Superconducting quantum processors are a compelling platform for analogue quantum simulation due to the precision control, fast operation and site-resolved readout inherent to the hardware. Arrays of coupled superconducting qubits natively emulate the dynamics of interacting particles according to the Bose–Hubbard model. However, many interesting condensed-matter phenomena emerge only in the presence of electromagnetic fields. Here we emulate the dynamics of charged particles in an electromagnetic field using a superconducting quantum simulator. We realize a broadly adjustable synthetic magnetic vector potential by applying continuous modulation tones to all qubits. We verify that the synthetic vector potential obeys the required properties of electromagnetism: a spatially varying vector potential breaks time-reversal symmetry and generates a gauge-invariant synthetic magnetic field, and a temporally varying vector potential produces a synthetic electric field. We demonstrate that the Hall effect—the transverse deflection of a charged particle propagating in an electromagnetic field—exists in the presence of the synthetic electromagnetic field.

超导量子处理器由于硬件固有的精确控制、快速操作和站点解析读出而成为模拟量子模拟的一个引人注目的平台。耦合的超导量子比特阵列根据 Bose-Hubbard 模型原生模拟相互作用粒子的动力学。然而，许多有趣的凝聚态现象只有在电磁场存在的情况下才会出现。在这里，我们使用超导量子模拟器模拟电磁场中带电粒子的动力学。我们通过对所有量子比特应用连续调制音来实现广泛可调的合成磁矢量电位。我们验证了合成矢量势服从电磁学所需的特性：空间变化的矢量势打破了时间反转对称性并产生规范不变的合成磁场，而时间变化的矢量势产生合成电场。我们证明了霍尔效应（带电粒子在电磁场中传播的横向偏转）存在于合成电磁场的存在下。