differences between staggered and Wilson fermions coupled to U(1) gauge fields in the Hamiltonian formulation. We analyze why staggered fermions fail to induce (2+1)D topological phases, while Wilson fermions admit a variety of topological phases including Chern insulator and quantum spin Hall phases. Additionally, we uncover a rich phase diagram for the two-flavor Wilson fermion model in the presence of a chemical potential. Our findings resolve existing ambiguities in Hamiltonian formulations and provide a theoretical foundation for future quantum simulations of lattice field theories with topological phases. We further outline connections to experimental platforms, offering guidance for implementations on near-term quantum computing architectures. A complementary presentation of the analytical calculations, the identification of robust topological structure and response, and extensive numerical results is contained in a joint submission [1].

Phase diagrams of some important theories like quantum chromodynamics (QCD), are only accessible through numerical simulations with only finite degrees of freedom. Information about critical phenomena can then only inferred through finite size scaling studies of various moments of the order parameter. Alternatively, one can study the complex zeros of the grand canonical partition function, known as Lee-Yang zeros, which are accessible as poles of the thermodynamic variables. Moreover the temperature and volume scaling of these poles can be used as a probe to understand the nature of phase transitions in many systems. We will discuss here the recent progress that has been made in this direction with respect to the Roberge-Weiss transition, the 2D Ising model and the conjectured QCD critical point. We will further discuss results on the universal location of Lee-Yang edge singularity from continuum extrapolated scaling function for some $O(N)$ models in $3-d$.

We discuss the scaling of the Yang-Lee singularity (YLs) and show how the universal scaling can be used to locate phase transitions in QCD. We describe two complementary methods to extract the location of the Yang-Lee singularity from lattice QCD data of the baryon-number density and higher order cumulants of the baryon number, obtained at imaginary chemical potential. The first method (multi-point Padé resummation) is used to determine the Roberge-Weiss phase transition temperature. Our continuum extrapolated result is T_RW=211.1±3.1 MeV. The second method is based on the asymptotic behaviour of the Fourier coefficients of the baryon-number density. We discuss the derivation of a fitting function and demonstrate that the procedure can successfully locate the YLs in the Quark Meson model.

We present a numerical calculation of the Lee-Yang and Fisher zeros of the 2D Ising model using multi-point Padé approximants. We perform simulations for the 2D Ising model with ferromagnetic couplings both in the absence and in the presence of a magnetic field using a cluster spin-flip algorithm. We show that it is possible to extract genuine signature of Lee Yang and Fisher zeros of the theory through the poles of magnetization and specific heat, using multi-point Padé method. We extract the poles of magnetization using Padé approximants and compare their scaling with known results. We verify the circle theorem associated to the well known behaviour of Lee Yang zeros. We present our finite volume scaling analysis of the zeros done at $T=T_c$ for a few lattice sizes, extracting to a good precision the (combination of) critical exponents $\beta \delta$. The computation at the critical temperature is performed after the latter has been determined via the study of Fisher zeros, thus extracting both $\beta_c$ and the critical exponent $\nu$. Results already exist for extracting the critical exponents for the Ising model in 2 and 3 dimensions making use of Fisher and Lee Yang zeros. In this work, multi-point Padé is shown to be competitive with this respect and thus a powerful tool to study phase transitions.

We discuss the analytic continuation of scaling function in the 3-dimensional Z(2),O(2) andO(4) universality classes using the Schofield representation of the magnetic equation of state. We show that a determination of the location of Lee-Yang edge singularities and, in the case of Z(2), also the Langer edge singularity yields stable results. Results for the former are in good agreement with Functional Renormalization Group calculations. We also present results for the location of the Langer edge singularity in the 3-d,Z(2) universality class. We find that in terms of the complex scaling variable z the distance of the Langer edge singularity to the critical point agrees within errors with that of the Lee-Yang edge singularity. Furthermore the magnitude of the discontinuity along the Langer branch cut is an order of magnitude smaller than that along the Lee-Yang branch cut.

The Bielefeld Parma Collaboration has in recent years put forward a method to probe finite density QCD by the detection of Lee-Yang singularities. The location of the latter is obtained by multi-point Padè approximants, which are in turn calculated matching Taylor series results obtained from Monte Carlo computations at (a variety of values of) imaginary baryonic chemical potential. The method has been successfully applied to probe the Roberge Weiss phase transition and preliminary, interesting results are showing up in the vicinity of a possible QCD critical endpoint candidate. In this talk we will be concerned with a couple of significant aspects in view of a more powerful application of the method. First, we will discuss the possibility of detecting finite size scaling of Lee-Yang/Fisher singularities in finite density (lattice) QCD. Second, we will briefly mention our attempts at detecting both singularities in the complex chemical potential plane and singularities in the complex temperature plane. The former are obtained from rational approximations which are functions of the chemical potential at given values of the temperature; the latter are obtained from rational approximations which are functions of the temperature at given values of the chemical potential.

