Methods, systems, and apparatus for simulating a physical system. A Hamiltonian describing the physical system is transformed into a qubit Hamiltonian describing a corresponding system of qubits, the qubit Hamiltonian comprising a transformed kinetic energy operator. The evolution of the system of qubits under the qubit Hamiltonian is simulated, including simulating the evolution of the system of qubits under the transformed kinetic energy operator by applying a fermionic swap network to the system of qubits. The simulated evolution of the system of qubits under the qubit Hamiltonian is used to determine properties of the physical system.