Toward quantum simulation of systems of relevance to nuclear and particle physics

Abstract: A vibrant program has formed in recent years in various scientific disciplines to take advantage of near-term and future quantum-simulation and quantum-computing hardware to study complex quantum many-body systems, building upon the vision of Richard Feynman for quantum simulation. Such activities have recently started in nuclear and particle physics, hoping to bring new and powerful experimental and computational tools to eventually address a range of challenging problems in strongly interacting quantum field theories and nuclear many-body systems. In this talk, I first motivate the need for quantum simulation in nuclear physics by showcasing some of the state of the art in our classical simulations and discussing the existing challenges to move ahead. I will then review a number of important developments in quantum simulation, including proposals for simulating strongly interacting field theories with the ultimate goal of studying strong dynamics of quarks and gluons, and of nucleons. Some of the requirements for hardware technologies that are expected to enable both the analog simulations and the digital quantum computations of these problems will be enumerated, and an experiment-theory co-development program will be motivated with an emphasis on trapped-ion platforms.

Physics

Audience: researchers in the topic

XXVI IFT Christmas Workshop