Collider events on a quantum computer

Abstract

High-quality simulated data is crucial for particle physics discoveries. Therefore, parton shower algorithms are a major building block of the data synthesis in event generator programs. However, the core algorithms used to generate parton showers have barely changed since the 1980s. With quantum computers’ rapid and continuous development, dedicated algorithms are required to exploit the potential that quantum computers provide to address problems in high-energy physics. This paper presents a novel approach to synthesising parton showers using the Discrete QCD method. The algorithm benefits from an elegant quantum walk implementation which can be embedded into the classical toolchain. We use the ibm_algiers device to sample parton shower configurations and generate data that we compare against measurements taken at the ALEPH, DELPHI and OPAL experiments. This is the first time a Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) device has been used to simulate realistic high-energy particle collision events.

Multi-variable integration with a variational quantum circuit

“…The rapid development of quantum technologies leads us to believe that quantum circuits and QML tools can be exploited to improve on the performance, despite the constraints imposed by the current era of limited near-intermediate scale quantum [31] (NISQ) devices. In particular, we note quite some interest on the field of high energy physics where many new algorithms are being developed and tested leading to a very robust ecosystem of quantum computing tools focusing on particle physics [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] This paper is structured as follows, we expose the method in section 2, after a brief introduction to QML and circuits derivative calculation respectively in Section 2.1 and 2.3. In section 3 we apply the method to two situations, a toy-model represented by a d-dimensional trigonometric function and a real-life scenario motivated by particle physics.…”

Quantum simulation of colour in perturbative quantum chromodynamics

“…While most of that exploration has focused on the experimental side of highenergy physics, the last few years have also seen the emergence of applications on various topics in high-energy theory. These range from parton distribution functions (PDFs) [28,29] to amplitudes [30][31][32][33][34], effective field theory [35], cross-section computations [25], parton showers [30,[36][37][38], and event generation [38][39][40].…”

Quantum algorithms for the simulation of perturbative QCD processes

“…In contrast to the many proposals in recent years for the quantum simulation of lattice QCD, the quantum simulation of perturbative QCD has largely remained unexplored, with the exception of some work on parton showers [12][13][14][15]. In this work we take the first steps towards the simulation of generic perturbative QCD processes by presenting algorithms for the quantum simulation of colour.…”