Quantinuum and HQS simulate a complex NMR spectrum on 42 qubits

Quantinuum and HQS Quantum Simulations demonstrated a digital nuclear magnetic resonance simulation on Quantinuum's H2-1 trapped-ion quantum computer. Their model covered an effective 21-spin system derived from a challenging 22-spin molecule and used circuits with more than 1,400 two-qubit gates.

The researchers reduced the cost of simulation by projecting part of the molecular spin system into a smaller subspace. That let them reproduce aspects of a spectroscopy problem without representing every physical spin in the most direct way.

The result is a task-specific quantum simulation milestone, not evidence that quantum hardware already outperforms classical chemistry software across the board. Its significance lies in combining modeling choices with a real, noisy quantum processor.