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arXiv:2012.14514 · Physics Letters B

Adiabatic quantum algorithm for multijet clustering in high energy physics

Diogo Pires, Yasser Omar, J. Seixas

Published Jun 15, 2023• 18 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The currently predicted increase in computational demand for the upcoming High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) event reconstruction, and in particular jet clustering, is bound to challenge present day computing resources, becoming an even more complex combinatorial problem. In this paper, we show that quantum annealing can tackle dijet event clustering by introducing a novel quantum annealing binary clustering algorithm. The benchmarked efficiency is of the order of 96%, thus yielding substantial improvements over the current quantum state-of-the-art. Additionally, we also show how to generalize the proposed objective function into a more versatile form, capable of solving the clustering problem in multijet events.

DOI
10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138000

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The currently predicted increase in computational demand for the upcoming High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) event reconstruction, and in particular jet clustering, is bound to challenge present day computing resources, becoming an even more complex combinatorial problem. In this paper, we show that quantum annealing can tackle dijet event clustering by introducing a novel quantum annealing binary clustering algorithm. The benchmarked efficiency is of the order of 96%, thus yielding substantial improvements over the current quantum state-of-the-art. Additionally, we also show how to generalize the proposed objective function into a more versatile form, capable of solving the clustering problem in multijet events.
Experimental High-Energy Physics (HEP), especially the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) programme at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), is one of the most computationally intensive activities in the world. This demand is set to increase significantly with the upcoming High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), and even more in future machines, such as the Future Circular Collider (FCC). As a consequence, event reconstruction, and in particular jet clustering, is bound to become an even more daunting problem, thus challenging present day computing resources. In this work, we present the first digital quantum algorithm to tackle jet clustering, opening the way for digital quantum processors to address this challenging problem. Furthermore, we show that, at present and future collider energies, our algorithm has comparable, yet generally lower complexity relative to the classical state-of-the-art ktk_tkt​ clustering algorithm.
Clustering is one of the most frequent problems in many domains, in particular, in particle physics where jet reconstruction is central in experimental analyses. Jet clustering at the CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is computationally expensive and the difficulty of this task will increase with the upcoming High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). In this paper, we study the case in which quantum computing algorithms might improve jet clustering by considering two novel quantum algorithms which may speed up the classical jet clustering algorithms. The first one is a quantum subroutine to compute a Minkowski-based distance between two data points, whereas the second one consists of a quantum circuit to track the maximum into a list of unsorted data. The latter algorithm could be of value beyond particle physics, for instance in statistics. When one or both of these algorithms are implemented into the classical versions of well-known clustering algorithms (K-means, affinity propagation, and kT{k}_{T}kT​-jet) we obtain efficiencies comparable to those of their classical counterparts. Even more, exponential speed-up could be achieved, in the first two algorithms, in data dimensionality and data length when the distance algorithm or the maximum searching algorithm are applied.
Quantum computing holds the promise of substantially speeding up computationally expensive tasks, such as solving optimization problems over a large number of elements. In high-energy collider physics, quantum-assisted algorithms might accelerate the clustering of particles into jets. In this study, we benchmark quantum annealing strategies for jet clustering based on optimizing a quantity called ``thrust'' in electron-positron collision events. We find that quantum annealing yields similar performance to exact classical approaches and classical heuristics, after tuning the annealing parameters. Without tuning, comparable performance can be obtained through a hybrid quantum/classical approach.
Identifying jets formed in high-energy particle collisions requires solving optimization problems over potentially large numbers of final-state particles. In this work, we consider the possibility of using quantum computers to speed up jet clustering algorithms. Focusing on the case of electron-positron collisions, we consider a well-known event shape called thrust whose optimum corresponds to the most jetlike separating plane among a set of particles, thereby defining two hemisphere jets. We show how to formulate thrust both as a quantum annealing problem and as a Grover search problem. A key component of our analysis is the consideration of realistic models for interfacing classical data with a quantum algorithm. With a sequential computing model, we show how to speed up the well-known O(N3)O({N}^{3})O(N3) classical algorithm to an O(N2)O({N}^{2})O(N2) quantum algorithm, including the O(N)O(N)O(N) overhead of loading classical data from NNN final-state particles. Along the way, we also identify a way to speed up the classical algorithm to O(N2logN)O({N}^{2}\mathrm{log}N)O(N2logN) using a sorting strategy inspired by the siscone jet algorithm, which has no natural quantum counterpart. With a parallel computing model, we achieve O(NlogN)O(N\mathrm{log}N)O(NlogN) scaling in both the classical and quantum cases. Finally, we consider the generalization of these quantum methods to other jet algorithms more closely related to those used for proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.
Abstract At the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), traditional track reconstruction techniques that are critical for physics analysis will need to be upgraded to scale with track density. Quantum annealing has shown promise in its ability to solve combinatorial optimization problems amidst an ongoing effort to establish evidence of a quantum speedup. As a step towards exploiting such potential speedup, we investigate a track reconstruction approach by adapting the existing geometric Denby-Peterson (Hopfield) network method to the quantum annealing framework for HL-LHC conditions. We develop additional techniques to embed the problem onto existing and near-term quantum annealing hardware. Results using simulated annealing and quantum annealing with the D-Wave 2X system on the TrackML open dataset are presented, demonstrating the successful application of a quantum annealing algorithm to the track reconstruction challenge. We find that combinatorial optimization problems can effectively reconstruct tracks, suggesting possible applications for fast hardware-specific implementations at the HL-LHC while leaving open the possibility of a quantum speedup for tracking.
In recent years, quantum computing has drawn significant interest within the field of high-energy physics. We explore the potential of quantum algorithms to resolve the combinatorial problems in particle physics experiments. As a concrete example, we consider top quark pair production in the fully hadronic channel at the Large Hadron Collider. We investigate the performance of various quantum algorithms such as the Quantum Approximation Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), a feedback-based algorithm (FALQON) and a variational quantum imaginary time evolution algorithm (VarQITE). We demonstrate that the efficiency for selecting the correct pairing is greatly improved by utilizing quantum algorithms over conventional kinematic methods. Furthermore, we observe that gate-based universal quantum algorithms perform on par with machine learning techniques and either surpass or match the effectiveness of quantum annealers. Our findings reveal that quantum algorithms not only provide a substantial increase in matching efficiency but also exhibit adaptability and the potential for scalability, making them promising candidates for a variety of high-energy physics applications, as quantum hardware technology matures. Moreover, quantum algorithms eliminate the extensive training processes needed by classical machine learning methods, enabling real-time adjustments based on individual event data.