Snowmass White Paper: Quantum Computing Systems and Software for High-energy Physics Research
Travis S. Humble, Andrea Delgado, Raphael C. Pooser, Christopher M. Seck, Ryan S. Bennink, Vicente Leyton‐Ortega, C. -C. Joseph Wang, Eugene Dumitrescu, Titus Morris, Hamilton, Kathleen, Dmitry I. Lyakh, Prasanna Date, Yan Wang, Nicholas A. Peters, Katherine J. Evans, M. Demarteau, Alex McCaskey, Thien Nguyen, Susan Clark, Melissa Reville, Alberto Di Meglio, Michele Grossi, Sofia Vallecorsa, Borras, Kerstin, Karl Jansen, Dirk Krücker
Quantum computing offers a new paradigm for advancing high-energy physics research by enabling novel methods for representing and reasoning about fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena. Realizing these ideals will require the development of novel computational tools for modeling and simulation, detection and classification, data analysis, and forecasting of high-energy physics (HEP) experiments. While the emerging hardware, software, and applications of quantum computing are exciting opportunities, significant gaps remain in integrating such techniques into the HEP community research programs. Here we identify both the challenges and opportunities for developing quantum computing systems and software to advance HEP discovery science. We describe opportunities for the focused development of algorithms, applications, software, hardware, and infrastructure to support both practical and theoretical applications of quantum computing to HEP problems within the next 10 years.
Quantum computing offers a new paradigm for advancing high-energy physics research by enabling novel methods for representing and reasoning about fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena. Realizing these ideals will require the development of novel computational tools for modeling and simulation, detection and classification, data analysis, and forecasting of high-energy physics (HEP) experiments. While the emerging hardware, software, and applications of quantum computing are exciting opportunities, significant gaps remain in integrating such techniques into the HEP community research programs. Here we identify both the challenges and opportunities for developing quantum computing systems and software to advance HEP discovery science. We describe opportunities for the focused development of algorithms, applications, software, hardware, and infrastructure to support both practical and theoretical applications of quantum computing to HEP problems within the next 10 years.
Quantum computing offers a new paradigm for advancing high-energy physics research by enabling novel methods for representing and reasoning about fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena.Realizing these ideals will require the development of novel computational tools for modeling and simulation, detection and classification, data analysis, and forecasting of high-energy physics (HEP) experiments.While the emerging hardware, software, and applications of quantum computing are exciting opportunities, significant gaps remain in integrating such techniques into the HEP community research programs.Here we identify both the challenges and opportunities for developing quantum computing systems and software to advance HEP discovery science.We describe opportunities for the focused development of algorithms, applications, software, hardware, and infrastructure to support both practical and theoretical applications of quantum computing to HEP problems within the next 10 years.
Some of the biggest achievements of the modern era of particle physics, such as the discovery of the Higgs boson, have been made possible by the tremendous effort in building and operating large-scale experiments like the Large Hadron Collider or the Tevatron. In these facilities, the ultimate theory to describe matter at the most fundamental level is constantly probed and verified. These experiments often produce large amounts of data that require storing, processing, and analysis techniques that often push the limits of traditional information processing schemes. Thus, the High-Energy Physics (HEP) field has benefited from advancements in information processing and the development of algorithms and tools for large datasets. More recently, quantum computing applications have been investigated in an effort to understand how the community can benefit from the advantages of quantum information science. In this manuscript, we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art applications of quantum computing to data analysis in HEP, discuss the challenges and opportunities in integrating these novel analysis techniques into a day-to-day analysis workflow, and whether there is potential for a quantum advantage.
