IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar

Abstract: Quantum computers are promising tools for addressing problems in nuclear and particle physics whose solutions lie beyond classical computing. For example, simulating the real-time dynamics of strongly interacting particles, described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD), is believed to be intractable using classical computers, but efficient using quantum computers. Aspects of QCD can be learned from the Schwinger model, which is also a confining gauge theory, possesses multi-hadron bound states ("nuclei") and a chiral condensate. I will present recent work on simulating hadron dynamics in the Schwinger model on a 56-site lattice (112 qubits) using IBM's quantum computers. I will discuss how the symmetries and hierarchy of length scales in the Schwinger model inspire efficient quantum algorithms for both state preparation and time evolution. The quantum computations required for these simulations are among the most complex that have ever been performed (up to 13,858 CNOT gates), and I will discuss how we recover results from a noisy quantum device.

Lunch will be provided following the talk, outside the Bridge building.