Using the multi-point Padé approach, we locate Lee-Yang edge singularities of the QCD pressure in the complex baryon chemical potential plane. These singularities are extracted from singularities in the net baryon-number density calculated in N_f=2+1 lattice QCD at physical quark mass and purely imaginary chemical potential. Taking an appropriate scaling ansatz in the vicinity of the conjectured QCD critical endpoint, we extrapolate the singularities on N_τ=6 lattices to pure real baryon chemical potential to estimate the position of the critical endpoint (CEP). We find T^ CEP=105^+8_-18  MeV and μ_B^ CEP = 422^+80_-35  MeV, which compares well with recent estimates in the literature. For the slope of the transition line at the critical point we find -0.16(24).

A new approach is presented to explore the singularity structure of lattice QCD in the complex chemical potential plane. Our method can be seen as a combination of the Taylor expansion and analytic continuation approaches. Its novelty lies in using rational (Pade) approximants for studying the Lee-Yang edge singularities. We present a calculation of the cumulants of the net-baryon number as a function of a purely imaginary baryon number chemical potential, obtained with highly improved staggered quarks at temporal lattice extent of N-tau = 4, 6. We construct various rational function approximations of the lattice data and determine their poles (and roots) in the complex plane. We compare the position of the closest pole to the theoretically expected position of the Lee-Yang edge singularity. At high temperature, we find scaling that is in accordance with the expected power law behavior of the Roberge-Weiss transition, while a different behavior is found for T less than or similar to 170 MeV.

The Bielefeld Parma collaboration has recently put forward a method to investigate the QCD phase diagram based on the computation of Taylor series coefficients at both zero and imaginary values of the baryonic chemical potential. The method is based on the computation of multi-point Pad\`e approximants. We review the methodological aspects of the computation and, in order to gain confidence in the approach, we report on the application of the method to the two-dimensional Ising model (probably the most popular arena for testing tools in the study of phase transitions). Besides showing the effectiveness of the multi-point Pad\`e approach, we discuss what these results can suggest in view of further progress in the study of the QCD phase diagram. We finally report on very preliminary results in which we look for Pad\`e approximants at different temperatures and fixed values of the (imaginary) baryonic chemical potential.

We present results of the location of the closest singularities in the complex chemical potential plane using a novel method. These results are obtained with (2+1)-flavor of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ) on lattices with temporal extent of Nt=4,6. We show that the scaling is consistent with the expected scaling of the Lee-Yang edge singularities in the vicinity of the Roberge-Weiss (RW) transition. We determine various non-universal parameters using 3D Ising model scaling functions that map QCD in the scaling region of the RW transition. Furthermore, as a preliminary result we discuss how the Lee-Yang edge singularity can be used to probe the chiral phase transition in QCD. The singularity obtained close to the chiral phase transition temperature Tc seems to be in agreement with the expected scaling of the Lee-Yang edge singularity. As an outlook, we discuss the scaling of the Lee-Yang edge singularity in the vicinity of a possible critical end point in QCD, at even lower temperatures. In the future, such a scaling analysis might hint on the existence and the location of the critical end point. The work presented here is a part of an ongoing project of Bielefeld Parma joint collaboration.

We report updated results on the determination of Lee-Yang edge (LYE) singularities in $N_f = 2+1$ QCD using highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ) with physical masses on $N_\tau = 4, 6, 8$ lattices. The singularity structure of QCD in the complex $\mu_B$ plane is probed using conserved charges calculated at imaginary $\mu_B$. The location of the singularities is determined by studying the (uncancelled) poles of multi-point Pad\'e approximants. We show that close to the Roberge-Weiss (RW) transition, the location of the LYE singularities scales according to the $3$-$d$ $Z(2)$ universality class. By combining the new $N_\tau = 6$ data with the $N_\tau = 4$ data from our previous analysis we extract a rough estimate for the RW temperature in the continuum limit. We also discuss some preliminary results for the singularities close to the chiral phase transition obtained from simulations on $N_\tau = 6, 8$ lattices.