Quantum computing will play a pivotal role in the High Energy Physics (HEP) science program over the early parts of the 21st Century, both as a major expansion of our capabilities across the Computational Frontier, and in synthesis with quantum sensing and quantum networks. This report outlines how Quantum Information Science (QIS) and HEP are deeply intertwined endeavors that benefit enormously from a strong engagement together. Quantum computers do not represent a detour for HEP, rather they are set to become an integral part of our discovery toolkit. Problems ranging from simulating quantum field theories, to fully leveraging the most sensitive sensor suites for new particle searches, and even data analysis will run into limiting bottlenecks if constrained to our current computing paradigms. Easy access to quantum computers is needed to build a deeper understanding of these opportunities. In turn, HEP brings crucial expertise to the national quantum ecosystem in quantum domain knowledge, superconducting technology, cryogenic and fast microelectronics, and massive-scale project management. The role of quantum technologies across the entire economy is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade, so it is important to establish the role of HEP in the efforts surrounding QIS. Fully delivering on the promise of quantum technologies in the HEP science program requires robust support. It is important to both invest in the co-design opportunities afforded by the broader quantum computing ecosystem and leverage HEP strengths with the goal of designing quantum computers tailored to HEP science.
It is for the first time that quantum simulation for high-energy physics (HEP) is studied in the U.S. decadal particle-physics community planning, and in fact until recently, this was not considered a mainstream topic in the community.This fact speaks of a remarkable rate of growth of this subfield over the past few years, stimulated by the impressive advancements in quantum information sciences (QIS) and associated technologies over the past decade, and the significant investment in this area by the government and private sectors in the U.S. and other countries.High-energy physicists have quickly identified problems of importance to our understanding of nature at the most fundamental level, from tiniest distances to cosmological extents, that are intractable with classical computers but may benefit from quantum advantage.They have initiated, and continue to carry out, a vigorous program in theory, algorithm, and hardware codesign for simulations of relevance to the HEP mission.This Roadmap is an attempt to bring this exciting and yet challenging area of research to the spotlight, and to elaborate on what the promises, requirements, challenges, and potential solutions are over the next decade and beyond.
Quantum computers offer an intriguing path for a paradigmatic change of computing in the natural sciences and beyond, with the potential for achieving a so-called quantum advantage—namely, a significant (in some cases exponential) speedup of numerical simulations. The rapid development of hardware devices with various realizations of qubits enables the execution of small-scale but representative applications on quantum computers. In particular, the high-energy physics community plays a pivotal role in accessing the power of quantum computing, since the field is a driving source for challenging computational problems. This concerns, on the theoretical side, the exploration of models that are very hard or even impossible to address with classical techniques and, on the experimental side, the enormous data challenge of newly emerging experiments, such as the upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider. In this Roadmap paper, led by CERN, DESY, and IBM, we provide the status of high-energy physics quantum computations and give examples of theoretical and experimental target benchmark applications, which can be addressed in the near future. Having in mind hardware with about 100 qubits capable of executing several thousand two-qubit gates, where possible, we also provide resource estimates for the examples given using error-mitigated quantum computing. The ultimate declared goal of this task force is therefore to trigger further research in the high-energy physics community to develop interesting use cases for demonstrations on near-term quantum computers.
This PhD thesis explores the potential of quantum computing to address computational challenges in high-energy physics (HEP). As the Standard Model (SM) leaves key questions unanswered and no signs of new physics have emerged since the Higgs boson discovery, advanced experimental and computational tools become necessary. Quantum computing offers a promising alternative to classical methods, and this work investigates three main avenues where quantum algorithms can be useful in HEP research. First, we develop quantum subroutines for computing Minkowski distances and identifying maximum values in unsorted data, inserting them into clustering algorithms such as k-means, Affinity Propagation, and kT-jet clustering. These quantum algorithms match classical performance while offering theoretical advantages when implemented on quantum hardware with qRAM. Then, we introduce a novel quantum Monte Carlo integrator, Quantum Fourier Iterative Amplitude Estimation (QFIAE), which combines a quantum neural network with amplitude estimation to integrate multivariate functions. QFIAE is executed on simulators and real quantum computers to evaluate Feynman loop integrals via Loop-Tree Duality, and is extended to compute (partially on hardware) a physical observable at NLO in perturbative quantum field theory. Finally, we present Quantum Chebyshev Probabilistic Models (QCPMs) for modeling multivariate distributions, applying them to fragmentation functions of partons fragmenting into kaons and pions. These models demonstrate accurate generative and interpolation capabilities. We also show how entanglement between variables plays a key role in training, enhancing model accuracy. Overall, these results show how quantum algorithms can already tackle relevant HEP problems on current hardware, while paving the way for future fault-tolerant applications that fully exploit quantum computational advantages.