arXiv:1810.03959 · Physical Review A
Simulations of subatomic many-body physics on a quantum frequency processor
Hsuan‐Hao Lu, Natalie Klco, Joseph M. Lukens, Titus Morris, Aaina Bansal, A. Ekström, G. Hagen, T. Papenbrock, Andrew M. Weiner, Martin J. Savage A, Pavel Lougovski
Abstract
Simulating complex many-body quantum phenomena is a major scientific impetus behind the development of quantum computing, and a range of technologies are being explored to address such systems. We present the results of the largest photonics-based simulation to date, applied in the context of subatomic physics. Using an all-optical quantum frequency processor, the ground-state energies of light nuclei including the triton ($^{3}\mathrm{H}$), $^{3}\mathrm{He}$, and the alpha particle ($^{4}\mathrm{He}$) are computed. Complementing these calculations and utilizing a 68-dimensional Hilbert space, our photonic simulator is used to perform subnucleon calculations of the two- and three-body forces between heavy mesons in the Schwinger model. This work is a first step in simulating subatomic many-body physics on quantum frequency processors---augmenting classical computations that bridge scales from quarks to nuclei.