Quantum simulation of colour in perturbative quantum chromodynamics

Abstract

Quantum computers are expected to give major speed-ups for the simulation of quantum systems. In this work, we present quantum gates that simulate the colour part of the interactions of quarks and gluons in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). As a first application, we implement these circuits on a simulated noiseless quantum computer and use them to calculate colour factors for various examples of Feynman diagrams. This work constitutes a first key step towards a quantum simulation of generic scattering processes in perturbative QCD.

Quantum algorithms for the simulation of perturbative QCD processes

“…A second, more important complication is that the Gell-Mann matrices are not unitary (but are instead Hermitian), as can be immediately seen by observing that most of them contain a row that is entirely zero. Details on the resolution of these issues can be found in our article [1].…”

“…Quantum algorithms for the simulation of perturbative QCD processes Herschel A. Chawdhry conference proceeding we will only give a high-level overview of how these gates are used, and refer the interested reader to our article [1] for the detailed designs of these gates.…”

“…Calculational complexity presents a key limiting factor in producing these predictions and so the development of new computational techniques is central to advancing the state of the art. In this conference proceedings paper, based on our article [1], we explore whether future quantum computers could help perform perturbative QCD calculations. In particular, as a first step towards this goal, we focus here on the simulation of colour in perturbative QCD using a quantum computer.…”

“…Other companies such as Google and Microsoft have also invested in this area and are aiming to produce an error-corrected general-purpose quantum computer within a decade. In light of this, there have been various applications proposed in the experimental and theoretical branches of high-energy physics [1,.…”

Quantum pathways for charged track finding in high-energy collisions

“…Particle physics will benefit from any speedup that quantum computers can provide and the devices' ability to compute in a regime that has never been accessible before. Already, there has been a quickly developing research effort into proof-of-principle algorithms for applications in particle physics ranging from the simulation of quantum field theories (Jordan et al, 2014 ; Ciavarella et al, 2021 ; Kan and Nam, 2021 ; Paulson et al, 2021 ; Davoudi et al, 2022 ; Kane et al, 2022 ; Fromm et al, 2023 ) and collision events (Bauer et al, 2021 ; Bepari et al, 2021 , 2022 ; Gustafson et al, 2022 ; Li et al, 2022 ; Barata et al, 2023 ; Chawdhry and Pellen, 2023 ), to event classification (Blance and Spannowsky, 2020 ; Araz and Spannowsky, 2022 ) and analysis (Mott et al, 2017 ; Wu et al, 2021 ). Quantum tracking algorithms have gained a lot of interest (Shapoval and Calafiura, 2019 ; Bapst et al, 2020 ; Zlokapa et al, 2021 ; Duckett et al, 2022 ; Gray and Terashi, 2022 ) in an attempt to combat the problems facing classical techniques.…”