Advances in Simulating Fermions on a Quantum Computer*

One of the principal challenges in simulating fermions on a quantum computer is that qubits lack the anti-symmetry of fermions. The simplest solution, the Jordan-Wigner transformation, converts local interactions into non-local ones. I will describe a method based on Majorana fermions that preserves locality, and propose some improvements to it that reduce the CNOT gate cost and make the algorithm more suited to simulating nuclear matter. I will also suggest how a perturbation theory-based approach can be useful for studies in nuclear physics.