Minimal building blocks for molecular quantum circuits with exact spin symmetry
Mengwei Liu, Zhenyu Li
quant-ph
Sep 29, 2026 · v1
physics.chem-ph
TL;DR
Lean 4 with Mathlib verifies the highest-weight real-sector forms of the main Lie-algebraic classification and minimum-orbital-support theorems; the development is archived on Zenodo.
Abstract
Preserving particle number and spin helps quantum circuits target molecular electronic states, but does not guarantee access to every state with the required quantum numbers. We determine which additional operations, combined with spin-independent orbital rotations connecting all spatial orbitals, generate every real state-space rotation within each complete subspace of fixed particle number $N$, total spin $S$, and spin projection $M_S$. We consider spin-free molecular calculations in real orbitals, without an additional spatial-symmetry restriction, and continuously tunable operations that preserve particle number, full spin symmetry, and real amplitudes. Below the maximal-spin limits set by the electron and hole numbers, repeated singlet-pair transfer between any two fixed spatial orbitals is sufficient. On nontrivial maximal-spin boundaries, pair transfer vanishes, and an additional generator built from one- and two-electron terms is sufficient exactly when its action in the target subspace is not a linear combination of orbital-rotation generators. The minimum number of spatial orbitals needed by one additional generator is two in the interior and three on nontrivial boundaries, even when terms involving more than two electrons are allowed. Both minima are attained using only one- and two-electron terms. The three-orbital optimum rotates two orbitals according to the occupation of a third, and its unitary factors exactly into eight commuting Pauli rotations. Molecular benchmarks show that this operation removes the observed boundary energy-error plateaus, while sparse interior constructions attain the prescribed energy accuracy with fewer compiled CNOT gates in selected fixed-orbital comparisons.
Problem
Preserving particle number and spin in molecular quantum circuits does not guarantee access to every state with the required quantum numbers. The question is which operations, combined with spin-independent orbital rotations, generate all real state-space rotations within each fixed (N, S, M_S) sector.
Approach
Lie-algebraic analysis shows that, together with orbital rotations, a single singlet-pair transfer suffices in the interior of the sector. On maximal-spin boundaries pair transfer vanishes, and an additional generator suffices exactly when it lies outside the orbital-rotation algebra. Minimal orbital supports are derived, and a three-orbital occupation-conditioned rotation is constructed that factors exactly into eight commuting Pauli rotations. The classification and minimum-support results (highest-weight real-sector forms) are verified in Lean 4 with Mathlib, and VQD benchmarks are run on molecular systems.
Results
The minimum orbital support is two in the interior and three on nontrivial boundaries, attained using only one- and two-body terms. The conditioned rotation removes boundary energy-error plateaus in H4 and O2 benchmarks. Sparse interior constructions reach the target energy accuracy with fewer compiled CNOTs in selected fixed-orbital comparisons.