Lattice gauge theories (LGTs) form an intriguing class of theories highly
relevant to both high-energy particle physics and low-energy condensed matter
physics with the rapid development of engineered quantum devices providing new
tools to study e.g. dynamics of such theories. The massive Schwinger model is
known to exhibit intricate properties of more complicated theories and has
recently been shown to undergo dynamical quantum phase transitions out of
equilibrium. With current technology, noise is inevitable and potentially fatal
for a successful quantum simulation. This paper studies the dynamics subject to
noise of a (1+1)D U(1) quantum link model following a quench of the sign of
the mass term. We find that not only is the system capable of handling noise at
rates realistic in NISQ-era devices, promising the possiblity to study the
target dynamics with current technology, but the effect of noise can be
understood in terms of simple models. Specifically the gauge-breaking nature of
bit-flip channels results in exponential dampening of state amplitudes, and
thus observables, which does not affect the structures of interest. This is
especially important as it demonstrates that the gauge theory can be
successfully studied with devices that only exhibit approximate gauge
invariance.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Changes: added reference