biostudies-literatureUnknown645(8080)Evered SJWellcome TrustQuantum simulations of many-body systems are among the most promising applications of quantum computers¹. In particular, models based on strongly correlated fermions are central to our understanding of quantum chemistry and materials problems², and can lead to exotic, topological phases of matter^3,4. However, owing to the non-local nature of fermions, such models are challenging to simulate with qubit devices⁵. Here we realize a digital quantum simulation architecture for two-dimensional fermionic systems based on reconfigurable atom arrays⁶. We utilize a fermion-to-qubit mapping based on Kitaev's model on a honeycomb lattice³, in which fermionic statistics are encoded using long-range entangled states⁷. We preparNature341-347https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12422979biostudies-literatureProbing the Kitaev honeycomb model on a neutral-atom quantum computer.PMC12422979Bluvstein DXu MMaskara NCampo JSachdev SLi SHCain MEvered SJYelin SFEbadi SGeim AALukin MDManovitz TKalinowski MGreiner MVuletic VZhou HOstermann SfalseProbing the Kitaev honeycomb model on a neutral-atom quantum computer.Quantum simulations of many-body systems are among the most promising applications of quantum computers¹. In particular, models based on strongly correlated fermions are central to our understanding of quantum chemistry and materials problems², and can lead to exotic, topological phases of matter^3,4. However, owing to the non-local nature of fermions, such models are challenging to simulate with qubit devices⁵. Here we realize a digital quantum simulation architecture for two-dimensional fermionic systems based on reconfigurable atom arrays⁶. We utilize a fermion-to-qubit mapping based on Kitaev's model on a honeycomb lattice³, in which fermionic statistics are encoded using long-range entangled states⁷. We prepar2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Sep2026-06-03T07:44:30.883Z2026-04-26T03:09:49.515ZS-EPMC124229794093115610.1038/s41586-025-09475-0