Fast Gates Allow Large-Scale Quantum Simulation with Trapped Ions

Ion traps are a promising platform for the implementation of various quantum technologies, particularly quantum simulation. Unfortunately, the entangling gates required for digital quantum simulations rely on the virtual excitation of the motional modes of the trap, making the necessary operations too slow with respect to the system coherence times. In this work, we propose a method of implementing a crucial multiqubit gate, through a scheme of fast two-qubit gates, able to perform in shorter time and with more precision than existing alternatives. Its implementation would enable digital quantum simulations to outperform classical computers without error correction.