We present a calculation of the net baryon number density as a function of imaginary baryon number chemical potential, obtained with highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ) at temporal lattice extent of N_τ=4,6. We construct various rational function approximations of the lattice data and discuss how poles in the complex plane can be determined from them. We compare our results of the singularities in the chemical potential plane to the theoretically expected positions of the Lee-Yang edge singularity in the vicinity of the Roberge-Weiss and chiral phase transitions. We find a temperature scaling that is in accordance with the expected power law behavior.

Deforming the domain of integration after complexification of the field variables is an intriguing idea to tackle the sign problem. In thimble regularization the domain of integration is deformed into an union of manifolds called Lefschetz thimbles. On each thimble the imaginary part of the action stays constant and the sign problem disappears. A long standing issue of this approach is how to determine the relative weight to assign to each thimble contribution in the (multi)-thimble decomposition. Yet this is an issue one has to face, as previous work has shown that different theories exist for which the contributions coming from thimbles other than the dominant one cannot be neglected. Historically, one of the first examples of such theories is the one-dimensional Thirring model. Here we discuss how Taylor expansions can be used to by-pass the need for multi-thimble simulations. If multiple, disjoint regions can be found in the parameters space of the theory where only one thimble gives a relevant contribution, multiple Taylor expansions can be carried out in those regions to reach other regions by single thimble simulations. Better yet, these Taylor expansions can be bridged by Padé interpolants. Not only does this improve the convergence properties of the series, but it also gives access to information about the analytical structure of the observables. The true singularities of the observables can be recovered. We show that this program can be applied to the one-dimensional Thirring model and to a (simple) version of HDQCD. But the general idea behind our strategy can be helpful beyond thimble regularization itself, i.e. it could be valuable in studying the singularities of QCD in the complex μB plane. Indeed this is a program that is currently being carried out by the Bielefeld-Parma collaboration.

Thimble regularisation of Yang Mills theories is still to a very large extent terra incognita. We discuss a couple of topics related to this big issue. 2d YM theories are in principle good candidates as a working ground. An analytic solution is known, for which one can switch from a solution in terms of a sum over characters to a form which is a sum over critical points. We would be interested in an explicit realisation of this mechanism in the lattice regularisation, which is actually quite hard to work out. A second topic is the inclusion of a topological term in the lattice theory, which is the prototype of a genuine sign problem for pure YM fields. For both these challenging problems we do not have final answers. We present the current status of our study.

The appearance of large, none-Gaussian cumulants of the baryon number distribution is commonly discussed as a signal for the QCD critical point. We review the status of the Taylor expansion of cumulant ratios of baryon number fluctuations along the freeze-out line and also compare QCD results with the corresponding proton number fluctuations as measured by the STAR Collaboration at RHIC. To further constrain the location of a possible QCD critical point we discuss poles of the baryon number fluctuations in the complex plane. Here we use not only the Taylor coefficients obtained at zero chemical potential but perform also calculations of Taylor expansion coefficients of the pressure at purely imaginary chemical potentials.

Thimble regularization is a possible solution to the sign problem, which is evaded by formulating quantum field theories on manifolds where the imaginary part of the action stays constant (Lefschetz thimbles). A major obstacle is due to the fact that one in general needs to collect contributions coming from more than one thimble. Here we explore the idea of performing Taylor expansions on Lefschetz thimbles. We show that in some cases we can compute expansions in regions where only the dominant thimble contributes to the result in such a way that these (different, disjoint) regions can be bridged. This can most effectively be done via Pad\'e approximants. In this way multi-thimble simulations can be circumvented. The approach can be trusted provided we can show that the analytic continuation we are performing is a legitimate one, which thing we can indeed show. We briefly discuss two prototypal computations, for which we obtained a very good control on the analytical structure (and singularities) of the results. All in all, the main strategy that we adopt is supposed to be valuable not only in the thimble approach, which thing we finally discuss.

Lefschetz thimbles regularisation of (lattice) field theories was put forward as a possible solution to the sign problem. Despite elegant and conceptually simple, it has many subtleties, a major one boiling down to a plain question: how many thimbles should we take into account? In the original formulation, a single thimble dominance hypothesis was put forward: in the thermodynamic limit, universality arguments could support a scenario in which the dominant thimble (associated to the global minimum of the action) captures the physical content of the field theory. We know by now many counterexamples and we have been pursuing multi-thimble simulations ourselves. Still, a single thimble regularisation would be the real breakthrough. We report on ongoing work aiming at a single thimble formulation of lattice field theories, in particular putting forward the proposal of performing Taylor expansions on the dominant thimble.